Our Venice Carnival Italy Visit – Day 1

We made most of our plans and choices before the journey to famous Venezia, as you could see in our previous posts Destination Italy: Venice at Carnival and Venice – 4 Days Itinerary planning, but now we will tell you how our visit was, how the hotel was and what were our itineraries, including the Grand Canal tour. Our Venice Italy visit day 1 started with our plane landing at Treviso airport at 2.00 pm.

From Treviso Airport to Venice

We bought 2 ATVO round trip tickets from Treviso to Venice from the ATVO ticket office on the ground floor in the arrivals hall. We paid 44 euros for us both, even though we would have paid 48 euros if we bought 4 one-way tickets.

I didn’t keep the tickets to show you how they looked like. However, I can show you the Venezia airport bus transfer flyer they offered us with the tickets.

It contains the schedule and the departure points.

The shuttle bus was already in the station, so we gave the tickets to the driver. He validated them in the stamping machine that was outside the bus. Then I shoved the tickets in my wallet, because we would need them for our return to the airport. We didn’t have to wait long before the bus departed. It stopped 2 times in Mestre and then took us straight to Venice – Piazzale Roma. We arrived in an hour and approximately 10 minutes.

When we finally got off the bus and looked around we saw the Venezia Unica office on the left from the bus stop. It was close to the Constitution Bridge. We presented the printed vouchers, including the Venezia Unica city passes we bought online. They also included the invoices for our 2 Rolling Venice cards purchased online.

Venezia Unica Rolling Venice Card and Museum Pass Details

A Rolling Venice card is a discount card for young people aged 6 to 29. It offers 3 days of unlimited use of public transport on all urban lines. It was my last chance for this discount, because I would turn 30 by the end of the year. With the Rolling Venice cards, the Venezia Unica city passes cost € 22. Normally, a Venezia Unica city pass costs € 40. The card itself cost € 6, making it € 28 per person. The lady at the Venezia Unica office asked us to write our names on the printed vouchers. The great thing is that when purchasing these Venezia Unica passes you can always add other services, and so we opted for the Museum Pass Reduced (€ 18 per person) – a cumulative ticket for the following museums: Doge’s Palace + other 10 Civic Museums of Venice:

• Doge’s Palace
• Museo Correr
• Archaeological Museum
• Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana
• Cà Rezzonico – 18th century Venice Museum
• Palazzo Mocenigo – Museum of Textiles and Costumes
• Carlo Goldoni’s House – Museum and Library of theatrical studies
• Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art
• Glass Museum – Murano Island
• Lace Museum – Burano Island
• Natural History Museum – Fontego dei Turchi

We already kind of decided which one of the above we would visit, depending on the time available and our mood, and which we didn’t feel like visiting at all. As you could see in our last post – Venice – 4 Days Itinerary planning, we chose the following: Doge’s Palace, Museo Correr, Archaeological Museum, Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana, Cà Rezzonico – 18th century Venice Museum, Palazzo Mocenigo – Museum of Textiles and Costumes, Glass Museum – Murano Island, Lace Museum – Burano Island and also the Natural History Museum – Fontego dei Turchi.

Venezia Unica Transportation Cards and Vouchers

This is how the Venezia Unica transportation cards looked like.

Venezia Unica transportation cards gave us access to the public transportation; we validated them every time we got on board. We always made sure we kept them in our wallets or bags.

And below you can see how a voucher looked like; the 3 pages you see below are the actual Venezia Unica packages we bought. We kept them with us in our bags and presented them at each museum’s entrance and the staff scanned the barcodes. First page is the 3 days transport package, the second one is a 24 hours Wi-fi pack they offered as a bonus. We already had internet mobile data for our phones so we didn’t needed this 24 hours pack. Also, we tried it in a few spots indicated on the map and the signal was very low or didn’t connected at all. And finally, the third page is the Museum Pass. We kept this page on the top of the others two, because only the barcode on this one was scanned at the museum entrances.

Arrival and Check-in at Hotel Airone in Venice Italy

All set with the Venezia Unica passes, so we left the office and head to our hotel. We passed by the Constitution Bridge and continued on Fondamenta Santa Chiara and then on Fondamenta de la Croce and in just a few minutes we finally arrived at Hotel Airone. See the itinerary below, follow the pink line. To expand the map, go to this page.

We went to the nearby Hotel Canal’s reception to check-in. Both hotels had the same owner, but just one reception – at Hotel Canal. We presented our IDs and the reservation vouchers, because we already had paid for the 4 nights when we made the booking online, months before. And it only remained to pay at the hotel reception the city tax – Venice hotels and also hotels in all Italy charge a nominal daily City Tourist Tax directly to the customer. In Venice it is charged 1 euro per person per night, multiplied with the number of the stars of the hotel. Airone is a 2 stars hotel, so we paid 16 euros only.

Hotel Airone Location in Venice

Airone Hotel is just a few minutes walk from Piazzale Roma and also from Venice Train Station. It is very conveniently placed, so you don’t have to carry your luggage through entire Venice to get to the hotel. Located just in front of the Grand Canal, so you won’t get lost on some narrow backstreets.

The hotel is situated almost at equal distance between 2 of the 4 bridges that cross Venice Grand Canal – Ponte de la Costituzione or de Calatrava (by the name of its architect) and Scalzi Bridge, and between the two vaporetto stops Piazzale Roma and Ferrovia.

From Piazzale Roma, the beginning of the line 1 and 2, you can board vaporetto no. 1 and find available seats for the best views of the Grand Canal, and you can also board vaporetto no. 2 and go through the Giudecca Canal and see sestiere Dorsoduro, Giudecca Island and San Giorgio Maggiore Island.

And then you have Ferrovia vaporetto stop from where you can also board vaporetti 1 and 2 and also Line no. 3 that goes straight to Burano, through Cannaregio Canal, and circolari that go to Fondamente Nove and you can also see the Eastern part of Venice and of the Venetian Lagoon.

Price, Comfort, and Breakfast

And also an important factor that determined us to book a room at Airone Hotel was of course the low price compared to many other hotels in Venice. I forgot to mention that we always opt for double rooms with private bathrooms. This is mandatory, below this degree of comfort we don’t see the point of a vacation. Luckily Hotel Airone had a room with private bathroom available. They only have a few like this. The other rooms have access to a shared bathroom. And, moreover, we paid only 207 euros for 4 nights.

The price also included breakfast which it’s a good thing because we never liked to struggle in the morning to find a suitable place where to eat, and also lose precious time and suffer from hunger during the process. Many places are closed in the morning, they only open for lunch and dinner. But skipping breakfast it’s not an option for us at all. We cannot start our day without a proper breakfast and coffee or tea. If it fits your budget, you can also book a room at Hotel Canal (a three stars hotel compared to Airone Hotel which is a two stars hotel). But some times I cannot contain myself not to go for the cheaper option, given that the location and the view are the same for the 2 hotels in question, and also the Venice city tax is smaller.

Exploring Santa Croce – Beginning Our Venice, Italy Visit

Hotel Airone is situated in Venice sestiere Santa Croce, near sestieri Cannaregio and San Polo and just a 20 minutes walk from St. Mark’s square in sestiere San Marco. What could you possibly want more? We made the perfect choice by booking a room at Hotel Airone.

Once in the hotel room, we unpacked fast and changed clothes and then got out to begin our first day in Venice itinerary.

This is me in the photo, just outside the hotel; you can also see Santa Lucia Train Station across the Grand Canal, in the left corner of the photo.

I want to say a few words about the weather and  what to wear. When we arrived whether estimation apps were telling us there would be storms, rainfall and strong wind. Therefore, we were disappointed at first, but we chose to remain optimistic. The weather was fine during our entire stay in Venice. The wind wasn’t too strong. It didn’t rain, only a few drops of rain in some days, and yes it was cloudy most of the time, but this is what to normally expect in winter time. We kept a small umbrella with us – small enough to fit in my bag, the one you see in the picture above – every day, just in case.

There was no acqua alta in that period, nor dried out canals as they were showing on the news just a few days before our journey. Everything was fine! There were around 6 Celsius degrees and even more in the middle of the day, around 8 degrees.

Quick Snack and Walk Around Santa Croce

From the hotel we continued our journey and arrived at the Scalzi Bridge. The following three pictures are actually taken from the bridge. In the third one you can see the Ferrovia better and also the vaporetto stop with the same name.

We were hungry and we needed something fast, fast – food. So we ate at Burger King just by the Scalzi Bridge in Santa Croce. Then we wandered around on the narrow streets of Santa Croce district. In the picture below you can see Calle Longa, just by the Scalzi Bridge.

Then we arrived on Riva de Biasio on Grand Canal’s shore.

And then we went back and crossed the Scalzi Bridge and arrived in front of Santa Lucia Train Station. In the first picture below you can see S. Simeone Piccolo church across the Grand Canal.

And in the picture above I am in front of the Ferrovia, taking off my gloves. It was not that cold, but I always have cold hands and need some extra warmth. It is always advisable to pack a pair of gloves, a scarf, a coat and an umbrella when traveling to Venice in winter. And don’t forget your comfortable waterproof boots.

Grand Canal Vaporetto No. 1 Tour at Night

We passed the Ferrovia and continued toward Piazzale Roma. Then we crossed the Calatrava Bridge and at around 5.45 pm we arrived at the Piazzale Roma vaporetto no. 1 stop. We red the signs to find the floating platform we needed, validated our transportation passes and got on the platform to wait for the vaporetto to arrive. And then we got on board. Basically we wanted to board vaporetto no. 1 from the beginning of the line in order to have a complete tour of the Grand Canal and to also find available open-space seats in the stern, from where we could have better views.

In the picture above you can see the Constitution (Calatrava) Bridge in the background. And in the picture below we are just under the bridge.

Moreover, inside the vaporetto we found some people dressed up for the carnival.

Then we passed underneath the Scalzi Bridge.

Famous Sights Along the Grand Canal – Rialto Bridge

We continued our Grand Canal tour in our places at the stern so we could take pictures of some of the famous palaces on the Grand Canal.

Below you can see the Venetian Casino – Ca’ Vendramin – Calergi palace where the official Carnival masked ball takes place; the next one is Ca’ Pesaro – this palace is home to International Gallery of Modern Art. And then in the third picture you can see the beautiful Ca’ d’ Oro.

And then we arrived at the famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge over the Grand Canal.

Piazza San Marco at Night – Venice, Italy Visit Highlights

And finally we ended our tour at San Marco Vallaresso at 6.30 pm.

You can see the famous Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in the background. It is considered one of the most photographed churches in Italy.

And next we strolled around St. Mark’s square.

We encountered some people dressed up and masked for the Carnival, like this romantic couple in the picture on the right.

And it was great to see all the nobles gathered at the fancy Caffe Florian. See the pictures below.

Then we met these guys dressed up as respectable judges.

It was good for us that St. Mark’s square wasn’t that crowded that evening given that it was only Tuesday. The crowds would begin to gather starting with Thursday, and Venice would be full of tourists by Saturday. See below an almost empty St. Mark’s square with Basilica San Marco in the background and the Bell Tower in the second picture. It rained a little that afternoon and maybe that was what scared the tourists away. It seemed as we had Piazza San Marco just for us.

And here you have another masked couple.

Evening Venice Visit and Dinner in Cannaregio

We decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the vaporetto. Also, we had to find a place for dinner. So we followed the yellow signs pointing towards Rialto or Ferrovia. We passed through the arcade of the Clock Tower and left St. Mark’s square to walk through the narrow shopping Mercerie Streets. When we arrived in Campo San Bartolomio, just by the Rialto Bridge, we didn’t cross the Rialto Bridge, but continued our way forward on Strada Nuova through Cannaregio, following the signs to Ferrovia.

Strada Nuova has many places where you can eat. There were enough tourists looking for a place to have dinner. As you can read in our previous post Destination: Venice. Cannaregio offers plenty of great places where you can eat at reasonable prices, one of these being definitely (Trattoria) Ca’ d’ Oro alla Vedova. We managed to find it, just near McDonald’s place, on tiny Calle Ca’ d’Oro street. This Trattoria is well know for the meatballs it serves, at only 2 euros each. But it was full, and also we were actually in the mood of having some pizza, so we decided to continue our way and find a pizzeria.

Then kept going and going on Strava Nuova, being unable to decide where to stop to eat. We were getting very hungry and cold and our feet hurt, so at around 8 pm we finally entered a Restaurant – Pizzeria whose name I don’t even remember. The pizzas were good and the prices reasonable.

Final Stroll by the Grand Canal – Venice Casino Italy

After a nice dinner, we continued our way towards Ferrovia, on the long Strada Nuova. Passed by many souvenirs shops, restaurants and pizzerias, and also a supermarket. Then we stopped by the Casino di Venezia to see the people arriving at the Official Carnival Dinner and Ball which would begin at 9 pm.

In this picture above you can see the back entrance to Ca’ Vendramin-Calergi palace. The main entrance is on the Grand Canal, accessible only by boat.

Then we arrived in an area with many street stalls, but the vendors were gathering their goods preparing to close and it was only around 9 pm. In Venice everything closes earlier, even in high season or at Carnival time. We slowly continued our stroll, crossed Guglie Bridge, arrived in Campo San Geremia and then at the Ferrovia. Crossed the Scalzi Bridge and arrived at our hotel.

Read On

Make sure to check out our Our Venice Carnival Italy Visit – Day 2 to continue exploring — from hidden corners to grand vistas, there’s much more to discover. You can find all our posts about Venice on this page. Also, for more inspiration and practical tips on visiting Italy, grab our maps and travel guides and head over to our Italy Travel Hub and Italy Bucket List — your starting point for all things Italian! Are you looking to expand your itinerary? Don’t miss our posts about Lake Como, Milan and Bergamo!

Thanks for reading!

Related:

• Destination Italy: Venice at Carnival
• Venice
• Venice 4 Days Travel Plan on a Budget
• Our Venice Carnival Italy Visit – Day 4
• Our Venice Carnival Italy Visit – Day 2

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