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Water buses
Venice Water Buses
How to use public transportation in Venice
by
Durant Imboden
Last updated June, 2022
ABOVE: A vaporetto or public water bus
(left) travels on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. (On the right is a
private water taxi.)
In Venice's centro
storico or historic center, which is made up of more than 100 islands,
water buses are the equivalent of buses and subways on dry land.
ACTV, the
public-transportation authority in Venice, operates
vaporetti and other water buses around the clock, with a fleet of 150 boats
and routes that extend into the far corners of the Venetian Lagoon.
Venice
is a small city, and you can walk nearly to nearly any street, square, monument,
or hotel within the historic center in 30 minutes or less. Still, there are
times when you'll want to take a water bus, such as:
-
If you're staying outside the center on an island such as
the Lido di Venezia or La Giudecca (site of the Venice
Hostel);
-
When you want to visit the
islands of the Lagoon, including the glassmaking island of
Murano;
-
When you want to spend 45 minutes or so
cruising up or down
the Grand Canal on the No. 1 vaporetto line;
-
When you're tired after a day's sightseeing and you're
willing to pay a premium for a ride back to the neighborhood where you're
staying.
In
this article, we'll describe the different types of
vaporetti, motoscafi, and motonavi in Venice's ACTV
fleet.
We'll also tell you how to board and use the boats, how to avoid crowds
during high season and holiday weekends, and what you need to know before
boarding a water bus with luggage.
For even more information (including
routes,
fares, and
tourist passes), please click the
links in the "Related articles" menu at the
bottom of each page.
Types of water buses
ABOVE: The passenger cabin of a No. 1 vaporetto
on the Grand Canal.
Venice's ACTV transit authority has four main categories
of passenger boats. You'll encounter the first two types, vaporetti and
motoscafi, on rides within the city center:
Vaporetto
The
word "vaporetto" is often used to mean any kind of ACTV water bus, but
officially, the term refers to flat-decked, single-level vessels such as the
boats on Line 1 (Grand Canal to Lido) and Line 2 (Grand Canal and Giudecca
Canal).
These vaporetti are fully accessible by wheelchairs,
strollers, baby buggies, and wheeled luggage, and there are no steps between the
entrance and the passenger cabin.
The boats also have large open spaces in the
center, by the boarding area, where passengers can stand and enjoy the fresh
air. A small open seating area is in the stern, behind the cabin.
On older
vaporetti, seating is also available in the bow. (Bow seats have been
eliminated on newer boats, since clueless passengers sometimes stand up and
block the captains' view.)
The average capacity of a vaporetto is 230 passengers.
Some readers have asked if these standard vaporetti have toilets. The
answer is "No."
Motoscafo
Motoscafi
are more streamlined and protected from the elements than vaporetti
are, with fore and aft passenger cabins that are recessed in the hull.
They're
used on routes such as the 4.1/4.2 and 5.1/5.2, which travel outside the
sheltered waters of the Grand Canal, Giudecca Canal, and St. Mark's Basin.
In recent years, motoscafi have been redesigned with
space for wheelchairs on the entrance decks. Steps lead down to the passenger
cabins, where views are limited by the high, narrow windows.
The average
capacity of a motoscafo is 160 passengers.
Motoscafi do not have toilets.
Motonave (single deck)
On a handful of lines such as the Linea 12 route to
Murano, Burano, and more distant points in the Venetian Lagoon, ACTV runs
single-deck
motonavi (motorships) that look like wide-bodied vaporetti.
The
wheelchair-accessible boats have large twin-aisle cabins, a few open-air seats
in the stern, and capacities of up to 600 passengers. Unlike conventional water
buses, these larger boats have toilets, although the toilets weren't working the
last time we checked because they didn't comply with new environmental
regulations.
Alilaguna, a company
that runs a scheduled airport-boat service between
Marco Polo Airport and Venice, uses similar
motonavi on some of its busier routes.
Motonave (double deck)
Double-decked motonavi operate
between Venice S. Zaccaria Pietà (near the Piazza San Marco), the Lido, and
commuter suburbs in the northern reaches of the Venetian Lagoon. The
wheelchair-accessible ships can carry up to 1,200 passengers.
Note: All of the passenger
boats shown above are operated by ACTV, and all use the same fares and tickets.
(Different fares apply to ACTV car ferries.)
The boats have Turkish-style squat toilets that have been shut down for
pollution reasons until further notice.
Traveling by vaporetto
ABOVE: A beagle enjoys the view from a No. 2
vaporetto.
Riding a vaporetto, motoscafo, or
motonave in Venice isn't any more complicated than riding a subway or city
bus. (Unfortunately, it's quite a bit more expensive, as you'll see when you
read our Vaporetto Fares article.)
Here's what you need to know before traveling on a public
water bus:
1. Look for an ACTV stop.
ACTV waterbus stops are shown on most Venice maps, and you'll
often see signs pointing to vaporetto stops when you're walking around the city.
The stops are easy to recognize by their yellow-and-white floating platforms.
Note: Be sure that you're at
a stop for the line that you want to take. At larger stops, which have multiple
platforms, look for signs that indicate boat numbers and direction of travel
(e.g., No. 1 toward San Marco or Piazzale Roma).
2. Buy a ticket or pass.
You
can buy waterbus tickets or an 24-hour to 7-day
ACTV Tourist Pass from any
ACTV/Hellovenezia biglietteria (ticket booth) or from the
ACTV ticket machines at larger boat
stops.
Another (and more expensive) option is to buy a
Venezia Unica city pass (tourist version), which offers additional
services such as city museums and public toilets.
If you plan to be in Venice for more than a few weeks
during the next five years and expect to use public transportation often, the
Venezia Unica city pass (long-term version)--which
allows you travel at cheap resident fares--may be worth the hefty upfront fee.
3. Validate your ticket.
At every ACTV stop, you'll see a white electronic ticket reader near the
entrance to the floating boat platform. Hold your ticket or pass up to the
ticket reader, and listen for the beep or wait for the green light to flash.
At
an increasing number of boat stops, you'll also encounter gates or turnstiles
that are locked until you've swiped your ticket.
Note:
At larger ACTV stations, you may also see green
ticket readers (shown above). These are "read-only" devices that let
you check how many trips are left on your ticket. They won't deduct a fare
or validate your ticket for your current trip.
If you don't have a ticket and there's no booth or machine at
the ACTV stop, read this and proceed at your
own risk.
Tip:
Look for a boat timetable near the ticket reader.
4. Cross the walkway to the platform.
Be sure to enter the waiting area (not the exit, which is
usually marked with a red-and-white "no entry" symbol).
Note: ACTV platforms float
up and down with the tides, which means the platform and the boat are on the
same level. This makes water buses easier to board than
water taxis, especially if you're traveling with a
wheelchair, stroller, or wheeled suitcase.
5. Wait for the water bus.
When the water bus arrives, stay behind the yellow line until
disembarking passengers are off the boat and the sailor indicates that you can
board.
(Venetians are often given priority over visitors, despite paying only a
fifth of the normal tourist fare.)
Note: You won't need to show
your validated ticket or pass unless an inspector asks to see it.
More vaporetto tips and warnings
ABOVE: On older vaporetti, look for
seating in the bow.
These random bits of advice can help to make your waterbus
travel more enjoyable:
Tip 1: Plan ahead to save money.
ACTV boat fares for visitors are outrageous: As a tourist,
you'll pay about six times the resident rate for a single vaporetto
ticket.
Fortunately, you can shrink the cost dramatically with
ACTV Travel Passes, which
offer unlimited boat travel for periods of 12 hours to 7 days. For example, with
a 12- to 24-hour card, you could:
-
Plan a do-it-yourself
lagoon islands tour of the San Michele
island cemetery, the glassmaking center of
Murano, the more remote islands of
Burano and Torcello, and possibly the Lido, where you can walk down the main
shopping street to a beach on the Adriatic Sea.
-
Catch a boat to the island church and bell tower of San
Giorgio Maggiore, followed by a short cruise down the Giudecca Canal on the
No. 2 vaporetto.
-
Wrap up your day with a leisurely cruise up the Grand Canal
on the No. 1 vaporetto (see Tip 3 below).
Tip 2: Don't ride when you can walk.
As we mentioned earlier in this article, Venice is a
compact city, and walking across town can be faster than taking a water bus.
Use
the vaporetti, motoscafi, and motonavi when you need
them (for example, to reach islands in the Lagoon), but save time and money by
walking whenever you can.
Tip 3: Cruise up the Grand Canal at night.
Note that we said up the Grand Canal.
By taking the
No.
1 vaporetto up the canal from the Piazzale Roma to San Marco or San Zaccaria (or even to the
Lido, if you don't mind taking another boat back), you'll avoid the hordes of
daytrippers who head down the Grand Canal to the
Ferrovia (railroad station), the
buses at Piazzale Roma, and the
Tronchetto parking garage at the end
of the day.
The No. 1 water bus zigzags across the Grand Canal during the
approximately 45-minute trip from the Piazzale Roma to San Marco.
It also goes
under the Rialto Bridge and offers great nighttime views of ornate ceilings and
chandeliers inside the historic palazzi that line both sides of the
canal.
Tip 4: Know where to sit on the water bus.
Flat-decked vaporetti, such as the No. 1 and No. 2
lines, have sheltered outdoor seating areas in the stern (accessible through
doors at the back of the passenger cabin) and--on older boats--in the bow.
These seats are great for sightseeing, and you'll have the best
chance of nabbing them if you board at the waterbus line's starting point (such
as the Piazzale Roma if you're cruising up the Grand Canal toward San Marco).
Tip 5: Minimize your luggage.
On water buses, you're allowed to carry one piece of
luggage with a combined length, width, and height of 150 cm (60 inches) or less.
For more baggage, or for a larger suitcase, you may need to pay a fare
supplement. Ask the agent in the ticket booth or the sailor on the water bus as
you board.
Tip 6: Read our other vaporetto articles.
For starters, see our guides to
Vaporetto Routes and Vaporetto Fares.
Other useful articles include
Buying Vaporetto Tickets,
ACTV Ticket Machines,
"Which Venice transportation pass do I
need?",
ACTV Travel Passes, the
Venezia Unica pass for tourists (formerly VeniceConnected),
and the Venezia Unica pass for long-term visitors
and residents (formerly iMob/CartaVenezia).
Warning: Beware of pickpockets.
Venice has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe, but during
high season or at holiday periods, professional pickpockets and other thieves
migrate to popular tourist destinations (including Venice).
To frustrate thieves, use common sense: Don't carry your
passport or wallet in an easy-to-reach pocket, keep your purse where you can see
it, and don't set down your tote or camera bag on a busy vaporetto where a crook
might be lurking in the crowd.
