Extended stay in Venice. Cheap flights?

Have been to Venice twice. Both times, rented apartments through vrbo. Lovely apartments, reasonably priced. It's nice having your own apartment. You can save some money by not having to eat every meal in a restaurant. Don't know where your class is, but we prefer staying in the Castello sestiere. Less touristy. Loved it.

From the US, Marco Polo is probably the best bet. It is the easiest to get to Venice and is easy to navigate.

The towns you mentioned are reachable by train without any hassle.

You might want to get Rick's Venice book and do some research on the Veneto. Try www.venere.com for hotels. If you are looking for a place in Venice, we have used www.veniceapartments.org for apartment rental.

I forgot to add that the class includes housing at 40 euro a night for a single and 70 euro for a double.

What can I expect? I'm assuming that it will be hot and a bit smelly, from what I've read.

Last time I looked at the map, Louisville was on the Ohio River, so you should be used to hot and smelly in July. ;-)

But seriously, the days of the canals and lagoon in Venice being a giant cesspool are long gone.

July can be hot but also relatively mild for summer. We were there a few years ago in your time frame and only had one day when the temps were in the low 80s. Most of the time mid 70s and fairly pleasant.

You might want to consider being in the city on the Friday and Saturday before your class starts for the Festa del Redentore. It's one of the major festivals in Venice. the big celebration with fireworks is Saturday night.

Google it for some background.

Sounds like a really good airfare to me.