Venice 2018: San Giorgio Island

On our second day in Venice we’d be spending a lot of time on water buses and ferries. After leaving our hotel we went down to the San Zaccaria terminal and bought 24-hour passes for Venice’s public transit system and then boarded a water bus to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Located less than half a mile south of the main islands, San Giorgio Maggiore is home to possibly the best view in Venice. My parents and I landed on San Giorgio Maggiore and got a photo or two before heading inside the island’s church. Completed in 1610, the church on San Giorgio Maggiore and is a quiet refuge from the noise and bustling crowds just across the lagoon at Piazza San Marco. We spent a few minutes looking around the church and then went to the back to ride a lift up the church’s bell tower. From atop the bell tower you have a sweeping panoramic view of Venice. You can see all the way from the west end of the city to the east and on clear days you can even see the distant Dolomite Mountains back on the mainland. Going up the San Giorgio Maggiore bell tower is something that I’d recommend to anyone visiting Venice, though you should be aware that the bells ring at the top of the hour, so be ready for an ear-shattering clang if you’re up the tower at the wrong time.

We took a ton of photos up in the bell tower and then came down to walk around the island before returning to the main part of Venice. Most of San Giorgio Maggiore is closed to the public but you can walk along the northern harbor and there was one path into the middle of the island that was open to us. There wasn’t too much for us to see so after a little while we returned to the water bus station and caught the next ride back to the San Zaccaria terminal.