Venice canal water is nasty. Remember this city does not have a sewage treatment plant. The wonders of the city are best explored on foot anyway, and the vaporetto network is extensive and cheap. I would not think it worth the bother.
You may, but you do need to know in which canals the craft is allowed. A Danish ex-pat, Rene Seindal, who operates Venice Kayak, as well as blogging, has a great post describing where kayaks are banned, and includes maps to guide you through the canals on which it is allowed.
In case the link goes down, here is one of the several maps by Rene Seindal from that blog post showing:
…I have made the reverse map which shows in green the canals where you can go in a kayak and still have a legal way out
The Grand Canal is off limits, as are several others, and then there are many canals with other general traffic restrictions or which lead into a prohibited canal and are too narrow to turn around.
If you’re going to do this, you should probably just rent a boat there. That way you don’t really have to worry about local regulations because the company that you rent from will take care of everything, not to mention that you won’t have to lug around an actual boat through Italy.
Also, just a word of caution. I could see myself paddling around Venice in a canoe, but many times of the year the water smells REALLY BAD. The canals are basically the sewer system for the city. So while it looks pretty, I would feel pretty gross running around in a kayak on the canals.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
4 Mar, 2024
5 Mar, 2024
4 Mar, 2024