Introduction
We arrived in Venice from Dolomites (here you can find our Dolomites adventure), in our two weeks vacation in Italy (and here you can find The Ultimate 2020 Italy Travel Guide). Venice doesn’t need an introduction and it’s known for the 100+ islands that are connected to each other by water canals, while it has no roads. We spent two days in Venice, which was enough for exploring the city, but if you plan to also visit the indoor attractions, such as museums and stuff, you probably need one or two days more. Here are some useful tips and things to do while in Venice:
Getting there
If you go by car, there are plenty of parking places right on the right side after entering Venice. The biggest one is Tronchetto Parking, which is actually an artificial island bulit special for parking spaces in Venice. We arrived in the afternoon and found no spots so we left the car back in Mestre, on the mainland. The advantage is that parking for 24h in Mestre costs 12 euro and it’s cheaper than Tronchetto which costs 23 euro. The disadvantage is that you need to take the bus to Venice, which takes more time.
Gondolas
Yes or no? We say yes, even if it’s a bit cheesy, in the end it was a great experience. We also learned more history about the city from the gondolier and enjoyed the sunset while on Gran Canal. A trip with gondola costs 80 euro until 7pm and 100 euro after 7pm (if it’s not crowded, you can bargain the trip for 80 euro even after 7pm).
Jogging at sunrise on the small streets
One of the best experiences for enjoying the beauty of the city while alone on the streets is to go jogging at sunrise, around at 6am on a tour surrounding Venice. There are no tourists and you can stop and admire the beautiful streets while sun is starting to lift and reflect in the beautiful waters. My tour took about 12km, and 1,5 hours, including stops. Right before 8, streets started to fill in with tourists so my recommendation is to do this by latest 6:30 am for an hour. You can see below my Strava run on the streets of Venice, feel free to use it as guidance.
Get lost on the streets
Just walk around during day or night, exploring the city.
If you need more details or info about our trip, please let us know, happy to talk more.
