Your cartVenice is a city made of 118 small islands separated by canals and connected by bridges. For this reason, it would seem difficult to move around in the city, but this is not exactly right. Indeed, even though discovering the city by walking in the alleys, crossing the bridges, and strolling on the canals is a not to miss experience, the city of Venice also has a functioning public transportation system. The main mean of transportation is the vaporetto, which means streamer, and it is the only comfortable and convenient way to move around the many areas of the city and to reach the out of Venice attractions.
As previously said, to discover Venice strolling in the streets is a beautiful way to spend your time in the city, but the use of the streamer would be a convenient and easy form to save your time.
Discover Venice on the Vaporetto
First, the vaporetto system in Venice was created to help locals to move from one point to the another of the city; then, it came out to be also a good a sustainable way to host the millions of tourists that arrive in Venice every year. This service is available all day and all night, so it gives people the opportunity to quickly move into a city where to move on long distances would have been very difficult otherwise.
To enter the streamer a ticket or pass are needed, which have to be validated once on the imbarcadero, where the specific machines are, in order to avoid being fined. Remember to let people get off before entering and to not hang out of the pier.
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The Imbarcaderi
An imbarcadero is nothing more than a simple pier, in the Venetian way. These piers are present on many of the canals and they are made to permit people to enter and get off from the vaporetti.
For this reason, it is recommended for tourists to stay in hotels nearby one of these piers in order to avoid long walks and enjoy a relaxing holiday.
Downtown Lines
The local transportation agency in Venice is the ACTV and provides many navigation lines to discover Venice with the vaporetti. The lines 1 and 2 go through the heart of Venice, which is the Canal Grande and the Canale della Giudecca, to some of the most important sites of the city. For example, they connect Piazza San Marco with the Santa Lucia Station (for those who come by train), the Piazzale Roma (for those who arrive by plane and who reach the square by bus or by any private or public vehicle), and the Tronchetto Parking (for those who arrive by car).
The “Around the City” Lines
The other lines traverse the external part of Venice as a circle that goes all around the Venetian perimeter. Some of them also reach the different islands outside Venice. These lines are 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, and 6.
These lines permit to rapidly reach Piazzale Roma, Santa Lucia Station, islands such as Murano and Giudecca Island, the Venice Lido, San Zaccaria, the Biennale Gardens, and many other interesting places.
The Lagoon Lines
The Linee Lagunari are those that connect Venice with the most external lagoon sites. They link Venice with the islands of the lagoon, such as Burano, Torcello, San Servolo, and the others; they also permit to reach some peripheric mainland areas, as the Airport, Fusina, Treporti, and Punta Sabbioni.
The Line N
The N is the line that covers the nocturnal transfers in both the downtown and the areas outside the city. Indeed, this line allows people to reach the localities previously mentioned from midnight to 5.00 am.
What to Know Before Boarding
Here below you will find some useful suggestions about what to pay attention to if you want to use public transportation in Venice. Every interest spot has its stop: once you understand which line is the one you need, you have only to take your vaporetto.
Price
Remember to previously make a plan on how many times you think you are going to benefit from public transportation in Venice. This is because the one-way ticket is not convenient unless you need transportation for only that specific trip during your entire stay in Venice. On the other hand, if you already know you are going to use the streamer more than one time during your stay, you would take into consideration to make a subscription with a pass. Moreover, kids under 6 years old do not pay any ticket for the vaporetto in Venice.
Consider that the single ticket includes only one hand luggage, the additional ones will be paid as extra once on the streamer.
Tickets
Where to Buy Tickets
Where you see the ACTV sticker, the tickets are! These places could be ticket offices, that you can find in the historic center and mainland, tobacco shops, and newsstands. Anyway, you can buy the tickets also directly on the imbarcadero where usually the ticket machines are.
Special Tickets and Facilitations
Facilitations are offered to particular groups of people, such as young people, students, people with disabilities, and people who are part of the other special categories.
Once in one of the ACTV ticket offices ask about the special tickets. There is, for instance, the time ticket that considers only the time effectively spent on the streamer.
Ferry Accessibility
All the ferries, streamers, and other types of ship in Venice are accessible to everyone. In fact, the piers are armed to make possible for everyone to enter the streamers, people with difficulty in movement, wheelchairs, pieces of luggage, strollers, so on and so forth.
In case of fog or high tide, some limitations or variations on the path could happen because of the limited visibility.
