27 min
45 min
25 min
Vap 1 · Vap 2 · Vap 4.1 · Vap 4.2 · Vap 5.1 · Vap 5.2 · Vap 6 · Vap N · T1
15.1 / km²
4
1
598
City average
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Santa Croce
Everything motorised in Venice ends at Piazzale Roma, and Piazzale Roma is in Santa Croce. Buses from the airport, trams from Mestre, the car park, the People Mover to Tronchetto and the cruise terminal: it is the easiest place in the city to arrive with a suitcase, and the only place in Venice that looks like an ordinary town, which is not a compliment.
Walk ten minutes east and the district changes entirely. Around Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio and the Fondamenta Rio Marin it is residential, quiet, and cheap by the standards of the historic centre, with Ca' Pesaro and the Natural History Museum for the days it rains. This half is genuinely worth booking.
The verdict is mixed because the two halves are sold under the same name and the listings do not distinguish them. A room at the Piazzale Roma end is chosen for the car park, not for Venice, and you will be surrounded by people arriving and leaving. Either half is 25 to 30 minutes on foot from San Marco, and the vaporetto down the Grand Canal takes about the same once you have queued for it.
What works
- Every bus, tram and car arrives at Piazzale Roma, so this is the easiest arrival in Venice with luggage.
- The eastern half around San Giacomo dell'Orio is residential, quiet and cheap for the historic centre.
- Every vaporetto line calls here, including the night line N, so you are never stranded.
- The People Mover reaches Tronchetto and the cruise terminal in about three minutes.
What does not
- Piazzale Roma is the only corner of Venice with cars, coaches and a multi-storey garage, and it shows.
- A 25 to 30 minute walk to San Marco, and the boat down the Grand Canal is no quicker.
- Rooms at the western end are picked for the car park, so you sleep among people passing through.
- Beyond Ca' Pesaro and the Natural History Museum there is little reason to walk out in the evening.
The district includes the Piazzale Roma, home to Venice's bus station and car parks, and around which is the only area of the city in which cars can travel.