How to Use Google Maps to Figure Out Bus Schedules

Once you get to Vicenza and spend a couple of days getting adjusted and in-processed; you will probably start to feel a bit claustrophobic living in a small hotel room. Many of you will still be waiting for your car to catch up with you. One option is to use the Vicenza public transportation system.

Riding the bus is sometimes overwhelming for those of us who are not accustomed to using public transportation. I finally figured out that I could use Google Maps to figure out which bus to take to get to a particular destination. Here is a short tutorial on using Google Maps to figure out the bus schedule.

Step 1. Go to Google Maps.

Step 2. Put in your address.

You can use either the search bar or the bar indicated on the left side to enter your address.

Step 3. Click on “Get Directions”.

This step is pretty obvious! 🙂 The second box appears when you click on the “Get directions” button.

Step 4. Click on the “Bus” button.

If you don’t click on the bus icon, you will get driving directions.

Step 5. Enter your destination address.

The second line is where you put the place you want to go. If you don’t know the address, you can sometimes just put the name and google maps finds the address for you! This works for many museums and historical locations, sometimes for restaurants and shops.

Step 6. Enter the time you want to leave.

If you want to find the times the bus will arrive at a particular place just click on the down arrow in the box on the far right. It will show you the times the bus leaves. If you don’t tell the computer the time you want to leave, it will tell you the next time the bus leaves. If you are getting the schedule for another day, just put the date in the middle box. Sometimes bus schedules change for weekends and holidays, so this could be an important step if you want an accurate schedule.

Step 7. Click on the blue “Get Directions” button.

Another pretty self-explanatory step.

Step 8. All done! Read your directions and go!

You can see several options. The bus you will take is bus 1. It stops every ten minutes at this particular stop. Your bus ride will be about 8 minutes. When you see the little walking guy, you know you will have to walk some to get to the exact location you are headed.

Example of Google Map Search

This route is from the bus stop in front of Caserma Ederle Chapel Gate to Teatro Olimpico. You can see that the bus will stop several times before you get off. After getting off the bus, the black route shows where you will walk to get to your destination. Along the right side, the directions are written out with the time it takes to get from one location to the next.

As you can see, google maps are easy to use and will help you get where you want to go whether in a car or taking the bus. The one limitation of using google maps is that only the Vicenza AIM buses are available. If you live in an outlying area, you will have to figure out the local bus schedule to get to Vicenza before you can use the google map information. Hopefully, in the future, all the areas served by the blue SITA buses will be included.