A Venetian Pleasure

Prelude

With no apologies we are back in Venice again. The disruption caused to our spring travels (two holidays cancelled for various reasons) meant we felt need for a relaxing get-away. And, with its pull of familiarity, Venice felt like the ideal place. In my last piece on La Serenissima I said we had been five times previously. Wrong. We had a recount and this was our ninth visit. So, at risk of repetition, we no longer have a need to visit particular sights or do particular things and we can just enjoy the atmosphere, read, write, eat, take in some art and watch this astounding city at work and play.

I will apologise, however, for the regular referrals back to entries in that earlier piece. Repetition is boring to write, although a new reader may find the cross references irritating to have to follow. So if you haven’t read the Venice section of the Three Cities in Italy piece from October 2023 perhaps it is best to head there first. Also another apology for sticking with the Anglicised version of the city’s name but it is no more than a concession to the fact my audience is likely to be English-users and to be searching for Venice, not Venezia, when seeking out information.

Structure of the Trip

Arranged barely a month before our trip, for us very short notice, we had booked the familiar – a flight with BA, seven nights in an apartment through Views on Venice, dinners at Ai Artisti and the Club del Doge – and planned nothing else.

Weather

Arriving on a grey day in late April, with drizzle melting out of the clouds, the first couple of days were chill enough to warrant the occasional use of the heating in the apartment. Then, in an inversion of that, the temperatures across much of Europe shot up and we had blue-skied, sun-filled days up to 21-23°C (70-73°F). Perfect weather for both outdoor café relaxing and the semi-aimless wandering that Venice invites. In our view (but not that of many others) it was still too chilly to eat at an outside table in the evening with night-time temperatures dropping back to the low teens centigrade (the high 50’s fahrenheit).

Getting There/Arrival

Flights

A morning BA flight from London’s Heathrow airport meant an early alarm and our usual combination of taxi and Heathrow Express to Terminal 5 (see Air Travel from London). And my own words in that piece about leaving scope to manage the unforeseen came to the fore as, on getting into our taxi, the driver informed us that the trains from London Paddington to Heathrow were not operating. A quick online check confirmed the need for a change of destination (from Paddington to Terminal 5) to be passed to the driver. And, in the pre-rush hour traffic, the journey was completed even more quickly than would have been the case by train, albeit at a slightly higher cost.

Our run of non-BA operators on BA flights (see the pieces on trips to Three Cities in Italy and Dubrovnik) came to an end. We had a BA staffed and liveried plane on this occasion. They were, generally, as efficient as we had come to expect from them on short haul flights, including, with minor quirks, the mobility assistance service. Sadly we were to discover that better legroom in Business Class on BA’s European flights has now become a thing of the past. It was such that, for a tall person, you travel with the feeling your knees might receive an unexpected crush if the person in front puts their seat back. The slight saving grace is that, as you have three seats between two, there is room for legs to reach out sideways.

Mobility Access

Nearly every airport we have travelled through in recent years has upped their game since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only things I would add to what is said in the piece on Air Travel from London is that, if you are travelling Business Class and arrive at Terminal 5 by car, try and make sure you are dropped at the north end of the building (the approach roads come in from that end). The Business Class check-in desks are at that end. If not, nearer the middle is best because the Mobility Assistance desk is behind Check-in Area E so, hopefully, you can find walking times from the drop-off areas are reduced.

Also there are now some areas near the entry doors marked something like Independent Journeys where self-push wheelchairs are available for use. How far these can be taken within the Terminal building I have not determined.

At Venice Marco Polo Airport our wheelchair pusher collected us at the jetway and took us all the way to the dock used by the water taxis and the Alilaguna (the water bus services from the airport that run to the city and to Murano), en route patiently waiting with us for our luggage to arrive at the carousel.

Getting to the City

On our last trip we arrived and left by train, so this is just some thoughts on reaching the city from the airport. For an overview of the options and for links to relevant websites start from Venice Marco Polo Airport’s own website (https://www.veneziaairport.it/en/transport/venice.html). We have only ever used the waterborne services: what their web-page calls Private Boats (the water taxis) and the Alilaguna. It is cheaper to use the land-based transport but, I am sorry, but unless you are on a real budget, don’t. You have to arrive by water – it is justifiably part of the romance of the city. The arrival by road means you are deposited at the outer, frankly unattractive, eastern fringe of the city into crowded Piazzale Roma, the plaza housing the bus station and car park beyond which vehicles cannot go.

Taking the Alilaguna – https://www.alilaguna.it/en – (€32 euros for a return to the airport at time of writing) allows you to watch the city emerge out of the pastel haze of the light that is such a frequent visitor to the city as you cross the wide shallow lagoon and, if you are heading to San Marco or one of the stops on the Canal Grande, you will get to see the full glory of the city familiar from so many images. Apart from the choppiness created by the many boats travelling across the lagoon, the water is usually fairly flat and calm. Get your Alilaguna tickets online in advance but be aware that these are only vouchers that have to be exchanged on arrival at the airport for a ticket (there are three outlets, all clearly marked, in the Arrivals Hall, at the dock and adjacent to the moving walkways that lead from the Arrivals Hall to that dock).

Taking a water taxi adds to the romance of your arrival. These are elegant speedboats, with leather seats, covered cabins and open areas, that take you to your door, or as near to it as the canal system allows, but at approximately eight times the cost of the Alilaguna. Buy your tickets at one of the desks in the Arrivals Hall (there are several companies available). Rates are regulated so you do not have to haggle but, so the price is no surprise, do make your destination clear and how much luggage you have (more may be extra). There is also an added cost if you want help getting your luggage from the arrival point to your hotel, otherwise they will drop you at the nearest jetty or dock and you make your own way from there. You should ask if you need to pay the water taxi pilot with cash. The pilots don’t seem to carry card machines – or they keep them well hidden.

Mobility Access

The only real issue to be alert to is the distance from the Arrivals Hall to the airport docks for all waterborne services. It is over 400 metres along a wide, covered corridor. There are travelators but luggage trollies are not allowed on them and, as when we arrived, one or more may be undergoing repairs. Once you reach the dock area, there is still a walk of around 100 metres along the dock to reach the Alilaguna jetties (the water taxi jetties are just a bit closer).

The Venice Access Fee

Do remember that Venice has now taken the plunge and created an entry fee for day visitors on certain days (most weekends in the summer, including Fridays). There is an exemption for those staying in the city at hotels and rental properties (as those staying will already have paid a tourist tax for the duration of their stay). However you have to register for an exemption pass to show you are actually staying in the city. Most hotels and rental companies have arranged matters so they notify you of the need and guide you to the exemption pass website (https://cda.veneziaunica.it/en). And they do check you have the relevant pass at certain points when you enter the city. I took a roundabout boat from Burano that stopped off on the mainland (at Punta Sabbioni) before it returned to San Marco-San Zaccaria where they checked all the passengers had paid the fee or had an exemption as they were leaving the boat.

Apartment

We have now used Views on Venice to rent apartments on five separate occasions and we will continue to do so. I have written about the excellent quality and service of VoV (as we know them) in the Three Cities piece. This time the location was more central to the tourist action than we had ever been before. Ca’ Giulia, another ground floor, two-bedroom place, is on the Canal Grande just across from the Rialto Market and with a view east to the Ponte di Rialto. It had its own little square (called a campiello) alongside, complete with a taverna that acted as both bar and restaurant for the (mostly Italian) in-the-know people who could find their way through the narrow alley and archway from what I call the main drag (of which more anon).

The location meant advantages – it is in the centre of the action. In the earlier part of the morning the delivery barges and garbage barges predominate, keeping this tourist city supplied and functioning. Once past about 10.00, there seemed to be a constant stream of passing gondolas, vaporetti, carefully threading their way around the slow-moving river traffic, their relative bulk lording it over other river traffic, occasional delivery barges stopping to service the hotels and eating places, convoys of water taxis and, in the early evening, the small speedboats of young, well-off Italians who would stop to sup their spritzes, wines and beers from the canal side bars. If this makes it sound unpleasantly busy then know that from about 21.00, a peaceful quiet descends on the waterways and we heard nothing at night to disturb our sleep.

The disadvantage, for us – it is in the centre of the action. Its very proximity to that main drag meant, at any time from about midday to the middle of the evening, managing your way through the slow-moving throngs. The main drag, as I call it, is the busy pedestrian tourist route from the bus and railway station to the principal tourist sights of the Ponte di Rialto and Piazza San Marco. In places, like on Strada Nova, which led to one of our nearby vaporetto stops, Ca’ d’Oro, this route is a ten-metre wide paved near-boulevard. In others, like in Salizada San Giovanni Crisostomo, which was our only route down past the Ponte di Rialto to our other nearby vaporetto stops at Rialto, it was barely more than two-metres wide. And all along this route restaurants, bars, gift shops, gelateria, pasticceria and tourist knick-knack shops encourage people to stop and stare or to dither. One afternoon, heading back along it towards the apartment, the crowds were so heavy that the street congealed to a standstill for five or six minutes before slowly unravelling.

But the special magic of Venice and the sheer joy we took from just sitting watching the activity on the canal outside far overrode the disadvantage. However next time we may look for a complete contrast.

Mobility Access

Inside, all is on one level with one step up from living area to kitchen and bedrooms, all with flat, firm stone or wood surfaces. The front door opens directly onto the campiello with one step down. A jetty where a water taxi can drop you is just outside the window of the apartment – the height of convenience. Access to the vaporetto service was a little more challenging. Reaching the Ca’ d’Oro stop, for the Route 1, involves a 500 metre walk and two Venetian bridges to negotiate. By way of reminder, most such bridges require about ten to twelve steps up and the same number down and there is no alternative for those who cannot manage them. However, do bear in mind that the steps themselves are quite shallow, making them much less problematic than stairs. The route down to the Rialto vaporetto stops involves a walk of around 400 metres (and one bridge) to reach the Route 2 dock and a further 50 metres (and another bridge) to reach the Route 1 docks. And Rialto is a very busy set of docks during the day, rivalling those at Ferrovia (the railway station) and San Marco-San Zaccaria. Like both it has several pontoons but, unlike those two, there is a very narrow quay that often clogs up with tourists both trying to get at the boats and the shops and also to take their photographs of the bridge itself. Your aid to finding the right pontoon is to click on Rialto on the interactive map on the website of the Venice transport authority (ACTV) https://actv.avmspa.it/sites/default/files/avm/navigazione/MAP/interattiva.html.

In the mornings before the crowds thicken and in the evenings after they have thinned, it is all a bit more civilised.

Areas and Places Visited

San Giorgio Maggiore and Fondazione Giorgio Cini

The eye-catching Palladian façade of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore takes all your attention when you step off the San Giorgio vaporetto platform (on route 2). Indeed, most people come here to visit the church or, rather, its campanile. For the ticket price of just under €10 you are treated to the spectacular 360° view across the city and the lagoon from its open balcony 60 metres (100 foot) above the ground. I had marvelled there on a previous visit. The ticket only covers the campanile. The church is free. This time I was surprised when I poked my head in the door of the basilica that it looked empty, the space unsullied by pews or the other paraphernalia. Of course, a walk around reveals the artistic splendour in the many chapels and over the altar but it was faintly surreal on a quick glance.

Mobility Access (Church)

The main door to the church and campanile is only 30 metres across the wide, flat paved plaza where sits the San Giorgio vaporetto stop. There are seven wide steps up to the church to the door but beyond that door is the smooth stone floor of the church. Because on this visit that floor was empty, with not a pew or chair or other ornament in sight, it does mean that there is nowhere to sit and rest if you have come to enjoy the Renaissance paintings that hang in the chapels and above the altar. It may be a temporary situation. The campanile has a lift.

On this occasion I was on the island for the photography of others, not my own. Always on the lookout for photographic exhibitions when travelling I discovered that Fondazione Giorgio Cini had a photographic exhibition space – La Stanza della Fotografia (https://lestanzedellafotografia.it/en/). Whether or not you have such an interest, when visiting San Giorgio Maggiore it is worth your while turning right when you come out of the church and walking round along the wide waterfront to where the buildings, galleries and restaurant of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini live – see https://www.cini.it/en/. I had never been to the Foundation before. Shame on me because the rehabilitation of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore was carried out by the Foundation in the latter half of the twentieth century to provide a conference centre, a library of historical documents relating to the arts and the history of the city, exhibition spaces and a restaurant/café that has an outside terrace that looks across the Bacino San Marco to the Riva degli Schiavoni waterfront.

I did not engage with any of the historical treasures on this occasion. A return beckons on our next visit to the city to take in the restored monastery buildings. I was there to see a Mapplethorpe retrospective and an exhibition of Polaroid-based images by an Italian artist, Maurizio Galimberti in that photographic exhibition space. The galleries (built over two floors) are created from a restored dockyard building: a simple design but an effective space for displays. The exhibition space also has a good photographic bookshop.

Mobility Access (Gallery)

Recently renovated, the old building housing the photographic galleries has full modern access facilities and smooth surfaces inside. There is a lift between floors. I did not check whether they have either wheelchairs or portable stools available for use. The only seats in the gallery itself are the occasional low cushion stools that are a little bit style-over-substance. From the vaporetto stop to the gallery entrance is a walk of around 300 metres along the flat, paved waterfront.

Mazzorbo

We have visited many of the lagoon islands but not this one. Umbilically linked to bustling Burano by a pedestrian bridge it is a quiet, relatively unvisited backwater given a particular cachet by the twenty-first century restoration of the walled vineyard that now encompasses Venissa, a self-styled wine resort, osteria and a Michelin-starred restaurant. The presence of such a place does not alter the peace and quiet of the island that acts as a real contrast to the crowds flocking to its better-known neighbour. The largely paved paths that circle the island give a walk of around 2 kilometres during which time you see a quiet, small community where only one other restaurant shares space with older and newer local houses and farms. It is a peaceful, gentle walk.

The Burano cemetery is a relatively recent addition, the earliest graves date from the late 1960s and most from much later. A classic walled catholic cemetery, it is a fascinating mix of ground level graves, the rows of cavities in stacked rows like blocks of concrete flats that adorn so many southern European Catholic cemeteries and the more grandiose family tombs. The newly restored Venissa vineyard provides another engaging place to visit. You are free to wander through inside the old walled area and informative signs dotted around explain how the estate is now used. Down in the western corner of the vineyard an open gate brings you out opposite the end of the bridge across to Burano whence you can stroll across, embed yourself in the throngs milling around its wide selection of cafes, restaurants and cicchetti bars and then settle down for that reviving dose of caffeine and people watching.

Mobility Access

There are only three bridges on Mazzorbo and you can actually take a full circular walk without using any of them. There are no cafes on the Mazzorbo waterfront, just one trattoria only a few steps from the vaporetto stop, but there are a number of benches on the tree-lined southern promenade. The pedestrian bridge to Burano has no steps and is a smooth wooden walkway which means the cafés of Burano are not far away.

Mazzorbo has its own vaporetto stop on Route 12 which is the main boat to Murano, Burano and Torcello. It runs around every 20 minutes or so from the vaporetto stop of Fondamente Nove on Venice’s northern waterfront. This busy stop has four docks. Route 12 goes from Dock A.

Alternatively Burano’s own vaporetto stop (on the same route 12) is only 200 metres from the bridge across to Mazzorbo. You can also get back from Burano on route 14 which takes you to dock A at the San Marco-San Zaccaria stop, although the boats only go once an hour and it is a longer trip, looping around the western lagoon. This may be the way to go if you are leaving Burano later in the tourist day when the Route 12 boats back to Fondamente Nove get so full you can find yourself having to queue for some time. Taking route 14 allows a sight of the sea entrances to the lagoon and that means a close up of the parts of the infrastructure of MOSE, the controversial project to provide the Venetian lagoon with flood defences – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27692334.

Wandering

Every guide to Venice I have ever read extols the benefit of near aimless wandering around the city on foot. It is impossible to disagree. Walk, slowly, but don’t dither and obstruct the locals. Following their simple rules makes you, the tourist, less of an offensive invader – https://www.comune.venezia.it/en/content/buone-pratiche-il-visitatore-responsabile. I maintain that you can never really get lost in Venice; it is too small, too compact. So turn down that narrow alley, go through that archway and walk over that small bridge all with no purpose other than enjoyment of this unique built environment. Even if you reach a dead end, you just turn round and come back. And you are never far from a café or eating place for that stop to rest.

So on this trip I walked. One walk was through the backstreets of the sestiere of Castello, probably Venice city’s least visited. I poked my nose into the contrasting churches of San Giovanni e Paolo (an element in the well known tourist vista that is presented in Campo San Zanipolo, but surprisingly empty when wandering in to see the paintings of Bellini, Veronese and Tintoretto amongst the other artistic finery) and San Francesca de la Vigna (a still vast and impressive basilica hidden away in a northern corner of Castello with its own artwork from a similar group of painters). And then I wandered past the walled-in dockyard of the Arsenale and through quiet residential streets before crossing the bridge over to the small island known as Isola di San Pietro. There, in front of another basilica with one of those imposing but elegant Palladian façades, is one of the few grassy campos in Venice. Here in a space shaded by tall trees and criss-crossed by stone paths, you can sit on one of the benches to rest and enjoy the peace. Then walk back, perhaps through green spaces of the Giardini that line part of the Venetian waterfront or catch a 4.2 vaporetto from the San Pietro di Castello stop on the east side of the island back to San Marco-San Zaccaria.

On other days, simply repeat the wander but in San Polo, Santa Croce, Cannaregio or Dorsoduro – wherever you will.

Most churches have a small admission fee, some do not. Again there are certain simple rules that may apply when visiting churches – https://www.venice-tourism.com/en/curiosities/visiting-churches-tourists-vademecum.

Mobility Access

Even those whose mobility constraints mean long stretches on your feet are difficult or impractical can find a way to manage, if care is taken. Take time to study a good map (see the passage on Getting Around in the Venice section of the piece on Three Cities in Italy) and you can minimise your use of bridges and maximise your use of the vaporetto. It has to be said there are few seats in the squares of the city apart from in the Giardini and along a few waterfronts. However you are rarely far from a café (and this is one of the times when a good maps app, like GoogleMaps, can help you out). Allow time and Venice can still be enjoyed to the full.

In churches, with the odd exception (see San Giorgio above) you always have the pews to fall back on for a rest.

Food and Drink

Taverna al Remer

Sheer convenience led us here on our first evening. It was only ten steps from our front door. We ended up making four visits for our evening meal. The convenience, particularly with the relative distance to the nearest vaporetto stops, was one reason for the return visits, but we would not have kept coming back had the food and ambience not been so good. It is a place with two characters. It is the sort of canal-side bar that in the early evening attracts the younger spritz-quaffing crowd, mostly Italian locals who sit with their drinks and cicchetti on the jetty or the small canal-side campiello with its astounding views. It is quieter during the week and sitting and writing at one of their three outside tables in the late afternoon after a warm day’s wandering, glass of Campari spritz to hand, was a peaceful coda to the day. Its other character is as a cosy local restaurant with Venetian menu and cooking that is a step up from the average tourist restaurant. A brick-lined room never feels over-busy, although its clientele is predominantly us tourists, and we liked the low-key atmosphere of the dining space. There is no currently functioning website so here is Conde Nast Traveller’s take which rather over-emphasises the bar element – https://www.cntraveler.com/restaurants/venice/taverna-al-remer.

Mobility Access

All on a level with the square outside and with stone floors inside, so the only potential issue, if your resting place is elsewhere, is the distance from the vaporetto stops (see the entry for Mobility Access in the Apartment section above), unless you arrive at the jetty by water taxi.

Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti (Dorsodouro) and the Club del Doge (Gritti Palace)

Both of these are old favourites visited again so pop back to Three Cities in Italy to see our comments. Return visits gave rise to these further points.

Ai Artisti does now have a website (https://enotecaartisti.com/en/discover-dining-at-artisti/) which allows online booking. We felt that the quality of the food and the service, always good, had even gone up a notch since our last visit. Do take care with the Ai Artisti designation. In nearby Campo San Barnaba there is a café bar also called Ai Artisti. It is very much a bar with a few inside tables and just cicchetti/trazzemini-style light bites. A great place for a sit outside to take in the buzz of the campo but not for an evening meal.

The Club del Doge also feels like it has upped its kitchen to embrace Michelin-star grabbing cuisine. Excellent and still serious splurge territory. However we felt the service in the Bar Longhi (for cocktails and digestifs) was not quite up to their usual standard. It may be that the sunshine had drawn attention away from the interior to the outside terrace but, in such a place, we expected better. No such complaints about the excellent staff in the restaurant.

Ristorante Al Vagon

Tucked into an arcade that is open on one side to a classic Venetian canal, at first blush this restaurant looks like another tourist trap. It sits bang on the ‘main drag’ I describe in the section on the Apartment. And it attracts the tourists as they squeeze past in the narrow passageway leading from Campo Santi Apostoli. The menu is more classic Venetian fare but a lovely (pre-booked) canal side table, an ebullient host and plentiful staff and freshly-cooked fish dishes all added up to an enjoyable evening meal. There is an Italian only website – https://alvagon.com – but the menu on the website has English translations.

Mobility Access

The outside tables are, effectively, on the street so no changes of level. There is a step up into the interior, but we did not go in so no helpful advice there. The nearest vaporetto stop is Ca’ d’Oro on Route 1. A walk from there involves climbing one bridge and a walk along the broad street of Strada Nova of about 350 metres.

Ristorante Messener

This plainly decorated restaurant, tucked away from the tourist trails in Dorsoduro, has a few outside tables along a canal and was a very pleasant place for a quiet lunch away from the madding crowds visiting nearby sights like the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. The food was unexciting fare but perfectly acceptable for a place that is primarily about location and ambience – provided you are at one of the outside tables. It is part of the hotel of the same name and the website for the hotel was undergoing updates at the time of writing.

Mobility Access

The restaurant interior is on the ground floor of the hotel, so it and the outside tables are readily accessible. Salute, the nearest vaporetto stop, is on Route 1 and is 270 metres and one bridge away.

Reading

Our Venetian based reading for this trip included the latest in Donna Leon’s enjoyable series of Commissario Brunetti crime stories set in the city, So Shall You Reap (https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/so-shall-you-reap/). In this one there seemed to be a greater emphasis on her long-established characters, their interactions and their place in the modern society of Venice. It would be wrong to say the crime element was secondary, but we found that it made the book that much more enjoyable a read whilst staying in the city.

A contrast was The Lover of No Fixed Abode (https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/the-lover-of-no-fixed-abode/), by two Italian writers described in the blurb as ‘doyens of the Italian detective story’. It was written in 1986 but has only just been published in English. This is no detective story, although it does have a mystery at the heart of the story. It is a gentle love story with occasionally sinister undertones that unfolds over three days as the characters move through the Venetian cityscape.

Practicalities

Getting Around

There really is nothing to add to the section on this subject in the Three Cities in Italy post.

Language

I hesitate to say you don’t need a knowledge of Italian as, even unconsciously, most people do have some knowledge because of the dominance of the Italianate descriptions for coffee and the ubiquity of Italian restaurants around the globe. But Venice is such a tourist city that you need little additional help, given those you are likely to interact with will have some English. A tiny bit of knowledge (or preparation) does help however. Arriving at a vaporetto stop without knowing how to buy a ticket or appreciating that Ferrovia means the railway station (as did two English-speaking visitors to whom I gave a helping hand) is not sensible if you are anxious to get to Santa Lucia to catch a train.

Cash and Credit/Debit Cards

Cash was needed for water taxis and tips to restaurant staff and to individuals, such as guides or water taxi pilots, but otherwise cards rule the roost almost everywhere for everything now. Even the some of the stalls in Rialto Market now carry card machines.

Time Zone

A user friendly one hour ahead of the time in the UK. A bit jet-laggier for visitors from across the pond at between six and nine hours ahead of times in North America.

Endpiece

On every visit to this unique city, you cannot help but feel you are contributing to its long-term conversion from living city to museum and theme park – the imposition of a daily entry fee on some days does rather add to that impression. It is disturbing to think that a city that relies economically on tourism has a population that has now dropped below 50,000 from a high of around 170,000 only seventy years ago. There are no easy answers to this but there is much hand-wringing (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/battle-for-the-soul-of-venice). If, as we do, you come to love the city, you will try and act in a way that supports the local economy and takes account of the sensibilities of the locals and, perhaps, you can hope the Venetians are able to find some ways to balance the tourist and local needs more effectively.