Venice

Venezia Santa Lucia station sits directly on the Grand Canal, with regional and high-speed trains arriving from Milan, Verona, Florence, Rome and Vienna. Step outside and the vaporetto stops and canal-side hotels are right there.

Flying in, the Alilaguna water shuttle links Marco Polo airport straight to the city by boat, and land buses run to Piazzale Roma — the car-accessible square where the causeway from the mainland ends.

• From Milan — about 2h30 to 3h direct by high-speed train.
• From Florence — about 2h direct.
• From Munich or Vienna — roughly 5 to 7h on daytime or overnight trains, no changes.
• From Marco Polo Airport — about 1h15 by Alilaguna boat, or ~20 minutes by bus to Piazzale Roma plus a short walk or vaporetto.

Walking covers most of the centre — nowhere is more than about 30–40 minutes on foot, and the maze of alleys and bridges is part of the experience once you accept getting a little lost. For longer hops or heavy legs, the ACTV vaporetto lines run frequently along the Grand Canal and out to the lagoon.

A single vaporetto ticket is pricey for a short hop, so most visitors staying a few days get a multi-day travel card. Traghetto gondolas also cross the Grand Canal at a handful of points for a few minutes and a couple of euros — a cheap, quick alternative to the nearest bridge.

Addresses in Venice follow a historic district numbering system rather than street order, so phone maps can undersell how confusing wayfinding gets. Give yourself extra time near appointments and check-ins, and use landmarks and bridge names, not just the app arrow.

The outer islands — Murano, Burano, Torcello — need their own vaporetto legs from the Fondamente Nove docks, roughly 30–45 minutes each way, so budget a half-day if you want more than one.

Venice is genuinely tough with bags — narrow bridges mean every one of the hundreds of canal crossings is a set of steps, and there are no cars or taxis to bail you out on the final stretch. A wheeled suitcase gets dragged, not rolled, for most of the way.

Water taxis (private motorboats) will carry you and your bags door-to-door for a fee, and porters with hand carts (portabagagli) can be hired near the station and Piazzale Roma. Book a hotel as close as you can to a vaporetto stop, and pack lighter than you think you need to.

ACTV sells single vaporetto tickets and multi-day travel cards (typically 1, 2, 3 or 7 days) covering unlimited rides on water buses. If you plan more than two or three trips a day, the pass is almost always cheaper.

Day-trippers also pay a small access contribution on certain peak dates, booked online in advance — check current dates before you go, since the calendar changes year to year.