Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > Venice actually has 2 airports that are considered Venice. > Neither are actually on the islands. One is Marco Polo, > which has boat and road connections, the other is Treviso > which is considered a Venice airport and it has road > connections. They are both not very far from the city. I'm from Venice, and I don't know anyone in Venice who would consider Treviso as being a Venice airport. Only the likes of Ryanair do. Marco Polo airport (VCE) in Mestre is on the edge of the lagoon. If you ever fly into it, be sure to get a window seat on the right side; approaches are almost always from the west, and this will give you a great view of Venice itself as you go by (in those rare cases approaches are from the east, it doesn't matter which side you sit as you come nowhere near Venice itself). Sit on the right for departures, too. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you just go straight out, but not infrequently a northbound flight, after taking off the west, will make a 270 degree right turn, which takes it right around Venice. >From VCE you can take a road bus or a water bus to Venice itself. The road bus is faster and cheaper, but the water bus is not unduly expensive (EUR10, if I recall correctly) and is definitely the more stylish way to approach the town. For the water bus, buy the ticket in the arrivals hall (there's a booth) then take a shuttle bus to the darsena near the old terminal. I've never been to Treviso airport, but I've been to Treviso itself. Assuming no traffic when you hit Mestre, the ride from there to Venice would probably take about 1-1.5 hours. For completeness, there's also a GA field on Lido Island in Venice itself (at the east end of the island, past the ferryboat dock). This used to be Venice's main airport, and the terminal is still there. DC-3s used to operate from its grass strip. Now a few GA types are all there is. You can arrange a sightseeing flight over Venice here, though it's completely unadvertised. There's also a flight school, so if you have a yen to fly yourself, you can hire an aircraft + instructor to do so (a US pilot licence cannot be used to operate an I-registered aircraft). Once you're past security at VCE, spotting and photography are no problem as there are large windows overlooking the apron. For photography, though, bear in mind that the terminal basically faces south, and so backlighting is often a problem. Also, part of the apron is too far to shoot, so you have to wait for aircraft to taxi by. I don't know what options there are for shooting without going through security, as I've not tried it since the new terminal was built. The Aeronavali plant to the west of the terminal often has interesting aircraft: mainly DC-10s and MD-11s either waiting for cargo conversion or just emerging from it, but I know of no way to get close enough for photography, or even reading off regs. You do taxi right by the plant after turning off the runway, though, so again if you're sitting on the right you should be able to see what's there. Best regards, Stefano Pagiola