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Arriving in Venice by train
How to get to Venice, Italy, by rail—The Venezia-Santa Lucia train station
Fondamenta Santa Lucia (Cannaregio)
Vaporetto: Ferrovia
tel. +39-041-785-670
www.trenitalia.com
Sights nearby
San Simeone Piccolo [church]
Jewish Ghetto [neighborhood/museum]
Where to eat nearby
Brek [light meal]
Hotels nearby
Hotel Ariel Silva
» More hotels near the train station
ReidsItaly.com Venice Map
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» THE VENICE BOOKSHELF
The Venezia-Santa Lucia train station (ferrovia) in Venice, Italy.Venice is on a major rail line served by local, regional, and high-speed trains. Here is the amount of time it will take to get to Venice by train from nearby towns and major cities; for the faster times on high-speed/EuroStar (ES) trains, expect to pay a bit more:
- From Verona: 70 min. to 2.5 hr.
- From Milan: 2.5 to 3.5 hr.
- From Florence: 2.5 to 3.5 hr.
- From Trieste: 2 to 3 hr.
- From Rome: 4.5 to 7.5 (overnight avail.)
- » More timetables for trains to Venice
First thing you need to know: do not get off the train when it pulls into Venezia-Mestre. This is the station for Venice's landlubbing industrial suburb of Mestre, a place you don't ever want to have to set foot in if you don't have to. (No, it's not dangerous, just exceedingly dull.)
Most trains will continue on from Mestre, across the causeway over the lagoon, and into Venice proper at the Venezia-Santa Lucia train station. This is where you get off.
(Note: some high-speed trains skimming past Venice will, indeed, stop only at Mestre; if this happens—or you accidentally get off in Mestre—never fear; there are trains making the short, five-minute hop to Venezia-Santa Lucia every 10 to 15 minutes or so).
Services inside Venice's Santa Lucia train station
Inside the station, there's a deposito bagagli (left luggage/bag storage) facility by binario (track) 14, on the far left as you're walking from a train toward the ticketing hall; the public bathrooms are nearby. Left luggage is open 6am to midnight, and charges (per bag) €4 for the first five hours, then €0.60 per hour for the next 12 hours, then €0.20 per hour after that; for more luggage storage info call tel. +39-041-785-531.
In the train station's main atrium, just to the right of the left-hand exit doors as you're leaving, is a tiny, crowded tourist information office (tel. +39-041-529-8727; open 8am–6:30pm) and, right next to it, a hotel booking office (tel. +39-041-522-2264; open 8am–9pm).
Do not get these two offices confused. After years of dealing with lost tourists who constantly ask one office for information more appropriate to the other—for example, showing up at tourist info wanting to book a hotel, or at the hotel booth asking for a map of the city and list of open hours for museums—the staffs of these two tiny offices seem to have grown to hate each other (or perhaps just the tourists) and tend to be quite snippy about forcing you to go to the other office for your intel—and, typically, wait in another long line. Make sure you get in the correct line!
Getting downtown from the Venice train station
That church across the way
That church directly across the Grand Canal from the station with the green oxidized dome and Neoclassical facade is the 18th century San Simeon Piccolo. It's rather unimportant as far as Venice churches go, but it's most people's first view of Venice—and, if you've a long wait for your train, the one you stare at longest. Closed for what seems like decades, it has recently reopened, and holds the quirky status as the only church in Venice celebrating Mass in Latin daily (Mon–Sat at 8am; in Gregorian chant Sun at 11am). 
Exit the train station and directly in front of you is the famous Grand Canal, Venice's watery Main Street. Look to your left and you'll see a pair of floating docks for the vaporetto (public ferries, Venice's public "bus" system).
The dock off to your right (S. Lucia) handles Lines 1 (local down the Grand Canal), 41, and 51. The one off to the left (Scalzi, just before the big bridge) handles line 2 (express down the Grand Canal) and N (the night ferry).
[For the record, farther to the left, beyond that bridge over the Grand Canal—called Ponte Scalzi—is yet another Ferrovia dock called "Bar Roma" that handles lines not widely used by most tourists: Lines 42 and 52—which circumnavigate Venice—and DM—which chugs out and around the outlying island of Murano.]
Go to the dock of your choice, buy a ticket from the booth (yes, it really costs €6.50; they're not trying to scam you—well, they kinda are, but it's the city of Venice doing it, not the guy at the booth), and hop on the no. 1 (local) or no. 2 (express) line headed left, which is downstream, as it were, chugging down the Grand Canal toward the Rialto bridge and, eventually, Piazza San Marco. 
Related pages
- Taking trains in Italy
- Tourist information in Venice
- Finding a hotel in Venice
- Getting around in Venice
- The vaporetto (water bus) system
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This material was last updated January 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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