Il Burchiello: the Riviera del Brenta cruise between Padua and Venice

The Burchiello Brenta Riviera cruise works its way up the Naviglio del Brenta (the Brenta canal) between Padua and Venice, following the route that carried Venetian patricians out to their country villas in the eighteenth century. This is not a lagoon sightseeing trip: it is nine hours of inland navigation, with three guided villa visits and the passage through the locks, which is the part that surprises people most.

Prices for 2026: €147 for adults, €59 for children aged 6 to 17, free under six. The figures are confirmed by the operator's own site, www.ilburchiello.it.

If you are already planning Venice and Padua by train — which most international visitors are — the practical framing is this: Il Burchiello is a one-way day cruise, and the train is your way back. You spend the day travelling between the two cities by water instead of rail, and buy an ordinary regional ticket for the return in the evening. That reframes the price: you are not paying €147 for an excursion out and back, you are paying it for a day's sightseeing that also happens to move you and, for €20 a piece, your suitcase.

What the ticket actually includes

The product page and the operator's own price list agree on these items:

• A full day's cruise aboard a boat of the Il Burchiello fleet
• A guided visit to Villa Pisani, the royal villa at Stra
• A guided visit to Villa Widmann, at Mira
• A guided visit to Villa Foscari, known as "La Malcontenta"
• A professional guide in Italian, English, French or German
• Entry to the villas visited, included in the price

Outside the price: lunch and the journey back to Padua. The cruise is one way — you leave from one city and arrive in the other.

One thing to check before you go: the official price list shows the Villa Foscari visit as a €12-per-person option on some formats, while the full-day cruise listing counts it among the visits included. Ask for confirmation when you book.

The product is rated 4.8/5 from 11 reviews, the highest of any day trip from Venice in the catalogue. Cancellation is possible up to 24 hours before your chosen date.

The day, hour by hour

This is the itinerary in the Padua to Venice direction, the one that follows the historic course of the eighteenth-century burchielli.

7:50 — meet for boarding.

8:00 — departure from Padua, from the sixteenth-century Burchiello steps at the Portello, the city's old river port. In the first few kilometres you pass Villa Giovanelli at Noventa Padovana.

9:20 — disembark at Stra for a guided visit to the interiors of Villa Pisani, the grandest house on the Riviera del Brenta: 114 rooms, the ballroom frescoed by Giambattista Tiepolo, the park with its Esedra and Coffee House, and the hedge maze. Doges, kings and emperors have all lived here.

Late morning — back on the water and a guided visit to Villa Widmann at Mira, an eighteenth-century house in the French manner, more intimate than the last.

Lunchtime — the stop at Oriago. The restaurant Il Burchiello offers two set menus, the "Tiepolo" at €26 in fish, meat or vegetarian versions, and the fish "Casanova" at €30. Nobody obliges you to sit down: you can eat elsewhere or bring your own.

Afternoon — on towards Malcontenta and a visit to Villa Foscari, designed by Andrea Palladio around the middle of the sixteenth century and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list along with the other Palladian villas of the Veneto. It is architecturally the most important building of the day.

Throughout the day — passages through the locks, where the water level drops several metres at a time, and the opening of the swing bridges. The official site cites three changes in level on the run from Padua; other sources give five locks and nine swing bridges in the opposite direction.

Around 17:30 — arrival in Venice at the San Zaccaria "A" pier, on Riva degli Schiavoni, three minutes' walk from St Mark's Square.

Meeting point and boarding

In Padua: the Burchiello steps at the Portello, on the Piovego canal. It is about 15 minutes on foot from Padua railway station and ten from the centre. The operator is based at Via Porciglia 34, telephone 049 8760233.

In Venice: the San Zaccaria "A" pier, Riva degli Schiavoni, served by vaporetto lines 1, 2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1 and 5.2.

Intermediate stops: you can board at Stra, meeting at 9:15 at the gates of Villa Pisani, or get off at Malcontenta rather than carrying on to Venice. Two useful options if your accommodation is along the Riviera or you want to shorten the day.

Luggage: €20 per piece, maximum dimensions 75x50x30 cm. That makes sense if you are using the cruise as a transfer between Padua and Venice rather than purely as an excursion.

The real saving: cruise against doing it yourself

You can cover the Riviera del Brenta independently, by train and bus. Here is the honest comparison, with the prices known as of September 2026.

Against the €147 of the cruise, that is a gap of about €106. Those hundred-odd euros buy three things you cannot get on your own:

1. The cruise itself, which is the experience rather than the transport. The locks and the swing bridges are only visible from the water.
2. A professional guide for nine hours, with entry already booked and the groups already organised.
3. The logistics solved. The Venetian villas keep different opening days and hours, some of them very restricted: building a day that fits all three together is realistic only with weeks of planning.

The verdict: if the villas are your goal, doing it yourself costs a quarter as much and leaves you longer inside each one. If the Riviera del Brenta as a waterway is your goal, the cruise has no substitute and the price is the price.

Who it suits

It suits anyone with at least three days in the area who wants to get out of Venice without hiring a car; anyone moving from Padua to Venice, or the other way, who can use the cruise as a transfer with a view; anyone interested in Veneto architecture who wants to see a Palladian villa alongside two eighteenth-century houses; and anyone travelling with teenagers, because going through the locks is the part that keeps attention alive.

It does not suit you if you have a single day in Venice: in that case a full-day city tour or an afternoon at Murano and Burano makes far more sense. It also does not suit families with small children: nine hours on a boat, with three guided visits to interiors, is a long day.

If you want the Veneto countryside without the whole day afloat, look at the alternatives: Padua as a day trip, with train, guided tour and entry to the UNESCO-listed Botanical Garden at €165, or the Monumental Garden of Valsanzibio in the Euganean Hills at €16.80, with the oldest hedge maze in the world.

When to go

Season: the cruise runs from 14 March to 1 November 2026, Tuesday to Sunday. Outside those dates Il Burchiello does not sail.

Direction: departures from Padua towards Venice and from Venice towards Padua alternate on different days of the week. Check the calendar on www.ilburchiello.it before you book your accommodation.

Best months: May, June and September. The Naviglio del Brenta is greener in spring, and in July and August the middle of the day on the open decks is heavy going.

Watch out for Mondays: Villa Pisani, the most important house on the route, is closed on Mondays (moving to the Tuesday when the Monday is a public holiday). That is one of the reasons the cruise does not sail that day.

What to bring: a hat and sun cream from June to September, a light jacket in spring and autumn because the temperature drops on the water, comfortable shoes for the villa parks, and cash for lunch.

How to save money

• The youth fare. €59 from 6 to 17 against €147 for an adult is one of the widest reductions among day trips leaving Venice; under six there is no charge.
• Take the half-day version. The shorter formats between Venice, Oriago and Padua start at €69 for adults and €49 for children: fewer villas, but the locks and the cruise are still there.
• Skip the menu on board. Lunch is not included and nobody imposes it: at Oriago you can eat independently and save €26–30 a head.
• Use the cruise as a transfer. If your itinerary involves the Padua–Venice move anyway, €20 of luggage saves you a rail ticket and turns the journey into the excursion.
• The mistake that costs. Booking your accommodation before checking the departure calendar by direction: if the right day is the wrong one, the cruise simply does not leave from where you are.
• Venice access fee. Day visitors arriving without an overnight stay, on the dates published by the city council, pay €5 with advance booking or €10 last minute, solely on cda.ve.it. The cruise does not cover it and no reseller can sell it.

Getting to the start

In Padua (boarding at 8:00): regional trains to Padua leave Venice Santa Lucia frequently and take 25–50 minutes. To be at the Portello by 7:50 you need a train before 7:00: check the timetable the night before. From the station forecourt in Padua the Portello is about 15 minutes on foot or a few tram stops.

In Venice (for the reverse direction): the San Zaccaria "A" pier, reached on vaporetto lines 1 and 2 from Piazzale Roma and the station, or three minutes on foot from St Mark's Square.

By car: the Riviera del Brenta follows the SS11 trunk road; if you are leaving a car in Padua or at Stra, the intermediate boarding point at Villa Pisani is the easiest solution.

What is nearby

• Villa Pisani, park and maze — if you get off at Stra it is worth a ticket of its own; details at villapisani.beniculturali.it.
• Oriago and Mira — the middle stretch of the Riviera, with village osterie and prices a long way from Venetian ones.
• Padua, the Scrovegni Chapel and the Botanical Garden — two UNESCO sites a few minutes from the Portello, both requiring advance booking.
• The Euganean Hills — half an hour from Padua, with the baroque garden at Valsanzibio and the spa town of Abano.
• Venice, Riva degli Schiavoni — you step ashore already in the centre: things to do in Venice starts here.

The Burchiello Brenta Riviera cruise remains the truest way to cross the Riviera del Brenta: it is not the cheapest day out from Venice, but it is the only one that brings you into the city from the water, the way it was done three centuries ago.