the Grand Canal on a sunny day, water taxis on the move and the dome of the Salute at the far end

Italy · Veneto · Cities of art

Venice

the Serenissima on the water, between the Grand Canal, the calli and the lagoon

1 stopwhere to park

5 sightsto see

5 eventsseasonal

You visit Venice by motorhome by leaving the motorhome behind: you sleep on the mainland, at Mestre, and you go into the city by vaporetto or by bicycle. There are no roads and no cars in the historic centre, so everything is measured in minutes on foot and in stops on the water. Two or three days are enough to see Piazza San Marco, the Grand Canal and the sestieri where the crowds thin out, but it is worth setting off early in the morning, before the bulk of the visitors arrive.

Sleeping

Stops and overnight stays

One stopover to rely on, on the mainland: the camper park inside the San Giuliano park, with the vaporetto leaving from there.

Camper Park San Giuliano Venice

it sits inside the Parco Urbano di San Giuliano, 122 hectares of green on the lagoon, one of the largest urban parks in Europe, with video surveillance around the clock and lighting at night. From the camper park stop the line 14 vaporetto reaches Santa Lucia station in ten minutes; otherwise there is bicycle hire on site and the cycle paths of the park take 20 to 25 minutes. Before setting off, a walk in the park is worth the time it costs.

100 motorhome pitches

WaterGrey waterShower

Around 25 to 30 euros for 24 hours, rates to be checked online · +39 041 931 555 · sangiulianovenice.com

45.467782, 12.279366

Take me there

Getting around

Do not take the motorhome all the way to Piazzale Roma: the final roads are narrow, busy and full of pedestrian zones
From the Camper Park San Giuliano the line 14 vaporetto reaches Santa Lucia station in ten minutes
The bicycle is the alternative: cycle paths cross the Parco di San Giuliano and in 20 to 25 minutes you are in the city
From Santa Lucia station the rest is done on foot or with the vaporetti of lines 1 and 2; line 1 is the finest one along the Grand Canal
The book of ten vaporetto tickets is worth it, or the Venice Unica City Pass, which puts public transport and the main museums together

Seeing

Sights

Five stops in the historic centre: the first two are the ones everybody sees, the other three ask you to step out of the flow. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.

Piazza San Marco

Square · 45.43401, 12.33800

the centre of Venice and the three things that stand around it. The Basilica di San Marco holds more than a thousand square metres of gold leaf mosaics; the relics of the saint were brought here from Alexandria in Egypt by two Venetian merchants around 828, and since then the basilica has been the mark of the commercial and spiritual power of the Republic. The bell tower, 99 metres, is climbed by lift and gives the full circle over the lagoon: it once served to spot ships coming in. The Palazzo Ducale, with its Gothic colonnades, was the seat of the Doge, and inside it has rooms decorated by Titian, Tintoretto and Bellini. Two or three hours, better before nine in the morning or at sunset. Vaporetto, San Marco stop.

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The Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal

Monument · free entry · 45.43804, 12.33592

the Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges over the Grand Canal, built in 1588 with a single arch. The canal runs through the city for almost four kilometres and is the main street: gondolas, vaporetti and private boats cross one another without a pause, and from the bridge you stand and watch them. Walking along the banks you see Ca' d'Oro, Palazzo Mocenigo and Palazzo Grassi. One or two hours at a slow pace, with the best light in the early afternoon. The finest way to arrive is the line 1 vaporetto from Santa Lucia station, getting off at Rialto and walking on towards San Marco.

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Gallerie dell'Accademia

Museum · paid entry · 45.43107, 12.32813

the most important collection of Venetian painting in the world: Bellini, Veronese, Tintoretto, Titian, and among the paintings the Miracle of Saint Mark by Tintoretto. It stands in a building that was once a convent and an art school, with small rooms, narrow stairs and wooden floors, the opposite of the great European galleries. Two or three hours, and it is worth booking online to skip the queue. Line 1 vaporetto, Accademia stop.

Some 12 to 15 euros, to be checked

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Scala Contarini del Bovolo

Monument · paid entry · 45.43485, 12.33453

the outside spiral staircase of a late Gothic palace in the sestiere of San Marco: "bovolo", in Venetian, means snail shell. The spiral is built outside the building and is seen from the street; climbing to the top you come out on the red roofs, with the bell towers, the canals and the lagoon behind, and without the crowd of Piazza San Marco. Three quarters of an hour. It is in Campo Manin, ten minutes on foot from the Gallerie dell'Accademia.

Some 5 to 8 euros

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The Jewish Ghetto of Cannaregio

Point of interest · 45.44536, 12.32640

the first ghetto in Europe, founded in 1516, and still a living community: about five hundred Venetian Jews live here. Building outside the ghetto was forbidden, so the houses rise to seven or eight floors, unusual for the time, and the calli stay narrow and shaded. There are five synagogues fitted in under the roofs and invisible from outside, a museum of the Jewish community at around 10 euros and several places serving kosher and Venetian food. An hour and a half or two. Guided visits to the synagogues are booked in advance, the places are few.

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When

Events

Next: Feast of the Madonna della Salute · 21 Nov

21Nov

Feast of the Madonna della Salute

21 November

for more than three centuries, every 21 November, Venetians have gone on pilgrimage to the basilica of the Salute, the church the city had built for the end of the plague of 1630. Tens of thousands of people over the days of the feast, which is preceded by a novena starting on the 12th. For the occasion the Grand Canal is crossed on a temporary votive bridge, and on the table there is castradina, smoked mutton cooked with cabbage.

23 Jan › 9Feb

Carnival of Venice

the weeks before Shrove Tuesday, between late January and early March

masks, costumes and confetti through the calli, with Piazza San Marco as the main stage, the water processions on the Grand Canal, the float parades and the street shows in the campi. The dates follow Easter and change every year: when it falls early, Carnival already begins in January.

8 May › 21Nov

Architecture Biennale

from May to November, in odd years

at the Giardini della Biennale, at the eastern end of the historic centre, and in other venues around the city: national pavilions, installations made for the place, talks on architecture, sustainability and the city.

5Sep

Historic Regatta

the first Sunday of September

a historical procession at 15:30 along the Grand Canal, from the Bacino di San Marco to Ca' Foscari, with bissone and decorated gondolas and figures in Renaissance costume; from 16:00 eight races, among them the six oar caorline, the women's race on mascarete and, at 18:10, the one for gondolini, the most awaited. In the form it has today it has recalled since 1489 the visit of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, to the Doge.

This year's dates are not out yet

Venice International Film Festival

August and September

at the Lido di Venezia, the oldest film festival in the world, founded in 1932: films in and out of competition, meetings with the directors and the red carpet.

Remember

Useful tips

Venice asks for two or three days. With one day only you get Piazza San Marco, the Rialto Bridge and a walk in the smaller sestieri; with three you add the Accademia, the Ghetto and the Scala Contarini del Bovolo
The best months are April and May, September and October. In summer it is hot and very crowded; in winter there are fewer tourists and lower prices, but also the high water
The Carnival falls between February and March: beautiful, and also the most crowded and most expensive moment of the year
Watch out for pickpockets on full vaporetti and on the busiest bridges, as in every city with a lot of tourists
Avoid the restaurants around Piazza San Marco. The bacari, the taverns where you eat cicchetti with a glass of wine at the counter, are at Campo Santa Margherita, in Cannaregio and in San Polo
With a motorhome, the Rialto market is the right place to shop for fresh fish and vegetables
There is a second area, the Area Sosta Camper Venezia Porta Ovest, the long standing alternative to San Giuliano. We do not list it as a stopover because we know neither its rates nor its services, and the coordinates we have put it some ten kilometres west of San Giuliano, so further from the centre and not closer, as the old page claimed: position and prices are to be checked before heading there
The address we have for the San Giuliano camper park is the same as the one of that other area, so at least one of the two is wrong: trust the coordinates and confirm the address before you leave
Fegato alla veneziana goes with a structured red from the Veneto, Amarone or Valpolicella Ripasso, or with a red beer

Venice · part two

and then?

What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.

Taste

The most typical dish, to cook again at home.

Fegato alla Veneziana · ingredients for 4 people

500 g of veal liver, cut into slices half a centimetre thick
800 g of white Chioggia onions, or ordinary white onions
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
100 ml of dry white wine
fresh chopped parsley
fine salt
black pepper

Method

peel the onions, cut them in half and slice them very thin and even, so they all cook the same way
heat the butter with the oil in a wide pan, add the bay leaf and, when the butter foams, add the onions with a pinch of salt
cover and cook over a very low heat for twenty minutes, stirring now and then: the onions must not colour but wilt until they are almost creamy, and if they dry out too much add a tablespoon of warm water
after the first fifteen minutes pour in the white wine vinegar, stir and finish the last five minutes of cooking
meanwhile rinse the liver, dry it well, take off membranes and gristle and cut the slices into pieces of three or four centimetres
when the onions are ready raise the heat a little and add the liver: two or three minutes a side, no more, so it stays soft inside
deglaze with the white wine, stir gently for a minute and adjust the salt and the pepper
serve at once, still steaming, with the chopped parsley and soft polenta, white if you can, or mashed potatoes

60 more local recipes, region by region

Looking

Venice in photographs

6 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.

Piazza San Marco almost empty at dawn, the Basilica and the bell tower seen from under an arcade

the bell tower of San Marco and the Gothic front of the Palazzo Ducale behind a lamp post with three arms

the same stretch of the Grand Canal at night, the lights of the palaces reflected in the still water

a narrow rio with boats moored to their poles and a bright red sky above a bell tower

the gondolas moored at dusk and the island of San Giorgio Maggiore across the basin