Tell me about Venice (Venezia)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m tentatively planning a two-week vacation in northern Italy and Switzerland for next May, spending about a week in each country. I’ve been making a list of places I’d like to visit and trying to figure out what’s a “must see”, what’s an “if I have time”, and how long I should spend in each location.

At the moment my big question involves Venice. Many of the guidebooks and websites I’ve been looking at list Venice as a definite “must see”, and recommend spending as much time there as you possibly can. But I’ve also encountered opposing views, people saying that Venice is hugely overrated, overpriced, and overcrowded, and both literally and figuratively stinks.

I’m not going to visit northern Italy and skip Venice altogether, but I’ve been wondering how much time I should plan to spend there. I also want to see Verona before I proceed on to Milan. I personally dislike hopping from one hotel to another every day, and since Venice and Verona are only about an hour apart I’m thinking I’ll spend 2-3 nights staying in of those cities and do a day trip to the other. It looks like Verona is a cheaper place to spend the night, but if I’m going to want to be in Venice most of the time then it would of course be easier to stay there.

So to all the Dopers who’ve visited or lived in northern Italy, what do you think would be the best use of my time? Also, what places in the region do you recommend I see or recommend I avoid? Oh, I’m not interested in bars or clubs, so you don’t need to consider which city has the best nightlife.

2

Venice is definitely worth the price!

My wife and I spent one night, two days there the other year. Beside accommodations, you can do Venice for free - though you’ll miss a few sights you should see simply because you are there. Merely walking the streets - and I mean the side streets, not just the broad tourist streets that are crowded - is an adventure.

That said, we did Venice in two days and it was “enough” time. Another day would have been perfect, but it is definitely do-able in two days (we got there 6:00 on day one and left 16:00 on day two). I’d suggest one day walking the streets, walking into churches and pretty much anything you pass that interests you enough to take a peek inside of.

One thing I will recommend is waking up early every morning you are in Venice. The crowds in Venice, especially along the major arteries, are horribly congested with stupid tourists. Early mornings in Venice… priceless. So, yeah, any morning you have in Venice you spend wake up early and get one of the lines in the Piazza San Marco. It is definitely worth it to be first in line to go up the Campanile. The elevator is small and only holds a few people meaning if you are the first elevator up (which we were) you get to share the view for a few minutes in near solitude. If it is a nice day that will be a memory to last a lifetime. The other line to get into early is for St. Mark’s Basilica - simply because if you go at any other point in the day you’ll waste a few hours in the queue. The line for the Doge’s Palace isn’t as bad, and it is definitely worth a peek inside.

There are a million other things in Venice to see, so I won’t say any more. If you have any particular question feel free to PM me and I’ll answer what I can from experience.

3

I’m definitely a hater. Venice does not have a lot of “there” there. It’s very expensive, as implied above there are lines for everything, it is touristy to a ridiculous degree. The city is covered in shops selling cheap tourist crap and expensive bland tourist food.

It’s an interesting place to see, but you can get your fill wandering around for a half day. Walk from the train station to the Doge’s Palace via Rialto Bridge & Rialto Market – and back again by a different route, and you’ve pretty much seen what there is to see.

4

Well, in a way, both sides are correct. Venice is unique and a must-see, but for those very reasons it’s incredibly overrun with tourists and touristy things. It’s closer to Disneyland than Italy. I’ve often wondered if there were any modern-day Venetians who don’t depend on the tourism industry. I think several days is overkill, but two days wouldn’t be out of order, especially if you want to go into churches, museums, Doge’s palace, etc.

Also, just a world of advice, I’d clock Verona to Venice at closer to 2 hours. Definitely not an hour.

5

I loved it. I think two or three days is enough to see most of what you need to see though. It doesn’t “stink”, at least it didn’t when I was there two years ago (September). It is touristy, but that’s because it’s such a beautiful attraction.

6

I spent three days in Venice, and easily could have stayed another day or two. If you can mentally tune out all the tourists and traps, Venice can be a very magical place. And it didn’t stink at all when I was there. I’d recommend Verona as a day trip, from either Venice or Milan.

7

That’s what I thought when I was there about 5 years ago. But it’s a pretty cool version of Disney IMO.

Don’t remember the exact location, but one of the perhaps touristy, but fun anyway things was a concert by opera students/up-and-comers. There were signs here and there in the streets for it, so it might not be too hard to find. For all I know they’re all over the place, but well done, I thought.

8

I didn’t care for it. I thought Murano (the glass island, where you can see artisans doing their glass-blowing shtick) was quite cool, and by that same token I enjoyed looking at the artsy things in all the shops.

Other than that, it was dirty and kind of boring. I didn’t get a ‘‘Disneyland’’ vibe, though it was quite crowded. Out of the several places I went during that vacation, it was the least interesting. Dubrovnik, Croatia was stunning. I hope that’s along your route.

Are you taking a cruise? If Venice is one of your later stops I promise you will be sick to death of riding around in boats by the time you get there.

9

It’s a far way to Dubrovnik from Venice, but it would be worth considering taking a ferry from Venice to Istria for at least a night or two. Beautiful area but quite a bit less hectic (and mcuh cheaper) than Venice, plus you’ll have access to the sea. The beaches are rocky, the water is beautiful.

10

I think Verona is better as a homebase, with Venice as the day trip. Only because Venice hotels are either a)murderously expensive or b)not actually in Venice. If you going to stay not-in-Venice, you might as well stay in the Verona town center with its Coliseum, summer opera, old town, and shops, rather than the shitty and depressing suburbs of Venice.

I don’t think the train takes 2 hours between Verona and Venice. I believe the official timetable is 1 hr 20 minutes. And service is frequent.

11

For some reason, I assumed Lamia was renting a car. You are right, the train is much faster. I just looked up the timetable and it’s listed as 1 hour 11 minutes, with trains leaving every half-hour during peak times and otherwise every hour. Taking a car is a bit of a pain since you have to park on one of the parking islands and then take the vaporetto in.

12

The train is so cool, because you walk out of what appears to be a perfectly ordinary European train station and BAM! you are on the grand canal and you’re like “Crap! I’m in Venice!” And everywhere you look there is something terribly Venice-y going on. (and IMHO, this is the single most enjoyable moment you will have in Venice).

The Verona trainstation isn’t especially convenient to its old town, so you do have to take a bus, but its not hard to figure out which bus to get on.

13

Ha, there’s NO WAY I’ll be renting a car. I like trains, I dislike driving in unfamiliar places, and doing a car trip in another country seems like a big hassle. I’m planning to do this entire trip by train/bus, starting in Rome and ending up in Geneva.

olivesmarch4th mentioned Murano, which was already on my “want to see” list. I make beaded jewelry, so I’m definitely going to want to visit there and will probably spend too much money on beads. :slight_smile: Otherwise I feel like I mostly just want to walk around/ride a boat around Venice and see some of the famous sites. I don’t want to be shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of other tourists the whole time, so Spezza’s advice to go out early in the morning is good…if I can manage to drag myself out of bed! I’m hoping that mid-May won’t be too horribly crowded yet.

Thanks everyone for your comments, and please post more if you have any more tips or words of advice!

14

It was many years ago, my husband and I did Venice as a day trip, and it was more than enough for me. Very touristy, every other person is trying to sell you a gondola ride or some made-in-China souvenir. If you buy anything, be sure not to pay the first price mentioned. Haggle for everything except your food. Also, unless it’s changed in the intervening decades those picturesque canals are open sewers. A friend told of flushing a pink tissue down the toilet and seeing it floating in the canal outside her window shortly thereafter.

15

The thing with Venice is, yes it is very touristy, but almost all the tourists just seem to herd up and down the signposted route between the station and St Mark’s Square and back. Even in the height of summer, if you just wander off down the side streets and keep walking until you’re lost (this won’t take long), you’ll feel like you have the place to yourself. And hardly anyone seems to bother to go right along to the far end of the city, past the Arsenale.

It doesn’t smell, either. Even in summer. Occasionally if you’re sitting right beside a canal on a hot day you’ll get a “seaweedy” whiff, but no worse than being beside any normal patch of sea.

16

If you are going Venice, then I strongly suggest that you spend the night in Venice. You will have a great time walking around late at night. Dining seems to go on very late there, and you’ll miss the experience of strolling around late at night, looking for a place to have a drink or an ice cream. Probably hard to do if you do not have a room there.

17

chiming in here; I lived there for a year and know the city pretty well. It’s absolutely worth visiting, and while tourism is the primary industry, there are also two universities in town, so tourism is not the only industry. Wheeled vehicles are not allowed anywhere in the historic city center, so it’s a nice relaxing break from dodging scooters in other Italian cities… if you wander away from the main streets, it’s just blissful silence and the sound of lapping water.

I definitely think you should go for at least 3 days. One of those days should be devoted to getting gloriously lost somewhere off the beaten path (buy a good map, the kind that shows ALL the streets)–there are no bad neighborhoods to wander into in Venice, just quiet and beautifully preserved streets. This is my #1 suggestion for what to do in Venice. However, understand that the street numbering system is completely random, and there are no taxis, so make absolutely sure you get a business card from your hotel that shows the location (it will give directions on how to navigate from the nearest landmark) and plan on having to walk back to your hotel, not throwing in the towel and picking up a cab.

(Well, that’s not quite true–there are incredibly expensive water taxis, but they don’t just cruise around back alleys waiting to pick people up.)

One day should be devoted to tourist destinations: the Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s, Santa Maria della Salute, the Accademia, the Guggenheim, the market at the Rialto, etc.

For the third day, I suggest either another day of wandering or a trip out to the outlying islands. Murano is OK (the old churches and glass museum are nice, and of course you’ll be into the glassblowing/beads) but I think Burano is way more fun (colorful houses, traditional lacemakers) and adjacent Torcello is kind of wild and overgrown, interesting for being the oldest settlement in the Venetian lagoon. Or you could go to the Lido, where all the movie stars play.

Do not get a room overlooking a canal. It may seem romantic but canals are smelly. Also, stay away from the main drag near the train station–it’s convenient, but loud and overpriced.

I used to recommend the Hotel Alex to people; it was pretty reasonably priced and in a nice central location. I haven’t been back in a few years but it looks like the current rate is 60-112 Euros for a double room with private bath, 35 to 54 for a single room without a bathroom (i.e. there’s a shared bathroom in the hall) http://www.hotelalexinvenice.com/EN/index.htm

Take a traghetto (gondola ferry that crosses the Grand Canal, costs about a dollar) if you want the gondola experience without having to pay $50 for 1/2 hr or whatever the going rate is.

Verona is a nice city, too, but I think there’s less to see there than in Venice, and it’s less unique. I went to Juliet’s house and saw an opera. I do remember that the HI hostel there is really fantastic–it’s in a 16th-century palazzo with frescoes on the walls, and a garden outside.

Also, if you’re going to the Genova area at the end of your trip, you should absolutely go to Cinque Terre. along with Venice and the Amalfi Coast, one of the best places in Italy to visit.

18

If you’re starting in Rome you should really make a stop in Florence. I like Venice and Rome, but Florence is my favourite Italian city by a mile.

19

I like Venice and it is certainly unique but there are lots of tourist traps and the service can be quite bad in places. I also recommend wandering around aimlessly. You WILL get lost and you will see what we mean when you get there. The city is like a labyrinth. If you are an adventurous eater, Venice has its own style of cuisine that I love but a lot of people shy away from. Some of it contains things like exotic seafood but I think it is great.

Verona doesn’t get a pass in the tourist trap market either though. It has lots of landmarks supposedly associated with two fictional characters. It is pretty though and reasonably peaceful. The Roman colosseum is pretty cool and I think they still even host some events there.

20

To avoid this, if a restaurant has menus in four different languages, go somewhere else. Those are usually the places with the expensive bland tourist food.