Hello!
My wife and I are going to be visiting Venice for three nights in mid-January and we have several vaporetto-related questions.
- The scenario: On our second and last full day, after we shall have finished seeing our planned sites, we want to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening casually circumnavigating the central islands and getting off to explore places that look interesting, just as one would do with a hop-on-hop-off bus in a city on dry land.
We basically want to see as much of Venice as we can from the water (NOT just from the Grand Canal itself) and to explore spontaneously. We might be forced to skip some of the further-lying islands like Murano, Burano, Lido, etc., depending on how much time we have.
We already will have purchased a multi-day vaporetto pass when we take that journey, so I assume that it will not cost us any extra to get off one boat and get back onto a subsequent boat going in the same direction. I also assume that there will not be a limit to the number or frequency of such stops and re-boardings. But if we decide to stay on the boat for more than a certain number of minutes between stops, will we need to rescan our pass mid-journey to avoid a fine? If so, how would we do that on the boat (as opposed to the dock)?
I do have some vaporetto route and station maps, but I am a bit confused about choosing routes, selecting clockwise or counterclockwise directions, etc. How do we know which direction a boat will be going? (That can make a big difference!)
Our route probably will begin going eastbound in Dorsoduro after we visit the Accademia (entry time 13:30). Our final destination of the evening (arriving closest to our hotel) would be either at the Ponte degli Scalzi or Santa Lucia stop. How long would that route take, not counting interruptions to get off the vaporetto to explore?
Since we will be visiting in mid-January, the days will be short. Is Venice a well-lit city? That can determine where, and how far, we can explore near the vaporetto stops. They say that getting lost is part of the charm of visiting Venice, but I'd rather do that during daylight hours!
Is there an ACTV machine in the Marco Polo airport that would allow us to purchase our vaporetto passes on arrival?
If we buy 48-hour passes then, but do not actually begin using them until the following day, the clock does not start ticking on them until we validate them at the time of the first ride, correct? (In other words, if I arrived in Venice on a Sunday but did not begin using the 48-hour pass until Monday morning, it would be for good all day Monday and Tuesday, correct? We will NOT need to use the vaporetto or ACTV city buss on the day of arrival since we are taking the ATVO shuttle bus to Piazzale Roma and walking from there to our hotel.
What type of pass should we buy? We need to use a physical/paper pass, and NOT any kind of electronic pass, to avoid risking potential cellphone-service interruptions. I was confused by the ACTV website, which mentions a “Venezia Unica City Pass” that apparently includes tourist attractions and is separate from the "regular" two-day vaporetto ticket that costs €35,00. What is the official (Italian) name of the kind of pass that I need to buy?
We strongly prefer to use cash whenever possible, but in case we cannot find a Bancomat or Postamat machine in the Venice airport to withdraw Euros from our bank account before buying the vaporetto passes, is it safe to use credit or debit cards to buy passes from the ACTV machine?
Many thanks in advance!