Hidden Places In Venice?

[bullbrand]

Hi all,

I will doing a small tour of Italy in the summer with my girlfriend and one of the places we are visiting for a couple of days is Venice.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any cool hidden/secret places in venice that are on not on the tourist track or away from the touristy areas?

Anything will be of help!

Thanks!

 

[Rosie]

Uhm.. I've never been to Venice, but one thing comes to mind

You should go on Street View and visit Venice virtually I'm sure you'll find some spots that are not tourist attractions.
Or, you can just take your girlfriend and walk... walk your brains out! It's the best way to admire the city and discover new places

 

[Chillout]

I have only been to Venice a few times and there is a lot to see. The best thing you can do is explore the magical city on foot / waterbus.

Here is a site that is quite useful for Venice: http://www.aloverofvenice.com/

If you are visiting during the summer months, don't forget to visit Venice Lido too. There is a waterbus from St Marks Square.

 

[bullbrand]

Thank you both for responses, as for the Street View idea we have already done that and found a few nice little spots near our hotel! Everyone we ask also says walk everywhere, you are meant to get lost in Venice its all part of the holiday!

Thank you for the link and suggestion Chillout, i will look into it a little further!

Also on another note have ether of you heard of a small island in the Lido called Poveglia Island? We would love to visit there but heard its very difficult to get there?

 

[erikao1o]

I find that when you get away from St.Mark's square (which is the centre of all of the tourist activity) Venice can be a relatively quiet place. After you've seen all the touristy things, just go down a side road and walk away from all the action. I stayed at a hostel about a ten minute walk or so from St.Mark's square, and it was in a great little quiet area.

 

[lucibi]

bullbrand--I hope you had a great time in Venice! Did you find anything cool? I'm going with my boyfriend in January and would love to hear about your experience, though I'm sure it will be very different when I go

 

[Rosie]

Until bullbrand replies, I'll tell you about how my boyfriend and I almost got lost in Venice. We went this summer, stayed from morning till evening and head back home. It was worth it though!

Since I was also curious to explore Venice on foot, as much as possible, I looked it up online and saw that, to get to the main piazza (the San Marco Piazza) from the train station, you'd have to go across the first bridge you see on your right (you're standing in front of the train station, there's the water bus in front of you and on your left, there is a bridge). And from there, you will see street indicators taking you to Piazza San Marco.

Yeah, at least that's what the 'net says, we got lost like 100 times! But it was good, that's the whole point of exploring Venice

There are some indicators, yes, but we were more preoccupied with staring at the buildings and people and the gondolas (you will cross sooo many bridges to get to the main square!), we kind of got lost. But most streets are a dead end anyway, so you'd have to turn back anyway

We stopped at a cafe bar on the way too, they make good coffee in Venice

Once you get to San Marco, make sure to go up the tower, the St Mark's Campanile, we paid 8 euros to get in, you will see the city from above, it's breathtaking! We didn't see any other attractions from inside though, there was too little time...

However, we then went to take a walk along the Grand Canal, away from the crowds and from the tourists.... we took a left from the Piazza, took some pictures, walked some more and then we ended up walking in a park, where we found a secluded coffee house and had the best cappuccino ever! It's right near the Largo Marinai D'Italia, here's a park there, with some odd but interesting statues.

Then we ended up on the streets of Venice, again and somehow found our way back to the train station. it was a real adventure, we didn't have a map or anything, that's what made it interesting.

 

[lucibi]

Haha! The internet is not always full of truths
Grazie mille for all the advice! I hadn't heard about St Mark's Campanile, but we'll be sure to go. And I also plan to drag my boyfriend along to hunt down this "best cappuccino ever", that sounds great! I'll let you know how it goes
Just for the sake of not getting lost in the cold, do they have free maps floating around? It seems every city I go to gives away decent paper maps, as I now have a hefty stack of them that I don't know what to do with, lol.

 

[Rosie]

Hmm... I have no idea if you can find free maps. Maybe you could ask at a newsstand, or at the train station?
Or, if you find a spot with wi-fi, just go on to google maps, load the map of Venice and, in theory, you should be able to browse it when you go offline as well (it's a trick I read about on the internet, you load the part of the map you're interested in, go offline and save your Mbts. )

Now for the great cappuccino
Once you're in Piazza San Marco, turn your back on it and walk towards the water (sorry if my explanations are more appropriate for kids... don't know how else to put it ).
Once you get to the edge, take a left and keep on walking. It's a long walk, you should know
Eventually, you should bump into a park, called Largo Marinai d'Italia.
There's a bridge right next to the statue (I've uploaded a picture in the media section) that will take you on an alley (full of trees, it's very nice) and you'll see the coffee house there (which, btw, looks more like a botanical garden rather than a bar)

 

[lucibi]

Ok I usually do the trick with google maps and take a photo for good measure. But typically the tourist maps are nicer and have the landmarks (maybe they could be used as wall decoration...hmm..).
Thank you so much for the detailed directions, this is honestly easier to remember than turning down Via "X" and Strada "Y" etc And now that the media section is fully functional I can check out the photos I really appreciate all the advice!!