Are you planning to come to Venice?
Are you worried about how the transports and the logistical services work?
And do you want to keep it easy, and maybe lose yourself in a perfect Italian atmosphere and routine?
This is the article for you! When you are finally in Italy, the first thing you may wonder is “how do I reach the city?”. Of course, the simpler way is to find a taxi or a bus outside the airport if you are coming by plane: this will bring you to Piazzale Roma, the only square in Venice where cars are free to circulate. However, there is another beautiful manner to reach the floating city: we are talking about the train!
The only thing that you have to make sure is that you pay the ticket and then… enjoy the journey! It is a beautiful feeling to arrive to Venice by train (especially if it’s on time, of course): you can find a lot of Italian people who take it daily, hear their conversations, and discover Venice outside the window, seeing how it appears on the horizon, emerging from the water: as a matter of fact, every train that reaches Venice has to cross the railway bridge above the water, which skirts the Freedom Bridge (Ponte della Libertà) where only cars and buses can travel and where there’s often the worst traffic jam.
But by train, this is not a problem and you can reach Venice in total relax: if the island is your destination, you have to get off in Venezia Santa Lucia. Be careful, because there are two stations with a similar name (Venezia-Mestre and Venezia Porto Marghera) before the actual arrival.
Venice is the last stop for all the trains, and the station is big but very well organized so you don’t lose your orientation. There are two exits: the one you can reach going straight out of the building, facing the main entrance of the station and where you could immediately see the Ponte degli Scalzi and ticket offices for the steamboats, and the second exit, reachable by turning right: this will end in front of the Bridge of Constitution, a shortcut to Piazzale Roma.
The station of Venezia Santa Lucia is one of the most frequented Italian stations, and was started to be built in 1860: in order to have the needed space, the architects decide to demolish the Santa Lucia’s convent, and this is where the name of the station comes from.
The station of Venezia Santa Lucia presents a lot of interconnections not only to the nearest cities (as Treviso, Portogruaro, Verona, Adria, Udine, exc,…) but also to other farer Italian stations, like Rome, Milan, Naples, Salerno and some European cities: Paris, Vienna, Geneva and Monaco.
The station offers the following services: bars, help desk, ticket machines, luggage storage, shops, railway police station, first aid, restaurant, waiting hall, toilets, supermarket, information point, lost object office.
Interchanges: bus stop, tram stop, taxi stop, steamboats, people mover.
DID YOU KNOW?
There are 22 platforms in Venice railway station, but between platforms 19 and 21, platform 20 does not exist. Venetian people have accepted this funny numeration mistake, but this is a little curious anecdote.
Have a pleasant journey!
Post by Elisa Gentile
