Piscina Comunale Sant'Alvise

Swam here twice and, like others, thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Will only add: hold onto your ticket and give it to the lifeguard when you enter the pool area.

This is the only place to swim in Venice. Hours are somewhat quirky, and they work in 45-minute time blocks, but the water is great once you're in it and the facility is well maintained. At times you can be in a lane with a slow backstroker and even slower breaststroker, neither particularly wanting to give way, even at turns. You need wet footwear as part of the process of entry, but they will lend you some. Enjoyable.

I swam here three times last week. I could always go in 15 to 10 minutes before free swimming time started, and I almost always had a lane for myself or shared with just one other person, so I enjoyed it very much.

You can buy a lock for €4 at the reception desk.

I'm staying in Venice for eight months and have been swimming here daily at different times of day. Contrary to some of the reviews from previous years, there are lap swimming hours all throughout the day. The 90-minute swimming slots are listed on the pool website (there's a downloadable PDF in English), but they are not enforced in any way. Whenever you arrive, you can swim - in the last two months I have yet to see anyone pay attention to those slots.

The pool is nice and clean, with speed-designated lanes (usually one slow, one fast, and three medium). The staff is extremely friendly - a friend recently came without the flipflops and the swimming cap and was lent both by the receptionist.

The one thing that makes no sense is that if you want to get a monthly membership or buy a 10-pass card (both of which are much cheaper than paying the daily fee), you have to provide a doctor's note. No doctor's note is needed if you swim every day and pay the (higher) daily fee... Even people working there agree that it makes no sense!

Rating: 8 on a scale of 10. It's a nicely maintained facility and well run, with a focus on everyone getting a good swim. The hours are definitely limited, but the pool is open seven days a week. There's lots of pressure on the schedule with teams and squads training. Breaststroke rules.

Do not wear street shoes in to the pool; and do not bring shoes into the locker room. At this pool, shoes are left in a shoe room that is before the locker room. Shoes left in the locker room will be moved to the shoe room.

The pool operates in 90 minute sessions that may differ from the schedule shown on the website - be sure to call before going to avoid disappointment.

I swam at the 3 PM session on a Friday. It was not crowded. Wonderful swimming. Highly recommended.

Management was very helpful, although our Italian and their English was very limited. The pool was very nice but the air temperature and water were warm in July.

Be sure to call and confirm the pool's hours; the web site's schedule didn't match the actual hours. You pay for a 45 minute swim during what is a longer opening time.

Nice pool, though the hours are a bit limited.

Really nice pool. All lanes were always lap swimming with everyone swimming circles. Good swimmers.