Weaving through Venice’s side streets. Promenading its Grand Canal. Losing yourself — often rather literally — as you try to navigate its historical centre. Everyone visiting Venice should set aside time to explore La Serenissima at their leisure, but if you want to get a true sense of the “City of Water,” you have to see Venice by boat.
As you’d expect, the sinking city has no shortage of seafaring transport. From its sleek modern speedboats to its world-famous gondolas—all painted black after a seventeenth-century law passed to curtail competition between the Venetian aristocracy over whose gondola was the fanciest—Venetians and visitors alike have at their disposal a wealth of options when it comes to taking to Venice’s waters and navigating the city and its lagoon.
Getting around Venice by boat
Vaporetti (water buses)
The first, and probably most convenient way of getting around Venice is to take one of the city’s many water buses (vaporetti). They might not be glamorous, but these vaporetti are the water-based workhorses, the lagoon-marooned hippopotami, of Venice’s public transport system, circumventing Venice’s periphery, cutting through it—admittedly at a snail’s pace—along the Grand Canal, and connecting Venice’s historical centre to some of the lagoon’s farther-flung islands.
Single fares are steep, costing anywhere upwards from €7.50 for a 60-minute ticket (€15 for an airport return). Tickets can be bought from tourist offices, landing stations, and any shop displaying the ACTV sign. If you travel without a ticket, they won’t make you walk the plank. But it’ll land you in hot water with the Venetian authorities who’ll sting you with a €60 spot fine plus an administrative fee (perhaps making the plank seem preferable).
Even if you’re just planning on visiting Venice for the day, your best bet is to arm yourself with a 24-hour travel pass (€20, which you can purchase here) which gets you unlimited travel around the city and its lagoon. Don’t bother buying tickets for children under 6 because they travel always free.
Youngsters between 6 and 29 qualify for—and would do well to acquire—the Rolling Venice Card with all its associated discounts.
Water-Taxis
Short of owning your own boat, the best way to see Venice is by jumping (or climbing very carefully into) one of its many water taxis. These splendidly upholstered speedboats can either fly you around the Venetian lagoon in a flash or meander slowly along all but the shallowest of the historical centre’s canals.
But prepare to pay the price for such an unforgettable experience. A short trip across the main island will set you back at least €40, and that’s to say nothing of the innumerable surcharges—for extra people, for extra luggage, for rides after 10 pm, for ordering one over the phone—they’ll levy on you for the privilege.
Gondolas
The final, most famous—and certainly most cliché—option is, of course, the gondola. Stitched firmly into the city’s fabric since the fourteenth century, the gondola came to prominence in the wake of the ban on horse riding through the city centre (a measure with sound logic when you consider that the medieval city too was both crowded and sinking).
First favoured by the Venetian aristocracy as a noble means of transport, gondolas later gained a reputation for scenes of illicit romances. Casanovas of the seventeenth century took full advantage of the gondoliers’ discretion to take their lady love for what was, quite literally, a ride (after all, a good gondolier would never report what went on beneath its canopy).
Though passengers shouldn’t expect anything more than cursory flirting from today’s gondoliers, being guided through Venice’s canals on one really is a memorable experience. Bear in mind, though, that it’s an experience you’ll be paying a fortune for too. Rides for up to six passengers can cost anything from €80 for 40 minutes, not including the price of the onboard tenor or accordionist should you want a soundtrack, or a narration of what you’re looking at should you want a tour.
Establish the price before setting off and pay only at the end of the journey. Remember too that gondolas are only a local—that is to say mainland—option; no amount of bargaining is going to convince your gondolier to row you to the northern islands and back.
