Football may not seem an obvious reason to visit Venice, but with its team now in the top league, a visit offers the chance to see Italy’s top players in action at the modest Stadio Penzo Venice tempts travellers from across the globe with its gondolas gliding along romantic canals; sumptuous Baroque and Gothic palaces; and museums filled with masterpieces by Canaletto, Titian and Tintoretto. But now there is an added, perhaps surprising, reason to plan a holiday to the Italian city: the chance to see the superstars of Serie A. More used to battling relegation or bankruptcy, Venezia Football Club managed to gain promotion to the top Italian league in April, and with the 2024/25 season having just kicked off, there is now a rare opportunity to combine a weekend break in a Unesco World Heritage city with a top-flight soccer match, maybe even against the likes of AC Milan (the match scheduled for April 27), Napoli (March 16), Juventus (May 25) or the reigning champions, Inter Milan (January 12).
Furthermore, a home game offers a rare opportunity in this tourist-swamped city to experience something essentially Venetian, in the company of boisterous but welcoming tifosi (Italian for “super fans”) cheering on this proud team of minnows in the distinctive local dialect, in a stadium right in the heart of Venice, surrounded by lagoon and canals.
Opened in 1913, Stadio Penzo is Italy’s second-oldest football ground, and probably the only one in the world at which supporters and players arrive by boat. Although the capacity is just 11,000, the intimate atmosphere is often electric, especially if you’re in the raucous Curva Sud, home stand of the Ultra home supporters.
