Venice (the town)

No one ever checked my ticket on the water bus either, although I did buy tickets each time. The ride down the Canale Grande is spectac. You want to cry at first. I had some good meals and some bad ones. At one place I just told the waiter to bring me whatever he felt like--this was in an outofthewaysomewhatlesstouristy neighborhood. I got a lot of interesting fish things of all descriptions. Wouldn't say it was good, but it was interesting!

Depending on your budget and your patience, you can stay in the town of Mestre (really a district of Venice on the mainland) and save a bundle. I got a room last night at the Hotel Giovannina on the Via Dante for EUR 32. Not great, but clean and about 5 minutes or less from the Mestre train station where you get a train into Venice for 1 or 2 euros and they run every ten minutes (Santa Lucia Station is the Venice terminal). The trip takes 10 minutes. There are also a passle of busses. But it might be worth it to you to pay more and stay IN Venice. The town of Mestre itself has a nice main square--of course it doesn't compare to anything in Venice.

What does compare to venice if you get claustrophobic and need a (very short) day trip away is Verona. Unbelievably beautiful. Takes about 45 min to an hour from Venice. So worth it. Padova is nice too, but not so pure. Old and new intermingled and spread out a bit, hard to get a grip on. But the Church of St. Anthony in Padova is worth a visit. Really amazing. And Padova is only 20 minutes away or so.

Vicenza is also nice for a few hours, not far, and Palladio's buildings are all over the place.

You really can't go wrong.

Even if you're not going on vacation, it's fun to take a look at. And it's definitely great for daydreaming.

Have a fun time!!!

HOWEVER, if someone has seen this in a language he/she actually speaks, please let me know if the dialogue is so good that the film is rendered worthwhile. I'm all ears!

i can vouch for the goodness of tiramisu gelato, in case anyone's interested.

Ahem...

Pictures of recent flooding: http://m.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/venice-under-water/100403/

Was amazing to see fish swimming in St Mark's square a few years ago. The city remains almost totally navigable when flooded. They just roll out tables to walk on.

Venice (the town)

Any recommendations (restaurants, cafes, etc) for Lido di Jesolo?

Our recommendation? Buy from local grocery stores and cook in the flat.

Actually, LDJ was good for street-pizza slices. More than that, oh it was 1983 its possibly changed since.

Street pizza is about 90% of what i eat when i'm in Italy so that's positive. Thanks.

Hello I'm here today
had a nice time. i haven't done any of the above recommendations :D
however likely to go to the caffe rosso for a spritz later at campo santa margherita per tradition

Really enjoyed going to 6342 A Le Tole to eat - I wouldn't recommend going out of the way for it but I like it, it's chaotic but in a good way that you'd enjoy if you are okay with your chair being bumped a couple of times during your meal. There's also a dude singing what seems to be the entire back catalogue of dire straits all night - so you know, only if you enjoy that sort of thing.

My recommendation is aside from booking a table for dinner, don't try and over-plan your day - you'd just stress yourself out - you're on vacation in a place that's got sometime rather beautiful and interesting around each corner or dead ends.

And enjoy watching other people being stressed out (i really enjoy overhearing the arguments as folks get overtired from the walking)

Possibly my favorite city on earth. It shouldn't exist but it does.

One of my vacation experiences was wandering from cicchetti places to minor churches for an entire day. Of course in Venice minor churches may have a Titian or Tintoretto hidden away.

Cannaregio at night off the main drag is so quiet and peaceful. Vino Vero is a sweet little wine bar with great snacks on Fondamenta Misercordia.

I've got tons of other wine bar recommendations if you're interested.

Interesting

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venice-tourist-fee-five-euros/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6i&linkId=414870331&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0Z2jNqV4a5dfyMTxsUCKUbS8w4p9_QhAsRhMBwZRorqVbLD3T_qBnkeHI_aem_AfrcyYl1dZL9sXzi3cqTp_5rpqvW81xSAWs3BnoSQUjQP6EDicvEjju1aWvkvTSvqLrS10nG0xj5Dl42Gh4P2DoE

V interesting that there were protests by residents (500 people & riot police!) - unclear how many of those were libertarian nutjobs vs people protesting against an ineffective solution to a real problem. Apparently the fee is mostly aimed at deterring Italian day-trippers.

I think the fee is to deter cruise ships, since they stay on the ship not in Venice.

sorry, meant cruise ship passengers

I say, replicate this model and prevent the French from annoying the honest tourists trying to see the Eiffel tower, or the Spanish from entering Barcelona or using some of the already precious water in Tenerife. For Venice, augment it to 10 euros for people not on cruise ships. And tell the Dutch to see Kinderdijk on Mondays.

Just back from first visit to Venice and flyposters for this were everywhere - also what looked like some associated issues with public housing & tourism. I couldn't really get a political read on it either though it did seem more like 'an ineffective solution to a real problem'.

Having seen the effect of tourism in various visits with my parents back to their place of birth I think "the problem" is the tourism industry and the way economies chase that dollar. A fee isn't becessarily going to stop it if everywhere else is applying this!