The main Venice ferry port is the ‘Stazione Marittima Magazzino 123‘. In total, the available ports are used by 357,664 ferry travelers each year.
The ferry lines departing from Venice are:
- Minoan Lines: departing from Stazione Marittima Magazzino 123, and
- Venezia Lines Ferries: departing from San Basilio Terminal.
San Basilio Terminal is a bit removed from the main port, located at the end of ‘Zattere’, about 500 meters from San Sebastiano Church.
To get to the San Basilio Terminal (about 2 km (1.2 miles) from Tronchetto and Santa Lucia train station), in addition to walking, you can use the ACTV waterbus no.2.
The route takes about 10-20 minutes, with the closest waterbus stop being one wooden bridge from the San Basilio Ferry Terminal.
As for the main ferry port at Stazione Marittima Magazzino 123, you can get to it from Piazzale Roma using the Venice People Mover land funicular (first using the inter-terminal transport).
The People Mover takes about 3 minutes between the port and Piazzale Roma.
Ferry Companies Using the Ferry Port
Of the ferry companies, Venezia Lines Ferries (www.venezialines.com) operate routes from Venices to Istria (Croatia), from where you can continue onto Porec, Rovinj, Pula, Rabac, Umag, and Mali Losinj.
PHOTO: A Venezia Lines ferry on its route.
Venezia Lines, which has been in business since 2003, also provides seasonal routes from Venice to Slovenia, and a passenger/car ferry between Bari, Italy and Durres, Albania.
Over 350,000 passengers and 30,000 vehicles annually use the company’s services.
Minoan Lines (www.minoan.gr/en), meanwhile, is a major Greek cruiseline company, operating 6 ships, with a corporate history spanning over 35 years.
Their service in the Adriatic is seasonal, but when available, Minoan Lines provides, for example, overnight fast ferries from Venice to Patras.
From Patras, you can take a train or a bus to get to Athens.
If you don’t want to make the crossing of the Adriatic to Greece from Venice, alternative departure ports (in Italy) include Ancona, Brindisi, and Bari.
Typical Minoan Lines have restaurants, gift shops, bars, and entertainment for your ferry crossing to Greece.