Venice during the pandemic
After making a trip to Napoli in July 2020, I returned to Italy almost a year later, namely to Venezia. The complete opposite of Naples, so to speak. Canals full of gondolas like from a fairy tale instead of dirty dark alleys, through which motorcyclists drive with no regard for losses.
If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said that I never want to go to Venice. Venice, this typical over-tourism destination, which I associated with completely overcrowded streets and squares, hefty prices and locals protesting against tourists.
But then came the pandemic, which also brought one or two good things. Because visiting Venice without the crowds suddenly became interesting. Therefore, I booked flights to Venice last summer, which easyjet canceled a few weeks later. So visiting Venice during the pandemic should not happen. At least not in 2020.
Fortunately, it worked then in August 2021. Perhaps in the last attempt, if I wanted to visit Venice during the pandemic. The summer was slowly coming to an end and from late autumn you also no longer want to visit Venice. Moreover, I am pretty sure that the crowds will be back in 2022. Thus, it was like the last chance to enjoy the city without the crowds.
So, what’s the conclusion about the city I always avoided? Before I write whether I liked Venice or not, here are some key points about our trip. In short, Kati and I spent two full days in Venice and did the typical tourist things. For example, a gondola ride or visiting the Rialto Bridge, Piazza San Marco and other sights.
Accommodation and getting around
First of all, Venice is one of those cities where most hotel rooms are shoe-boxes of 10-14m2. Although I try to spend as little time as possible in the hotel, I still want to avoid such small rooms. They just make me uncomfortable. Consequently, we chose a room of the more expensive category, which cost us €250 for two nights. Not bad at all, because according to our receptionist, you easily paid €400 for this room in Venice before the pandemic. Per night!
Our hotel was about five minutes from Piazza San Marco, so it was super-central and perfect for sightseeing. However, I think you can also choose a quieter neighborhood since the distances in Venice are not too big. The only thing to note is that to cross the Grand Canal by boat, you have to pay either €7.50 for a single trip or €20 for a day pass. So, if you’re not on the San Marco side, you either get the day-pass or make sure to choose a hotel near a bridge (e.g. Rialto Bridge).
In any case, a day-pass is worth it if you also want to visit Burana or one of the neighboring islands. All in all, transportation in Venice is expensive. Although you don’t need it that much, you cannot do everything on foot unfortunately. This becomes especially apparent at the airport. A water cab directly to the hotel costs €120-130. If you go by bus, you pay only €8 to Piazzale Roma, from where you walk another 20 minutes to San Marco. However, this will include the first crossing of the Grand Canal, so either €7.50 for a 60-second boat ride or a day-pass. If you want to avoid paying that, it takes double the time on foot.
Walking through Venice with your luggage is not so fun, though. The city has over 400 bridges and from Piazzale Roma to San Marco alone you easily cross 20-30 of them. Most of them don’t have a ramp over which you can pull your luggage. So, good luck if you arrive with a big suitcase!
Navigating through the city is a bit challenging anyway, as the GPS doesn’t work in many places or the directions you get are wrong. Thus, it is not surprising if you occasionally meet frustrated tourists. Like, for example, the two German women whose hotel search was apparently so frustrating that they yelled at each other on the street.
The most beautiful city in the world?
So… how did I like Venice?
There are quite a few people who would call Venice the most beautiful city in Europe or even in the world. Admittedly, it is difficult to argue against this. Whether Venice is the most beautiful city in Europe is ultimately a matter of taste. However, no one can really claim that the city is not stunning.
Although there are many so-called “Venice of [insert country/continent]”, the original is unique in this world. The city in the lagoon with its many canals, narrow streets and special architecture is visually just incredible. One weekend in Venice will give you enough Instagram photos for the next half year. I was impressed with the city, although I have already seen so many beautiful places in the world.
What surprised me was how clean Venice is. Despite the many visitors, the city is piccobello clean. Sometimes the streets even look so clean that you could eat off them. I was also warned that the canals have an unpleasant smell in the summer, which I cannot confirm. Maybe another plus if you visit Venice during the pandemic?
Is Venice the most beautiful city in Europe for me? Difficult to make a ranking here. But I think Venice would certainly be in my top10, competing for the top spot with cities like Seville, Lisbon or Rome. By the way, if the beauty of Venice is not enough for you, you should definitely take a (half) day trip to Burano. The boat trip to the island takes just under 40 minutes each way.
Burano is not comparable to Venice. It is a small fishermen village on an island that you can easily explore in 2-3 hours. The characteristic of Burano are the many colored houses. Practically every house is painted with a bright color, which you usually see rather in Latin America than in Europe.
Although I think Burano is a must when in Venice, Venice itself offers enough attractions to fill two days. However, a little planning skill is required here….
Venice during the pandemic with only 60% tourists
Perhaps, I was a bit too optimistic when I thought that I will have Venice practically to myself during the pandemic. In the summer of 2020, that would probably still have been the case. At least a year ago I still saw stories on Instagram that had shown an empty Piazza San Marco. However, some acquaintances who were in Venice a few weeks before me told me that it was already busier again in 2021.
Several locals have confirmed to me that the number of tourists in Venice is currently about 60% compared to 2019. And I must say that it was very crowded even with 60% tourists. Especially the afternoons were exhausting, when all the day-tourists arrived in the city. Then people stepped on each other’s feet in the narrow alleys or sometimes you couldn’t even move forwards anymore in the alleys because there were too many people.
To be fair, it was a weekend, where the city is even busier than during the week. However, it was even in the mornings very busy. At 9 o’clock, several hundred people were queuing in front of the Doge’s Palace. The queue went from the palace entrance to the sea. One must still consider that Venice bans cruise ships from the lagoon since August 2021. Even if there are probably not many cruise ships operating at the moment, they would have exacerbated the problem.
But as I’ve written before, the mornings were still harmless compared to the afternoon when everyone is shoulder to shoulder on the Rialto Bridge or at some other attraction. For those who still have little idea of what the whole thing looks like in practice, this example may help:
In the afternoon we wanted to enjoy the 360° view over Venice from the terrace of the department store T Fondaco dei Tedeschi. When we arrived, we were told that we had to book a slot and that everything was already full for today. So we went to Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo. There we were told we had to buy a ticket online and wait an hour to be allowed up. Later we wanted to have a drink at the Hilton Rooftop bar: no chance without a reservation.
And I am not even talking about the historical sights. The lines at the Palazzo Ducale and the tower of the Campanile di San Marco were so long that we didn’t even try. In Venice, even during the pandemic, it is necessary to pre-book and reserve everything. And that was quite annoying.
For this reason, Venice remained below my expectations. Not the city itself, which was stunning, but the experience in Venice, as it was still too touristy. I know. The tourist is always the other and never yourself… And why am I complaining, after all I was part of the “problem”…
However, I have to make one thing clear. There are many people who avoid certain places because they are “too touristy”, but they say or do this mainly because they find it “uncool” to visit places like Venice, because everyone else does. I have also had to put up with this accusation when I have described a place as too touristy. However, I can honestly say that this is not the case for me. I still enjoy “touristy” cities like Berlin, Rome or Lisbon.
If I complain about a place being too touristy, it’s because things are like in Venice, which means: completely crowded streets and attractions, everything has to be organized and reserved in advance, plus a lot of tourist traps. And Venice has tourist traps en masse. Italy for me is actually a country where you can randomly walk into a restaurant and in most cases you won’t be disappointed. Venice, however, is the exception, as it probably has the highest density of poorly rated restaurants (in good locations, of course) in Italy.
I don’t even want to talk about the prices. However, it is the same in Venice as in other much-frequented cities. While you sometimes pay €10 for a cappuccino at Piazza San Marco, you can also get one for €2 in a side street only 100 meters away.
Is Venice fun?
After being quite negative in the last section, the question now arises whether Venice is fun at all. For this I have the following example.
Imagine going to a club where super music is playing exactly to your taste. It has an excellent drinks menu and the ambience of the club is unique as well. Despite the high prices for admission and drinks, you would describe the club as perfect. Now imagine that the club can fit 500 people, but the organizers let in 2,000. While the club might still be good, the experience could be better. It’s the same with Venice.
Although Venice is gorgeous, the city is also a bit of a challenge due to the crowds. I thought this problem was eliminated in Venice during the pandemic, but that was not the case. As a result, I find myself wondering what Venice was like before 2020. Would it have been fun if the number of tourists was almost double? For me personally, I think I can answer that question with a no.
Nevertheless, I’m glad to have seen Venice before the crowds return. I think there is still a chance until next spring to see the city with less tourists than normal so that it is somewhat enjoyable. For me personally, the positives about Venice still outweigh the negatives, despite everything. However, I am pretty sure that Venice was rather a once in a lifetime experience and not a city that I will visit over and over again.
Check out my other city trip reports / city ratings here!
I liked a lot your article, enjoyed your point of view. Never heard about Burano n it seems colorful. I loved Venice in films, books, imaginary N of course in Marco Polo biography but never wished to travel there. I think I prefer to revisit the dark n noisy streets of Quartieri Spagnoli in n enjoy an ice cream in vomero in my dear Naples.