My tip if you’re ever in Venice: spend the money to buy a vaporetto “boat bus” pass for however many days you’re going to be in town (e.g. 1, 3, 7. etc). Yes, you can get to St. Mark’s Square and other interesting sites just by walking around, but to see things a little further afield you need to take a vaporetto. E.g., to get the Lido island, or to the island with our favorite church (San Giogio Maggiore), or perhaps to get to the little cafe on Guidecca, where Chris and I have enjoyed the occasional glass of Prosecco.
Of course, I’m just a huge fan of these tourist transit passes in general. I really enjoy riding around a town and seeing things with no particular itinerary in mind. In London, as you may recall from my older blog posts, the Oyster pass is your ticket to hop on/hop off regular transit system as much as you please, and that was my favorite way to get to see London while Chris attended conferences there the last two summers.
The vaporetto pass in Venice works the same way, and I always look forward to the chance to hop on a bus boat and enjoy the view of the city from the water.
So, below are a selection of photos I took on this last trip as we rambled around Venice by boat. I hadn’t planned to take any photos from the boat, actually, as it’s always a bit of a challenge to take photos from any moving vehicle, and the windows are not necessary as clean as you’d want for good photos. So, I had decided to keep the camera in my bag and just enjoy the view. But you know me – I see something that seems worthy of a photo and then I can’t resist trying a few shots. However, mostly these shots are not taken for artistic reasons; rather, they recall an unexpected sight along the way. Enjoy.
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- On board a vaporetto
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- The building on the right is just a façade of a building
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- Rialto Bridge
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- Approaching St. Mark’s Square and the Ducal Palace
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- Gondolas working near St. Mark’s Square
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- Approaching St. Mark’s Square and the Ducal Palace
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- Near the Lido island
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- Interesting wall on the Lido
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- Interesting wall on the Lido – detail
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- An unusal sight near Venice canals: parked cars on the Lido
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- Lido canal
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- View of San Giorgio Maggiore church from the vaporetto
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- Vaporetto stop at San Giorgio Maggiore church
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- The Friendly Tourist relaxing at our favorite little lunch cafe near San Giorgio Maggiore
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- Boat harbor near San Giorgio Maggiore, with a view across the lagoon
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- Top of the St. Mark’s Bell Tower behind the boat masts
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- A friendly face at anchor in the harbor
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- That looks like some kind of modern art scuplture of a giraffe; I have no idea what it really was
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- Giraffe in this window’s reflection
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- St. Mark’s Square from across the lagoon
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- Boats in the lagoon in front of St. Mark’s Square
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- Another look at St. Mark’s Square – in this one you can see the whole Ducal Palace on the right
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- A glass of prosecco on Giudecca
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- The St. Mark’s Bell Tower through a window in the museum behind the cafe
I liked your “comic” pictures again–the boat face and the giraffe. (I didn’t know there were so many “faces” around us!) How could one not like the “cute” picture of contented Chris? But the one I liked best was with a “classic composition:” Near Lido Island, the tripods in the water holding a light. Are they called light poles? (No they are not because I read the name for them in some book but I forgot what it was.)
Enjoyed the vaporetto ride around Venice. I am surprised to see motor boats in the canals. I thought they try to keep the pollution down? Did you have the vapors in the vaporetto. I am sorry I couldn’t resist.
Thanks for the comments on the photos!
@Kathy – there are motor boats, but of course no cars on most of the islands (except the Lido), so the pollution that way doesn’t seem so bad.
@Stan, I don’t know what those things in the water are called, but I guess there’s some nautical name.