Venezia Unica Tourist Pass

Over the years, Venice's tourist authorities have sold several different city passes for tourists. One, the Venice Card, was discontinued in 2009; a subsequent version, Venice Connected, was replaced by the Venezia Unica City Pass in December, 2013.

The Venezia Unica City Pass is confusing because it comes in two versions:

• A "tourist" version for short-term visitors, and...

• A "frequent users" version for residents, students, and long-term or frequent visitors.

In this article, we'll focus on the "tourist" version. (If you're planning on staying in Venice for several weeks or longer, see our Venezia Unica Pass for frequent users article.)

What you get:

The Venezia Unica tourist pass is a stored-value "culture card" that gives free admission to the Doge's Palace and a number of museums without standing in a ticket line.

In addition, you get discounts at various other museums and exhibitions in Venice.

The pass is good for seven days from the first day of use.

Optional services:

• If you wish, you can add an ACTV 24-hour to 7-day travel pass, which allows unlimited travel by public transit for one to seven days. (This is the same Tourist Travel Card that you can buy for the same price at any ACTV office or ticket machine.)

• Another option is public transportation by bus or water bus from Venice Marco Polo Airport.

• You can also buy access to the municipal Venice Wi-Fi Network for 24 hours, 72 hours, or a week. Rates are reasonable if you order the service before your trip. (Note that the "culture card" component isn't needed to buy Wi-Fi access.)

• Access to city's outrageously-priced public toilets can also be purchased in combination with the Venezia Unica pass.

Our advice:

Unless you're planning to visit a lot of museums and churches, the tourist version of the Venezia Unica pass probably isn't worth the cost or the bother. Still, if you want more information, see the card's official Web site at:

VeneziaUnica.it

Note: Turbopass, a European company that offers passes in more than a dozen cities, now has its own Venice City Pass that competes directly with Venice Conected. If you're interested in a city pass, we suggest that you compare both products.

About the author:

Durant Imboden has written about Venice, Italy since 1996. He covered Venice and European travel at About.com for 4-1/2 years before launching Europe for Visitors (including Venice for Visitors) with Cheryl Imboden in 2001.

PC Magazine has called this "the premier visitors' site for Venice, Italy." Over the years, it has helped more than 30 million travelers. For more information, see About our site, our Europe for Visitors press clippings, and our reader testimonials.