Italy from the Inside

How much is your time worth? Staying (and walking) in Venice

If you have read our eBook Italy from the Inside you probably know that our goal is to give practical tips and insights about your vacation in Italy. We don’t really deal with places to stay and/or see, because there are already many wonderful guides out there that can provide this kind of information. This time, however, we will make a little exception, due to the fact that we are going to talk about how much is it worth staying closer to the heart of Venice (and maybe spending a little more money) versus staying in the outskirts.

One of the best things that can happen to you as a tourist in Venice is… getting lost. Walking in Venice is such a great experience because each calle (pedestrian street) is different and it may lead you to a bridge (ponte), a church (chiesa), an interesting store and so one. However, walking in Venice may be also exhausting, especially if you visit it during summer time. I still remember when I was a student and I used to do some research at the Biblioteca Marciana in Piazza San Marco;  I always underestimated the time it takes to walk from Saint Mark’s Square to the train station (if you wonder: it was a 25 minutes fast/anxious/”oh my God, I’ll miss the train” walk).

When two years ago we decided to spend a couple of days in Venice I had no doubts: I wanted to stay as close as possible to the center. So, I went online and found the Bed and Breakfast Zaguri which is in a super-duper convenient location:

As you can see it is only 5 minutes from Piazza San Marco and 8 minutes from the Rialto bridge. Plus, prices were very reasonable, the breakfast was delicious, the owners very gracious and it is thanks to them that I was able to make one of my long wished dreams come true: walking in the water during the high tide, because they lent me and my daughter a pair of rain boots!

Now, how can you beat this??

How much is your time worth? The Venice water taxi

As you can learn from our eBook Italy from the Inside there are many possibilities to reach Venice from the airport: you can either take the bus to Piazzale Venezia, or to Mestre train station and then take a 10 minute train ride to Venice train station. These two options are definitely the cheapest ones, but they surely don’t make you save in terms of time.

So, you may prefer to spend €15 per person and catch the public boat from the airport to the city, which, in my opinion, offers a more interesting experience for tourists. However, there’s one more option that sometimes is not taken into consideration, I think mainly for its cost, and that’s the water taxi.

The privately ran water taxi company charges €100 for a ride, which may sounds like a lot of money if you consider yourself a budget traveler. However, this price is for rides for up to 5 people which, by doing some math, translates into €20 per person. Not too bad if you consider that you don’t have to share the ride with anyone else and that you are going to be dropped to your destination (or to the closest vicinity). Besides, isn’t it better to add a great memory to your life rather than to have 50 more bucks in the bank? Well, at least this is my new philosophy…

In Venice everything is art

What I’ve always loved about Venice is to get lost in its calli (narrow pedestrian streets) and find out unusual things on the way as a result.

This happened also during our last trip to this magnificent city.
I noticed many people going in and out this beautiful building. Curious, I went to check it out and realized that this was the City Hospital (Ospedale Civile).

This great example of Renaissance architecture makes you think that in Venice everything, and I really mean everything, is art.