April 27, 2015: The Venice International Airport is named after this legendary early world explorer who lived in Venice—I guess because navigating the airport is like being on an extremely long never ending trade mission to the Far East. The entire airport is under construction, with most of the misplaced directional signage in Italian and confusing. The real confusion continues when you exit the airport through various construction mazes to find your way into Venice—well you don’t really go into Venice as no motor vehicles are allowed—you get yourself to the Plaza Roma transportation hub where you either walk or take a variety of water taxis into your final destination. If you arrive in Venice by train from elsewhere this is where the line ends—don’t make the mistake as many travelers do and get off at the first Venice stop.
The other option is to find the low speed water taxi that serves the airport and travel by water into Venice—only do this if you have considerable time to waste! This trip is ok if you want to see the entire area that surrounds Venice and stop at the numerous small islands around Venice as well as numerous stops around Venice itself. On a good day Venice is hard to navigate—yes getting lost is part of the experience but it does get frustrating after a time.
The water ferries—especially to and from Marco Polo are extremely slow and expect no assistance or even the answer to a simple question (like where the **** are we?) from the arrogant crew, as one of them told me, “I am not paid to answer questions.”
The water taxis in and around Venice itself are fine for transportation, but be sure to buy your ticket ahead of time if you can find a nearby newsstand or dedicated ticket kiosk, then validate your ticket as you enter the water taxi. Again know where you want to go or check the taxi route maps, and if it’s after dark the schedules become very infrequent.
Aahh Venice—where time does not count!!!
