3 min
20 min
50 min
Vap 1 · Vap 2 · Vap 5.1 · Vap 5.2 · Vap N
30.2 / km²
24
0
964
+25% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in San Marco
San Marco is the smallest sestiere by area and holds most of what people come to Venice for: the Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile, La Fenice, and the shopping streets between them. Nothing you want is more than a ten-minute walk, and vaporetto lines 1 and 2 stop at San Marco and San Zaccaria, so you can reach any other part of the city without changing boats.
The cost of that is the crowd and the price. Between mid-morning and early evening the route from the Rialto bridge to the Piazza moves at a shuffle, and the restaurants along it are the worst value in the city. Room rates are the highest in Venice and rise the closer you get to the water.
The compensation is the evening. The day boats leave around 18:00 and the district empties in about an hour, which is the strongest argument for sleeping here rather than visiting. If you book San Marco, take a room in the lanes north of the Piazza towards Campo Santo Stefano rather than on the waterfront, and check the floor: the Piazza is the lowest ground in Venice and the first place under water when the tide comes up.
What works
- The Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile and La Fenice are all inside a ten-minute walk.
- Lines 1 and 2 both stop here, so anywhere in the lagoon is one boat away with no change.
- It empties after 18:00. Once the day boats have gone you get the arcades more or less to yourself.
- The right call if you have two nights and a fixed list of sights and no interest in commuting.
What does not
- The highest room rates in Venice, and the gap widens the closer you get to the Piazza.
- From 10:00 to 18:00 the streets between Rialto and the Piazza move at a shuffle.
- Restaurant value is the worst in the city, and a sit-down coffee on the Piazza reaches double figures once the music charge is added.
- It floods first: the Piazza is the lowest ground in Venice and goes under while the rest of the city is dry.
It is home to many of Venice's major points of interest, and consequently can be extremely crowded with tourists, especially during the day when cruise ships unload their passengers.