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The gondola is an icon on the Venetian waterfront.

I arrived at the city's main train station, Santa Lucia, late in the evening - worried I wouldn't be able to get on to my destination hotel until the next morning.

"Why not, signore (sir)?" asked a shop clerk near the hotel.

"The vaporetto run 24 hours! Don't worry. I'll call your hotel, and they will be waiting for you. You can be there in 30 minutes or so."

The vaporetto - the first Italian word to know here - is the water taxi, the city's floating metro.

Romantic postcards may suggest everyone's getting around by gondola - the long skinny boats powered by a single oar, perhaps propelled by a Pavarotti wannabe singing O Sole Mio, waiting for his big break.

That's indeed the scene on the narrow canals that wind into each island's interior. But all kinds of boats ply the major waterways, from ferries to sporty speedboats to grand wooden sailboats taking tourists out for winery tours and a sunset seafood dinner on the deck.

Getting your head around the Venice area's many neighborhoods can be daunting. (Besides a national guidebook for Italy, Lonely Planet publishes a separate 300-page guide to Venice's attractions.)

Using the "water bus" on your first day is a good way to get oriented.