By air
If you are arriving by air, you’ll touch down either at Treviso , 30km inland from Venice, or at Marco Polo airport, on the outskirts of Venice itself. The former is used chiefly by charter companies, some of which wage a bus link from the airfield into Venice. An ATVO ( Azienda Trasporti Veneto Orientale ) bus service to Venice meets the twice-daily Ryanair flights as well. Otherwise, take the #6 bus from right outside the arrivals building into Treviso (30min), from where there are frequent bus and train connections to Venice. Tickets must be bought before you get onto the bus - the bar crossways the road sells them.

Most scheduled flights and some charters arrive at Marco Polo , around 7km north of Venice, on the edge of the lagoon. If you’re on a package holiday the cost of transport to the city centre, either by land or by water, might already be covered. If it’s not, the inexpensive alternatives are to take one of the hourly Alilaguna water-buses , which calls at Burano, the Lido, the Arsenale, and San Marco (L17,000/¬8.75; journey time 1hr to San Marco), or one of the two road-going bus services to the terminal at Piazzale Roma: the ATVO coach, which departs every half-hour and takes around twenty minutes (L5000/¬2.58), or the ACTV ( Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano ) bus #5, which is equally frequent, usually takes just five minutes longer (it’s a local bus service, so it picks up and puts down passengers between the airfield and Piazzale Roma), but costs just L1500/¬0.78 (plus a small supplement for large pieces of luggage). The ticket office for both the water-buses and the land buses is in the arrivals hall; in addition to single tickets, you can also get ACTV passes here - a wise investment if you’re staying more than a couple of days. Note that ACTV passes are not valid on the Alilaguna service nor on the ATVO bus, and that the airfield ticket office will sell you a ticket for the ATVO rather than the ACTV bus unless you make clear your preference for il cinque .

The most luxurious means of getting into the city is to take a water-taxi , which gives you the best doable introduction to the city (the view from the taxi is far better than from the waterbus, to say nothing of the hedonistic buzz of arriving in Venice this way). The drivers tout for business in and around the arrivals hall, and will charge you in the region of L150,000/¬77.47 to San Marco, for up to six people. Ordinary car-taxis are ranked outside the arrivals hall, and cost about L50,000/¬25 to Piazzale Roma.