Venice (day 1), Italy 2018 🇮🇹 – Michael and Pam's Travels

Date: 17-18th September 2018

Travelled: 134 kilometres from Ferrara, in Emilia-Romagna to Venice in Veneto, Italy.

Visited: Venice.

Stayed: Venice, Sosta San Giuliano €18, all services, electricity extra €4. N45.46755, E12.27927

Budget: 106 days @ €93 per day.

We depart Ferrara early, hoping to make our way into Venice early. Is there a daily traffic grind into Venice every morning ? We understand there’s very limited parking in Venice, so we hope not.

There are two motorhome parking options close to Venice. One on the island itself (Santa Marta), basically just a car-park at €37pd or a sosta, just back across the causeway in San Giuliano at €18. We set the GPS at the cheaper option and take our chances. We stop at a Lidl at Mestre about 5 klms out to stock up, then continue on to San Giuliano.

The traffic is heavy for the last couple of kilometres, but it’s moving.

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Skip this bit if your not doing Venice in a motorhome. Stay in close and pay more to park (with no facilities), no need to catch a ferry or bus into Venice. However to get around Venice you still need to use the ferries, purchasing tickets for individual ferry trips is both time consuming and expensive, so the cheapest option is a Venezia Citypass for €20. With that all tram, bus and ferry travel for 24 hours. Hence we parked in San Giuliano, walk the 500m to the bus-stop, catch the bus to Roma Station and jumped on and off ferries all day. Whilst I don’t condone or encourage such behaviour we used the same pass for two days, rather than just the 24 hours.

The sosta San Giulliano has some shade and the proprieter is happy to explain the transport options.

So the adventure starts…

We walk the 5-600 metres to the bus stop, jump the first passing bus and arrive at the Roma terminal 10 minutes later. The Lonely Planet recommend the Vaporetto #1 ferry, but the ticket office recommends a #2, so we are on a #2.

One of the highlights of our visit to Venice is just taking in the view provided by the Grand Canal. The passage from the terminous at Piazza Roma to San Marco is a feast.

Entering the gondola zone, we don’t have Rod and Julie to share the cost of a gondola this visit, so we will stick to the ferries.

Venice’s most famous bridge, Ponte di Rialto.

Michael and Pam's Photo Sphere (Rialto Bridge Pano)

Looking across at the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. We may visit it tomorrow.

Venice, Veneto, Italy

The ferry terminates at San Marco and we head off. The Piazzetta di San Marco is it’s usual chaotic self.

The Basilica di San Marco and it’s famous facade.

Our guide book recommends a walking tour of Venice, so why not. We start by walking under the Torre dell’Orologio. Installed in the 1499, it has a live in clock-watcher to keep it clicking over.

We find ourselves outside the Campo Santa Maria Formosa.

The Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli, just across a small bridge.

Suddenly every now and then we return to the hectic pace of the grand canal.

Our walking tour concludes at the piazza San Giacomo dell’Orio. The 3.5 klm walk takes us two hours plus a lunch stop.

From the piazza it’s an easy 5 minute walk back to the grand canal and a ferry back to the Roma terminus, then the bus to San Giuliano. By the time we arrive back at the Hymer its 5pm, our feet are a little sore, but what a fabulous day. We chat about our day in Venice and decide we’ll stay another day and do some more exploring tomorrow.

Michael and Pam

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2 thoughts on “Venice (day 1), Italy 2018 🇮🇹”

2 Comments

Gloria
September 21, 2018, 14:53

Always love the pictures and videos you post! Your travel is my travel , so keep posting!! One day Rene and I might get out there again. 🙋🏻

Greg Wild
September 24, 2018, 05:20

We loved Venice one place that meets your expectations. Enjoying your blogs. Travel safe.

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2 thoughts on “Venice (day 1), Italy 2018 🇮🇹”