18/03/2026
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1370093218477930&set=a.459473569539904 TIPS utili per Venezia / Read these tips before you go to Venezia
Dear tourist, I'm Italian. Please do not do this in Venice.
Every single day, the same things happen.
This is the list nobody gives you before you arrive.
1. YOU NOW NEED A TICKET JUST TO ENTER THE CITY — AND MOST PEOPLE ARRIVE WITHOUT ONE
Since 2024 Venice charges day visitors an entry fee on peak days.
In 2026 this applies on 60 days between April 3 and July 26, from 8:30am to 4:00pm — mostly Fridays through Sundays.
Book at least 4 days in advance: €5. Book in the last 3 days: €10.
You register online, receive a QR code, and show it at checkpoints including the train station entrance.
Fine for not having one: up to €300.
Who is exempt: overnight guests (you pay tourist tax through your hotel instead), residents, students, workers.
This is not a suggestion. Check the dates before you book your trip.
2. DO NOT GET ON THE VAPORETTO WITHOUT VALIDATING YOUR TICKET
The vaporetto is Venice's water bus. A single ticket costs €9.50. A 24-hour pass is €25.
Every ticket must be validated on the machine at the boarding point before you board.
Not after. Not on the boat. Before.
Inspectors board regularly. An unvalidated ticket — even a real, paid ticket — is treated as no ticket.
The fine is €69 on top of the full fare.
This catches hundreds of tourists every week. The machine is outside the waiting area. Tap before you walk in.
3. DO NOT CONFUSE THE VAPORETTO WITH A WATER TAXI — THEY ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
The vaporetto is a public water bus. It stops at every landing, carries everyone, and costs €9.50 per trip.
A water taxi is a private boat hired just for you. It costs a minimum of €15 for very short trips and €80+ from the airport. It goes directly to your destination.
Tourists constantly arrive expecting to take a "water taxi to Murano" and end up paying ten times what the vaporetto costs for the same journey.
If someone at a dock offers you a "free water taxi to Murano to see the glass blowing," they are not being generous. The factory pays them. You will be taken inside and given a very hard sales pitch. The glass is often three times the price of shops nearby.
Take the regular vaporetto. It costs the same as any other journey.
4. DO NOT GET ON THE VAPORETTO GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
At most stops, boats going both directions use the same dock.
The sign on the boat shows its final destination. If you are going to Rialto and the boat says "Lido," you are about to go the wrong way for 45 minutes.
Check the destination before you board. Look at the sign on the boat. Ask someone if you are not sure.
Getting on the wrong vaporetto is not a disaster — but it costs time and another €9.50 if you do not have a pass.
Buy the 24 or 48 hour pass. Then getting lost becomes an adventure instead of an expensive mistake.
5. DO NOT SIT ON BRIDGE STEPS, CANAL BANKS, OR MONUMENTS TO EAT
Sitting on the steps of bridges, on canal banks, on monuments, or on high-water walkways to eat or drink is illegal.
Fine: €100 to €200.
The bridges are for crossing. The canal banks are for walking. Locals use them constantly.
When a tourist sits down with a sandwich on the Rialto steps, they are blocking a pedestrian route that hundreds of people use every hour. Multiply that by every tourist who does the same thing across the day. That is why the law exists.
6. DO NOT SWIM IN THE CANALS
Fine: €350.
The canals are working waterways. Boats move through them at speed. The water is not clean.
People have been fined for this and also rescued from it.
Neither outcome is a good souvenir.
7. DO NOT WALK THROUGH THE CITY IN A SWIMSUIT OR BARE-CHESTED
Fine: €250.
Venice is a city. Get changed before you leave the beach area.
8. DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS
Illegal. Fine up to €250.
The reason there are so many pigeons in Venice is decades of tourists feeding them.
Do not continue the tradition.
9. DO NOT LET SOMEONE CARRY YOUR LUGGAGE OVER A BRIDGE WITHOUT AGREEING A PRICE FIRST
At the train station and around Piazzale Roma, men position themselves near bridges and offer to help with your suitcase.
They seem helpful. They carry your bag over the bridge.
Then they ask for €15 per bag, sometimes more, and become aggressive if you offer less.
They are not official porters. They are not part of any service you booked.
If you need help with luggage, ask your hotel to arrange it. Otherwise, carry your own bags and say no clearly if anyone offers.
10. DO NOT BUY MURANO GLASS ON THE RIALTO BRIDGE OR IN PIAZZA SAN MARCO
Murano glass sold in the tourist hotspots is often not from Murano. Some of it is made in China.
Real Murano glass carries the Vetro Artistico Murano trademark mark — look for it on the base.
If you want genuine Murano glass, take the vaporetto to Murano and buy it there, from a workshop, with a certificate of authenticity.
The price difference between a tourist shop on the Rialto and the actual island is significant.
11. DO NOT DRAG YOUR ROLLING SUITCASE THROUGH THE CITY
The noise echoes off every building on every calle.
The wheels damage ancient paving stones that cannot be replaced.
Use a backpack or duffle bag where possible. Lift the suitcase on bridges.
The city was not designed for wheels. It never will be.
12. DO NOT ONLY SEE PIAZZA SAN MARCO AND CALL IT VENICE
Piazza San Marco is extraordinary. The Basilica, the Campanile, the Doge's Palace — all worth seeing.
But tourists who spend their entire visit within 200 metres of San Marco leave Venice having seen the most crowded, most expensive, and least Venetian part of the city.
Walk toward Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, or Castello for twenty minutes.
The Venice that Venetians actually live in is still there.
You just have to be willing to walk away from the postcard.
The number of tourist beds in Venice now officially exceeds the number of residents.
The people who were born here and still choose to stay are fighting to keep their city alive.
Arrive knowing the rules. Spend money in places locals actually use.
That is the only kind of tourism Venice can still benefit from.
