• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Venice Travel

  • Home
  • Map
  • Weather
  • Site Map
  • Photos
  • Destinations
  • Shopping
  • Food
  • Sightseeing
  • Getting around
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Destinations / A Whistlestop Visit to Venice, the City of Canals

A Whistlestop Visit to Venice, the City of Canals

By Helen Page Leave a Comment

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn

A Quick Stop in Venice To See What’s Changed:

Venice Canals

Gondolas at work

We had three days free in our itinerary in the north of Italy and so we took the opportunity to make a quick stop in Venice. The last time we were here was just before Covid turned the world upside down.

Where we stayed

We usually rent an apartment for a week’s stay in Venice, but for our 3-night stop, it’s easier to stay in a hotel. The Rialto Hotel, being next to the Rialto Bridge, couldn’t be more convenient. There is a vaporetto stop in front of the hotel and so we’re spared from having to cross any of Venice’s 400 plus bridges with our heavy cases.

So, has anything changed?

With the hotel’s perfect location, we can enjoy people-watching while having our breakfast. The first thing that we notice is that there are not as many visitors on Venice’s famous bridge, compared to pre-Covid days.

Hotel Rialto Breakfast

Enjoying breakfast at the Hotel Rialto

At Piazza San Marco, you can actually see the floor of the square whereas in the past, it was covered with people. The queues to go into Basilica di San Marco (St Mark’s Basilica) and climb the Campanile tower are much smaller as well.

St Mark's Square

A quiet St Mark’s Square

The luxury leisure cruisers and yachts that used to line the quays near the Grand Canal are now in the Marina Sant’Elena, away from the peering eyes of visitors. No longer can their super-rich inhabitants flaunt their wealth at us poor visitors who have to ride the vaporetto.

The hideously huge cruise liners, an eyesore in Venice, are now nowhere in sight. They too have been barred from entering the Giudecca Canal. For a long time, Venice has suffered from over-tourism and the banning of the cruise ships from the Grand Canal has been what the locals have wanting for some time. It took a collision by the MSC Opera in the Canal to finally push the authorities into action. Incidentally, it was Uniworld’s River Countess that the MSC Opera collided into, an expensive accident for the cruise liner.

Venice Giudecca Canal

MSC Opera colliding into Uniworld’s River Countess by AP

The big cruise ships now have to berth at the mainland industrial and petrochemical port of Marghera. The plan is to build a new cruise terminal somewhere on the mainland. Some cruise companies are not pleased and have chosen to move their Venice operations elsewhere, like Trieste and Ravenna for example.

Island Visit

Catching a vaporetto to Murano is much easier as well and we are able to board a ferry near St. Mark’s Square with no trouble.

Quiet Murano in August

A much subdued Murano

The island itself proves much less crowded than we’ve previously experienced, pleasantly so, and we have no problem finding a cafe for a relaxing lunch. Even shopping for glass earrings at Giorgio’s “FioreFiore” atelier/shop on the main canal is an ultra low pressure experience. Giorgio (he’s a genuinely friendly guy) proudly explains the intricacies of creating his unique glass butterflies and tirelessly tailoring a pair to fit Helen’s ears.

Murano glass

My Murano glass butterflies

This trip we also walk around many of Venice’s sestieri and find the tone there much quieter too, especially in the usually overcrowded areas of Rialto and San Marco, in spite of this being the peak summer holiday period.

Venice's secret alleyways

Quiet alleyway

Favourite foods and restaurants

Venice is famous for its squid-ink pasta (Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia ) and so we head for Trattoria alla Madonna to have our traditional pasta dish there. Tony changes his mind and orders a grilled fish dish instead whereas I faithfully stick to my Venetian favourite.

Squid In Pasta

Having my squid ink pasta

I must say that it’s a bit disappointing as the pasta, although it has lots of squid in it, is rather dry and the dish lukewarm. I liked it better the way it was done before, served in a pasta bowl with more sauce. A waiter told me that they don’t serve it that way anymore. On the way out we see a large bowl of squid-ink sauce at their antipasti station, which makes me wonder if the cooked pasta from the kitchen is mixed with the sauce here, hence the lukewarm temperature.

We bid farewell to the City of Canals

It was a quick visit and although we didn’t get to do everything, we enjoyed re-acquainting ourselves with the City of Canals. On our departure morning we catch the vaporetto to Venezia Santa Lucia station for our train to Trieste, giving us one last enjoyment of the Grand Canal.

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn

Related

Filed Under: Destinations Tagged With: city of canals, giudecca canal, Murano, venice attractions, venice food, venice visit

Things to do in Venice

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • A Whistlestop Visit to Venice, the City of Canals
  • Aperol Spritz – The Perfect Aperitif to have in Venice
  • An Encounter with Paradiso Perduto’s Charming Chef
  • Venice: the “Blue Danube” Live from Piazza San Marco
  • Venice in Acqua Alta: Live From Piazza San Marco

Plan and Book Your Trip


eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright Travelsignposts Pty Ltd © 2025 Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address