Sports in Venice

VIU Library and Libraries in Venice

Transportation in Venice

High tide and forecasts

VIU Library

Online catalogue: https://library.univiu.org/

The VIU Library is located on the first floor of the main building and is open to the public. However, only VIU card holders can borrow books. The VIU card is available to students of VIU programs (issued by the VIU Front Office).
The VIU Library is now closed and will open at the beginning of the semester.

The opening hours for the 1st Semester 2025-26 will be published in the GP news section. During the Summer Session 2025, please refer to the Front Office if you need to borrow books.

The VIU library provides the following services:

Reading Room - VIU card holders can consult and borrow items.

Lending - Before borrowing books/DVDs, Students and Professors can reserve them through the OPAC: https://library.univiu.org

_Log in with your VIU credentials; 
_Search your book/DVD, with keyword/ title/ etc;
_When you find it: click on RESERVE.
You can then pick up your book/DVD at the Library.

To extend the opening hours of the VIU library, each semester we look for students to volunteer as assistant librarians for a few hours each week, during lunchtime and in the late afternoon, Monday to Thursday.
This is an opportunity to find out how a library works, how to use the catalog software but also to offer a service to the VIU community.
The duties include: loans and returns; updating the software of the library; providing information and support to the users; keeping the reading room generally tidy; stocking photocopiers with paper.

A certificate will be issued at the end of the semester. Volunteers will be rewarded with meal vouchers.
Students will receive an email at the beginning of the semester about this opportunity, with information on how to apply.

Other Libraries in Venice

At the beginning of the semester students will receive the credentials to access the libraries of the Venetian Universities, and public libraries in Venice.

Online catalogue: https://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac?locale=en_GB

BAUM (Università Cà Foscari, Humanities department)
Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484/D, 30123 Venezia (near Campo Santa Margherita)
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri from 8.30 am to midnight; Sat and Sun from 9 am to 9 pm
Lending Hours: Mon to Fri from 8.30 am to 6.15 pm

BEC (Università Cà Foscari, Economy department)
San Giobbe, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venezia
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri from 8.30 am to 10 pm; Sat from 9 am to 6.00 pm
Lending Hours: Mon to Fri from 8.30 am to 6.15 pm

CA’ FOSCARI ZATTERE – CFZ (Università Cà Foscari, Foreign Languages Department)
Zattere al Pontelungo, Dorsoduro 1392, 30123 Venezia; boat stop: Zattere
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri from 9 am to midnight; Sat from 9 am to 8 pm; Sun from 2 pm to midnight. Lending hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 am-4 pm.

GIORGIO CINI FOUNDATION LIBRARY (especially devoted to Art History and Architecture, rare manuscripts)
Island of San Giorgio (Line 2 boat stop)
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri from 9 am to 6 pm

QUERINI STAMPALIA FOUNDATION LIBRARY
Castello 5252, 30122 Venezia (Campo Santa Maria Formosa)
Opening Hours: Tue to Sat from 10 am to midnight; Sun from 10 am to 7 pm
Lending Hours: Tue to Sat from 10 to 7.45 pm; Sun from 10 am to 6.30 pm
More info on how to register for the library or reserve a place can be found here.

ASAC (Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts: specialized in Fine arts, Theatre, Music, Cinema)
Calle Paludo Sant'Antonio, Giardini della Biennale, Castello; boat stop: Giardini
Opening Hours: Tue to Fri from 10 am to 5 pm

BIBLIOTECA MARCIANA (The most ancient library in Venice and National Archive)
Piazzetta San Marco, 7, 30124 Venezia (Saint Mark’s square)
Opening hours: Mon to Fri from 8.20 am to 7 pm; Sat from 8.20 am to 1.30 pm
Lending Hours: Mon to Fri from 8.30 am to 6.30 pm; Sat from 8.30 am to 1 pm

University Sport Centre (CUS)
The University Sport Center (CUS) give students the possibility to play several sports: Judo and self-defense, aerobics and gymnastics, fitness, volleyball, basketball, tennis, handball and soccer. Several other sports can be practiced on the mainland (Mestre, Marghera).
VIU has a special agreement with CUS: the price list at reduced rates is available at the Front office.

REGISTRATION
The CUS registration Office is open Monday to Friday from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm.
In order to register you need to:
- pay the registration fee to CUSI and CUS (insurance included)
- pay the registration fee for each activity you choose
- bring with you the original of a medical certificate of fitness to practice non-competitive sports
- bring with you a copy of the VIU Certificate of Attendance (can be requested to student-services@univiu.org)

CONTACTS
CUS Venezia
Fondamenta dei Cereri, Dorsoduro 2407, 30123 Venezia (just nearby Campo Santa Margherita)
Tel.: 041 520 0144
Fax: 041 524 6619
E-mail: info@cusvenezia.it
Website: www.cusvenezia.it (only in Italian)

Gym and Swimming Pool: “Palestra Piscina Il Centro - Sant'Alvise”
Il Centro Sant’Alvise is one of the best sport centers in Venice, it has a gym, a swimming pool and it offers several courses for adults and children. In the gym area you can take lessons of modern dance and classic ballet, yoga, krav maga, pilates.

Contacts
Cannaregio 3163, 30121 Venezia
Boat Stop: Sant’Alvise
Tel.: 041 715650
Fax: 041 2005811
E-mail: info@piscinasantalvise.it
Website: http://www.piscinasantalvise.it/

Swimming pool “Piscina Comunale Sacca Fisola” (also used for courses by CUS)
Giudecca Island, Sacca San Biagio
Boat stop: Sacca Fisola
Tel.: 041 528 5430
Opening Hours: http://www.rarinantesvenezia.it/attivita.php?id_attivita=21
Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri: from 9am to 12 pm, from 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm and from 6.45/7.30 to 9 pm
Wed: from 3pm to 4.30 pm and from 6.45 pm to 7.30 pm
Sat and Sun: from 3 pm to 6pm;

Rowing classes: “Remiera Canottieri Cannaregio”
Cannaregio 3161, 30121 Venezia
Boat stop: Sant’Alvise
Email: info@remieracanottiericannaregio.it
Website: www.remieracanottiericannaregio.it (only in Italian)

Ca’ Foscari Rowing Courses
Dragon Boat, Venetian rowing, kayak
info@sportnautici@unive.it

VIU often organizes a short Dragon Boat course for the students of the semester.
Students will receive more information after the publication of the co-curricular activities calendar for the semester. 

Fencing
Dielleffe Scherma Venezia Fencing Club, a non profit association based at the sporting center Costantino Reyer in Cannaregio 3163, near the railway station, just in front of the Venetian lagoon, served by the public waterbus. Courses from beginners to professionals, English language is spoken. All courses are led by official fencing masters of the Italian Fencing Association.
Prices: 60,00 euros una tantum for admission fee and insurance; in addition, 60,00 euros for a month. 160,00 euros for three months; 470,00 euros for nine months.
Further information at: https://sites.google.com/site/veneziascherma/
If you are interested, please to not esitate to call the phone number: +39 388 150 3036;
+39 349 261 1650 or send a mail at: dlfven@virgilio.it

Italians

We are both historians of architecture and city with a specialization in the early modern and modern period. This year at VIU we teach a course in urban history, focused on the impact of the modernity between seventeenth and eighteenth century in the biggest capital cities of the Western World. Of course, we will pay a particular attention to Venice too.

We joined VIU for a new and different experience in teaching, to stay in an international context with colleagues and students from all over the world. Furthermore, we specialize in the history of architecture in Venice, which has always had an international dimension since the Middle Ages: teaching at VIU allows us to test the universality of Venetian architecture with students from very different cultures.

Teaching at VIU is always stimulating and challenging. Classes are small (we know the students by name) and really heterogeneous on many points of view. We have students of different nationalities, European and non-European, coming from very different degree programs, from the social sciences and humanities to the hard sciences. If focused on a common ground, such as urban history, these differences brought by our students can create a surprising dialogue that literally break the boundaries of each one’s discipline broadening our mind and the understanding of the phenomena.

We would recommend other professors to teach at VIU to have an international teaching experience, in a multicultural context of very high scientific value. In this sense, VIU perfectly interprets the democratic and cosmopolitan vocation of Venice which has always been a crossroads of cultures, languages and ideas. The VIU campus is a universal “square” and living in Venice during the teaching period at VIU enriches this experience even outside the academic sphere.

Teaching to international students: first of all we would like the students to talk to each other and therefore to be able to actively participate in campus life as a meeting place for civilizations. We also want to stimulate students to ask ourselves some unusual and original questions, so that they can re-elaborate in a personal way the topics addressed during the lessons.

Differently from other professors that come from abroad, we normally teach here (at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and University of Padua) and daily live Venice, which has been also the subject of many of our studies. So our best moments are when we explain the urban and architectural history of Venice, not only in the classroom but also in special on-site visits. We like to show very famous places, such as St Mark Square and the La Fenice Theater, and also unknown areas of Venice.

For the 1st semester of AY 2021-2022 our course would be in the new specialization track: History and memory. Although our course is listed under the new track, it has many contact points with almost all the other tracks. In particular, the course contributes significantly to the specialization track in Economics, Management and Digital Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, because it combines historical lectures with a workshop on the digital tools for the analysis of the urban history.