Venice Water Inform is a non-commercial guide for visitors who want to understand what they are looking at when they stand on a bridge or ride a water bus, and how to move through the lagoon city sensibly.
What this site is
Most guides to Venice start with its monuments. We start with its water. The questions this site tries to answer are the ones people ask on their first boat ride: why the canals run where they do, why almost every bridge has steps, why the sea floods St Mark’s Square in November but not in July, and why the islands of the lagoon look so different from one another.
We are not a tourist board, a travel agency or a public body, and we have no connection with the museums, churches, institutions or transport services we write about. The site is written and maintained by a small editorial team. Pages are signed collectively as “Editorial team”, because the work is shared and the content matters more than the bylines.
What we cover
The site is laid out like a set of nautical charts. The first group explains the water city itself: the Grand Canal, the smaller canals and rii, the bridges, the lagoon and the rivers that shaped it, and the tides, acqua alta and the MOSE barriers.
The second group crosses the water to the islands of the lagoon: Murano, Burano and Mazzorbo, Torcello, the Lido and Pellestrina, the Giudecca and San Giorgio Maggiore, with shorter notes on several others. A practical chapter on getting around by water, a history of the city told through its waterways and a glossary of Venetian water words complete the set.
Every page exists in English and in Italian. The Italian edition is written for Italian readers rather than translated line by line, but it has the same sections, the same facts and the same photographs.
What we leave out is just as deliberate. We do not review hotels, restaurants or shops, we do not name businesses, and we do not publish details that change from week to week, such as timetables, opening hours or what a ticket costs.
Editorial principles
- IndependentNobody pays to appear on this site, and nobody can. We accept no sponsored content, no paid placements and no gifts in return for coverage.
- Nothing for saleWe sell nothing, take no reservations and carry no affiliate links. No page on the site shows advertising.
- No figures that go staleTimetables, opening hours, access rules and what things cost change often, sometimes overnight. Rather than repeat details that may already be wrong, we tell you where the current official information is published.
- Official sources firstFor anything time-sensitive we point you to the City of Venice, to the venue itself or to the public transport operator. They are the ones who answer for that information and keep it up to date.
- Rounded where sources disagreeVenice can be counted in many ways, and the number of islands, canals and bridges differs from one source to the next. Where that happens we round the figure and say “about”, instead of choosing a precise number that only looks authoritative.
- No trackingThe site uses no analytics, no advertising networks and no social media plugins. Our privacy policy and cookie policy explain the very little that is stored or processed.
We would rather send you to the official source than repeat a figure that may already be out of date.
How we research and update
Each chapter starts from published sources: reference works and encyclopaedias, the information published by the City of Venice and other public institutions, the publications of museums and churches, and scholarly writing on the history and hydrology of the lagoon. Where a figure matters, such as the length of the Grand Canal, the area of the lagoon or the record tides, we compare several sources before we write it down and use the value most of them agree on.
We revise a page when we learn that something has changed or was wrong, and the date shown on each page tells you when it was last reviewed. Any change to a fact is made in both language editions at the same time.
Some things cannot be checked from a desk. Water-bus lines are rearranged, landing stages move, churches close for restoration. That is one more reason why we ask you to confirm practical details with the official source shortly before you travel.
Corrections
If you spot a mistake, please tell us at info@venizeanwaterinform.online or through the contact page. Say which page and which sentence you mean and, if you can, where the correct information is published.
We check every correction we receive. Confirmed errors are fixed in both languages and the page date is updated. We do not publish the names of people who send corrections.
Photographs and maps
The photographs on this site were shared by their authors under open licences, mostly Creative Commons licences, or are in the public domain. We found them on Wikimedia Commons and resized them for the web. Every one of them is listed on the image credits page with its author, its licence and a link to the original file. We use no stock photography and no pictures supplied by businesses.
The schematic chart of the lagoon on the home page and on the islands page was drawn for this site. It is deliberately simplified and not to scale, so please do not use it to find your way on the water.
The two typefaces, Cormorant Garamond and Nunito Sans, are published under the SIL Open Font License and are served from this website’s own server, like everything else on the page.
Get in touch
Corrections, suggestions and questions about image credits are welcome at info@venizeanwaterinform.online. We are an information site only: we cannot make reservations, sell tickets or arrange tours, and we do not answer questions about individual businesses. The contact page explains what we can help with.