London to Venice - A Long Weekend
Jan 31, 2024 | 1:09 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: London
Posts: 11
London to Venice - A Long Weekend
Background
It's my first time writing this sort of thing so apologies for any oversights. (I usually review books on my other blog, which I've been doing for about 5 years). As this is my first post, I unfortunately couldn't upload photos - I'll paste them here as soon as I can. I will hopefully be posting more soon on my recent visit to Edinburgh, as well as a number of upcoming Asian trips.
Quick Summary
Where? Venice, Italy.
When? November 2023.
How long? Around 3 days.
How? EasyJet from London Gatwick to Venice Marco Polo.
My favourite thing? The amazing water-based sights.
My least favourite thing? The food.
Getting There
Venice is a city I’ve wanted to visit for years, and I finally managed to go a few months ago. A uni friend and I flew together on EasyJet, with the round-trip basic fare coming in at around 90 each. Our 8.30 am flight from Gatwick on a Saturday morning meant that, with EasyJet’s usual delays and the time it took to get from Marco Polo Airport to our guesthouse, we ultimately arrived at around lunchtime.
This was the first time I had ever flown EasyJet. Unfortunately both my friend and I decided to skip paying extra for the ‘bigger carry-on’ seat option, naively confident in our belief that we had bags compliant with the ‘smaller carry-on’ dimensions. Despite measuring my wheeled duffle bag multiple times at home, though, it refused to fit into EasyJet’s baggage gauge. So did my friend’s suitcase. We ended up having to shell out 50 apiece for oversize luggage, plus another 20 to add bigger carry-on luggage to our return journey, making this one of the most expensive mistakes I’ve ever made.
Anyway, lesson learnt. Our flight itself was unremarkable, although I had a slightly odd interaction with the Italian air stewardess - she insisted I turn my phone and Kindle off properly 'because the weather is foggy', even though I'd shown her they were on flight mode.
The flight from London takes only a couple of hours, and from the airport we took a 20-minute bus that crosses the bridge connecting Mestre in mainland Venice to the Piazzale Roma bus terminal, on the Venetian Lagoon. That was the last time we took wheeled transport while in Venice; somehow I hadn’t properly processed this before coming, but of course there are no cars or buses on the main collection of islands that constitutes Venice. The public transport system is made up of the vaporetti, the waterbuses. These are brilliant – fast, cheap, and providing tremendous views as they zip up and down the waterways. Citymapper proved invaluable at telling us when and where to catch them.
As we were aged between 6 and 29, we were able to make use of the Rolling Venice card. It costs €6 and gives you a discount on other travel cards and tickets. For example, with the card, a Venezia Unica CityPass card with 72 hours of unlimited waterbus travel + a two-way airport transfer becomes €46 instead of €58. I recognise that’s a €6 price difference anyway, but you’ll see other savings soon – for instance, a Museum Pass granting access to the 12 civic museums of Venice is reduced to €22 from €40. There are even greater discounts if you book at least 30 days in advance, which sadly my friend and I didn’t realise in time.
Accommodation
We had booked an ensuite bedroom in Il Veliero Romantico, a guesthouse located in the Santa Croce district. This… had its pros and cons. Pros: it was well-located, being less than 10 minutes’ walk away from Piazzale Roma, and the locale was quiet (though it was November anyway so the place wasn't really bustling). Cons: at just over €120/night, it felt a bit overpriced for what it was. It seemed clean at first glance, but I discovered what appeared to be a period bloodstain on the sheets of my bed, and let’s just say this did not endear the place to me. It was essentially just a house that had been poorly converted, and the ensuite bathroom had been squeezed into a bedroom that didn’t really have space for it. I strongly suspect that at this off-season price point, we could have found a place without these issues.
Itinerary: Day One
We didn't do much on the day of our actual arrival, besides spend the rest of the afternoon strolling around and cruising up and down on the vaporetti. For our first full day in Venice, we started off with the Piazza San Marco. This is definitely the hub of Venice’s ‘traditional’ attractions - I'm mostly into history and politics, so I'm big on traditional attractions. Chief among them is the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge’s Palace, which was historically the home of Venice’s elected(-ish) leader. Luckily we got the audio guide, as this is how you’ll learn the most about Venice’s fascinating political history (like how prisoners were taken over the Bridge of Sighs from inside the palace). The windows offer amazing views out across the water. It's a small building compared to something like the Tower of London at home, but packed with interesting exhibits and some great architecture.
Also off the Piazza is the Basilica di San Marco, a grand cathedral where we unfortunately did not rent the audio guide and therefore I have limited knowledge about its doubtless rich history. The exterior was impressive, but slightly spoilt by construction fences. Inside was very crowded.
For the afternoon, round the corner from the Piazza is a number of relatively small museums, with entrance grouped together inside the CityPass. There’s the Correr Museum, the classical Archaeological Museum, and a library called the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana (which are decidedly not monumental). We knocked these off in a couple of hours, or less, mostly to feel like we'd made the most of our museum pass tickets.
We also climbed the Campanile di San Marco belltower to get the gorgeous sunset views. All of these attractions are around the Piazza San Marco, so we could spend the first day essentially entirely in this area, although we did foray further afield for a cheaper lunch of pasta.
One of my favourite experiences during the trip was seeing Venice's acqua alta in action. In the mornings and evenings, the lower-lying ground of the Venetian islands floods, making wellies a necessity. We learnt that the Piazza is especially prone to this – when we were trying to get to the museums after seeing the Basilica, the water was calf-deep. City workers did put out high platforms so tourists weren't standing in water as they queued or walked along the canal sides, but wellies are by far the safest option if you’re visiting in the winter months. I love water (hence the username...) so seeing the acqua alta every morning was honestly a major highlight. However, if the water level gets too high some waterbus routes will be out of action, which delayed our trip to the islands of Murano and Burano the following morning.
Itinerary: Day Two
Venice is absolutely gorgeous, especially at sunset, and my favourite memory is probably being on the waterbus as the sky was setting and we were returning from a visit to Murano and Burano. These are outlying islands in the lagoon about 30-45 minutes out from the main island, known for being picturesque. Murano is host to a number of glass factories – plenty will let you watch a glassblowing demonstration for a small fee, €5-10 – and Burano was known for lace. Both islands have small museums dedicated to these industries. They also have brightly painted houses, though I'm not as into domestic architecture.
If you don’t want to rush, the islands do take up most of a day on their own. I hugely enjoyed the waterbus journey out to them; on the way, you can stop off at Isola di San Michele, a cemetery island reserved for burials. You’ll also pass other cool sights such as San Giorgio in Alga, a tiny abandoned island with a crumbling monastery that used to be a Nazi base. While it was freezing cold as the wind buffeted my face, standing out on the deck watching the deep green of the water and deep blue of the sky is infinitely preferable to sitting down inside (if you have the choice).
Itinerary: Day Three
Coming to the end of our time in Venice, my friend and I decided to check out the other museums we had bundled entry to. The Natural History Museum has some solid offerings but you’ll need Google Translate, as all the exhibit signs are in Italian. In the same morning we also did the Palazzo Mocenigo, a textiles museum with some interesting displays on 18th-century Venetian clothes and culture. Again, neither of these museums took long - perhaps an hour each, although we were taking our time.
We also visited some neighbouring islands quickly – such as Lido, which is actually big enough to have buses and cars, but it was fairly quiet and there was little to see except a World War I memorial near the waterbus station. Giudecca is similarly small and residential. San Giorgio Maggiore has a beautiful church – in fact, the island is tiny and has really nothing but a church; this is worth a brief visit if you have time. The domed architecture of many of the basilicas is very interesting - I am told this was inspired by the Ottoman domes on mosques, but it's not something I've seen before on churches.
We flew back to Gatwick that afternoon, again on an unremarkable flight. All in all a great way to spend three days. Venice was in many ways quieter than I was expecting; once the museums shut their doors between 4-5pm, there was essentially nothing to do but have dinner, especially as it would be dark by then and you could see little from the waterbus. It was also very cold, under 10 degrees. However, I had a lot of fun – I’ve long wanted to visit Venice and see how the concept of ‘water instead of roads’ actually functions, and that part didn’t disappoint. Seeing boats coming past your front door instead of cars can’t get old…
It's my first time writing this sort of thing so apologies for any oversights. (I usually review books on my other blog, which I've been doing for about 5 years). As this is my first post, I unfortunately couldn't upload photos - I'll paste them here as soon as I can. I will hopefully be posting more soon on my recent visit to Edinburgh, as well as a number of upcoming Asian trips.
Quick Summary
Where? Venice, Italy.
When? November 2023.
How long? Around 3 days.
How? EasyJet from London Gatwick to Venice Marco Polo.
My favourite thing? The amazing water-based sights.
My least favourite thing? The food.
Getting There
Venice is a city I’ve wanted to visit for years, and I finally managed to go a few months ago. A uni friend and I flew together on EasyJet, with the round-trip basic fare coming in at around 90 each. Our 8.30 am flight from Gatwick on a Saturday morning meant that, with EasyJet’s usual delays and the time it took to get from Marco Polo Airport to our guesthouse, we ultimately arrived at around lunchtime.
This was the first time I had ever flown EasyJet. Unfortunately both my friend and I decided to skip paying extra for the ‘bigger carry-on’ seat option, naively confident in our belief that we had bags compliant with the ‘smaller carry-on’ dimensions. Despite measuring my wheeled duffle bag multiple times at home, though, it refused to fit into EasyJet’s baggage gauge. So did my friend’s suitcase. We ended up having to shell out 50 apiece for oversize luggage, plus another 20 to add bigger carry-on luggage to our return journey, making this one of the most expensive mistakes I’ve ever made.
Anyway, lesson learnt. Our flight itself was unremarkable, although I had a slightly odd interaction with the Italian air stewardess - she insisted I turn my phone and Kindle off properly 'because the weather is foggy', even though I'd shown her they were on flight mode.
The flight from London takes only a couple of hours, and from the airport we took a 20-minute bus that crosses the bridge connecting Mestre in mainland Venice to the Piazzale Roma bus terminal, on the Venetian Lagoon. That was the last time we took wheeled transport while in Venice; somehow I hadn’t properly processed this before coming, but of course there are no cars or buses on the main collection of islands that constitutes Venice. The public transport system is made up of the vaporetti, the waterbuses. These are brilliant – fast, cheap, and providing tremendous views as they zip up and down the waterways. Citymapper proved invaluable at telling us when and where to catch them.
As we were aged between 6 and 29, we were able to make use of the Rolling Venice card. It costs €6 and gives you a discount on other travel cards and tickets. For example, with the card, a Venezia Unica CityPass card with 72 hours of unlimited waterbus travel + a two-way airport transfer becomes €46 instead of €58. I recognise that’s a €6 price difference anyway, but you’ll see other savings soon – for instance, a Museum Pass granting access to the 12 civic museums of Venice is reduced to €22 from €40. There are even greater discounts if you book at least 30 days in advance, which sadly my friend and I didn’t realise in time.
Accommodation
We had booked an ensuite bedroom in Il Veliero Romantico, a guesthouse located in the Santa Croce district. This… had its pros and cons. Pros: it was well-located, being less than 10 minutes’ walk away from Piazzale Roma, and the locale was quiet (though it was November anyway so the place wasn't really bustling). Cons: at just over €120/night, it felt a bit overpriced for what it was. It seemed clean at first glance, but I discovered what appeared to be a period bloodstain on the sheets of my bed, and let’s just say this did not endear the place to me. It was essentially just a house that had been poorly converted, and the ensuite bathroom had been squeezed into a bedroom that didn’t really have space for it. I strongly suspect that at this off-season price point, we could have found a place without these issues.
Itinerary: Day One
The Bridge of Sighs.
We didn't do much on the day of our actual arrival, besides spend the rest of the afternoon strolling around and cruising up and down on the vaporetti. For our first full day in Venice, we started off with the Piazza San Marco. This is definitely the hub of Venice’s ‘traditional’ attractions - I'm mostly into history and politics, so I'm big on traditional attractions. Chief among them is the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge’s Palace, which was historically the home of Venice’s elected(-ish) leader. Luckily we got the audio guide, as this is how you’ll learn the most about Venice’s fascinating political history (like how prisoners were taken over the Bridge of Sighs from inside the palace). The windows offer amazing views out across the water. It's a small building compared to something like the Tower of London at home, but packed with interesting exhibits and some great architecture.
Outside the Basilica di San Marco.
Also off the Piazza is the Basilica di San Marco, a grand cathedral where we unfortunately did not rent the audio guide and therefore I have limited knowledge about its doubtless rich history. The exterior was impressive, but slightly spoilt by construction fences. Inside was very crowded.
For the afternoon, round the corner from the Piazza is a number of relatively small museums, with entrance grouped together inside the CityPass. There’s the Correr Museum, the classical Archaeological Museum, and a library called the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana (which are decidedly not monumental). We knocked these off in a couple of hours, or less, mostly to feel like we'd made the most of our museum pass tickets.
The waterfront view from the Campanile di San Marco.
We also climbed the Campanile di San Marco belltower to get the gorgeous sunset views. All of these attractions are around the Piazza San Marco, so we could spend the first day essentially entirely in this area, although we did foray further afield for a cheaper lunch of pasta.
Acqua alta outside the Mureo Correr. Tourist shops sell these fetching plastic booties you can pull on over your own shoes.
One of my favourite experiences during the trip was seeing Venice's acqua alta in action. In the mornings and evenings, the lower-lying ground of the Venetian islands floods, making wellies a necessity. We learnt that the Piazza is especially prone to this – when we were trying to get to the museums after seeing the Basilica, the water was calf-deep. City workers did put out high platforms so tourists weren't standing in water as they queued or walked along the canal sides, but wellies are by far the safest option if you’re visiting in the winter months. I love water (hence the username...) so seeing the acqua alta every morning was honestly a major highlight. However, if the water level gets too high some waterbus routes will be out of action, which delayed our trip to the islands of Murano and Burano the following morning.
Itinerary: Day Two
Returning from Murano and Burano at sunset.
Venice is absolutely gorgeous, especially at sunset, and my favourite memory is probably being on the waterbus as the sky was setting and we were returning from a visit to Murano and Burano. These are outlying islands in the lagoon about 30-45 minutes out from the main island, known for being picturesque. Murano is host to a number of glass factories – plenty will let you watch a glassblowing demonstration for a small fee, €5-10 – and Burano was known for lace. Both islands have small museums dedicated to these industries. They also have brightly painted houses, though I'm not as into domestic architecture.
If you don’t want to rush, the islands do take up most of a day on their own. I hugely enjoyed the waterbus journey out to them; on the way, you can stop off at Isola di San Michele, a cemetery island reserved for burials. You’ll also pass other cool sights such as San Giorgio in Alga, a tiny abandoned island with a crumbling monastery that used to be a Nazi base. While it was freezing cold as the wind buffeted my face, standing out on the deck watching the deep green of the water and deep blue of the sky is infinitely preferable to sitting down inside (if you have the choice).
Itinerary: Day Three
Coming to the end of our time in Venice, my friend and I decided to check out the other museums we had bundled entry to. The Natural History Museum has some solid offerings but you’ll need Google Translate, as all the exhibit signs are in Italian. In the same morning we also did the Palazzo Mocenigo, a textiles museum with some interesting displays on 18th-century Venetian clothes and culture. Again, neither of these museums took long - perhaps an hour each, although we were taking our time.
The church on San Giorgio Maggiore.
We also visited some neighbouring islands quickly – such as Lido, which is actually big enough to have buses and cars, but it was fairly quiet and there was little to see except a World War I memorial near the waterbus station. Giudecca is similarly small and residential. San Giorgio Maggiore has a beautiful church – in fact, the island is tiny and has really nothing but a church; this is worth a brief visit if you have time. The domed architecture of many of the basilicas is very interesting - I am told this was inspired by the Ottoman domes on mosques, but it's not something I've seen before on churches.
We flew back to Gatwick that afternoon, again on an unremarkable flight. All in all a great way to spend three days. Venice was in many ways quieter than I was expecting; once the museums shut their doors between 4-5pm, there was essentially nothing to do but have dinner, especially as it would be dark by then and you could see little from the waterbus. It was also very cold, under 10 degrees. However, I had a lot of fun – I’ve long wanted to visit Venice and see how the concept of ‘water instead of roads’ actually functions, and that part didn’t disappoint. Seeing boats coming past your front door instead of cars can’t get old…
Last edited by sea_fever; Feb 2, 2024 at 12:02 pm Reason: Uniform font colour
Feb 2, 2024 | 2:34 am
#3
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Anyway, lesson learnt. Our flight itself was unremarkable, although I had a slightly odd interaction with the Italian air stewardess - she insisted I turn my phone and Kindle off properly 'because the weather is foggy', even though I'd shown her they were on flight mode.
Feb 2, 2024 | 12:03 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: London
Posts: 11
Feb 2, 2024 | 12:04 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: London
Posts: 11
This is not weird at all, this is standard procedure in very low visibility weather. If the aircraft performs a CATIII Autoland then some airlines SOP is to ask all passengers to turn off fully all electronic equipment. BA, U2, FR will all do the same. Likely there was an PSA by the pilots during approach and you missed it.
Feb 3, 2024 | 4:20 am
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Location: London
Posts: 11
If at any point you're looking for a budget lunch option, Baci & Pasta offers a drink and box of decent butter and sage tortellini for nine euros.
Feb 3, 2024 | 4:36 am
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: London
Posts: 19,078
And if you have 18 minutes to spare before your trip this excellent video will furnish a lot of what youll see with fascinating context, particularly the spoils festooned Basilica di San Marco (as well as a peek at the Basilicas original crowning domes)
Last edited by LapLap; Feb 3, 2024 at 4:42 am