Ferragosto! Closed for holiday!

For the last few weeks, the closed for holiday signs have sprouted up all over the city.  Everyone is headed to the mountains or the beach for the traditional Italian holiday -Ferragosto. While technically the holiday is only one day, August 15, Italians stretch it for almost the entire month.

This summer is having a run of "stuff" happening, much worse than previous years, in my mind. I cannot recall a year being quite as bad as this one. Not weather-wise, it's routinely hot and humid here. But I think the weather might have contributed to Venice going a bit mad. I think all the summer madness began when the ridiculous ticket booth, il Gabbinotto, was erected at the base of the Campanile in St. Mark's square. That incited quite a bit of indignation amongst the locals, for sure.  

 

Next was the cruise ship that came too close to the embankment near Via Garibaldi. As if Venice needed any more cruise ship bad news!!!  

There  was an accumulation of record breaking algae in the canals and unprecedented numbers of dead fish. Weird. 

There have been crazy fights between vu compra (the illegal handbag salesmen), the local vendors and gondoliers.  Also weird.

The huge purple inflatable statue has taken up residence on San Giorgio Maggiore until November. Yes, very weird.

Gondoliers have experienced a new run of bad press through the summer months including the poor treatment of a ganser (the guy who helps people get off a gondola), roughing up some passengers at Redentore night, and the reported bad language addressed at a regular passenger at one of the traghetto stations.  The result:  random drug and alcohol testing for gondoliers. 

In the last week we've seen numerous articles in the local newspapers relating to poor tourist behavior- sleeping in the streets, riding bicycles, going shirtless, and swimming in the canals. (By the way, Venice has several rules about proper decorum in the city- one of them is going shirtless.  Riding bicycles is an offense which carries a fine.)   

(photo from Il Gazzettino)

(photo courtesy Sebastiano Scomparin)  

Not to be left out of all the summer chatter is ACTV- the company that operates the vaporettos. The boats have been running behind schedule on numerous days; they have been unbelievably overcrowded; there have been altercations between tourists and the  workers on the boats, instigated undoubtedly by the crankiness due to those late arrivals and all those crowds;  and there have been staff on board boats checking tickets and writing out fines left and right.  The latest from ACTV is the new poster announcing fines for people on the docks without a valid ticket. 

And last but not least, just two days ago, an oil spill on the Giudecca canal near San Basilio that necessitated two days of clean up, probably caused by one or more of the cruise ships in port that day. 

I seriously believe Venice is overdue for a vacation.  I expect to see one of these Ferragosto closed for holiday signs hung on Venice's front door. 

Buon Ferragosto, Tutti!!!  

Good news and bad news for vaporetto users- effective TODAY!!

First- the bad news:  The price of a 60 minute vaporetto ticket has gone up from 6.50 Euros to 7.00 Euros effective May 10, 2012. That's today, folks.

Unfortunately- there is more bad news- price of the traghetto is going up to 4 Euros. Thanks to one of my readers MaryK for checking alittle further on which traghetto. I see now on the announcement I didn't read down far enough. I assumed it was the traghetto crossing the Grand Canal. It's  not. It's to use the regular vaporetto to cross a body of water, for example from Lido to S. Elena. Thank goodness it's not the one's crossing the Grand Canal! I was about to have a little hissy-fit!

Here's a photo of the announcement posted in the vaporetto docks today:

And the good news- according to the second announcement, the multi-day vaporetto ticket prices have been reduced.  New prices are posted below.

I'm going to add my 2 cents in here: compared to other European cities (for example Prague), Venice's public transportation is quite expensive. Considering the number of tourists using the vaporetto each year, ACTV must be doing pretty well. We all should buy stock, if it's a publicly held company! Venice's coffers are dry, despite it being a major tourist attraction. I would venture to bet the city is not getting any of this increase in the vaporetto fees.  Everywhere you look on the internet you will see articles and editorials moaning Venice's financial status, and the reasons why. I'm still not clear on why a tourist tax is not an acceptable alternative. Whenever I fly into the Dominican Republic, I pay just to enter the country. You cannot walk through the arrivals area of the airport without  handing over a $10   US "tourist" fee.  OK, Venice. There's my 2 cents. 

New Vaporetto line- the Boat of Art!

Today in the news I read an article announcing a new Vaporetto line beginning April 25, 2012. This new line, the "Boat of Art" will leave from the Train station and end at San Giorgio Maggiore, with 8 stops in between, and will run every 30 minutes.  It will work like the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses you see in lots of big cities, and will require a special ticket. Purchasers of this special ticket, which will be available on line as well as at ACTV ticket office,  will also receive a welcome kit including a city map and other information about cultural institutions who are partners in the project.

Alright, now we have yet another initiative to aid tourists. I'm wondering how different this is will be from purchasing a 12 hour vaporetto ticket. Isn't that just like Hop-on, Hop-off? You can get on and off anywhere you like, anytime you like within the 12 hour time period.  I am going to hope that the advantage to using this special boat/ticket will divert the crowds of tourists from the regular vaporettos. That would be a huge advantage.  You may see me personally directing people to the ACTV ticket office.  Ok, people, step right up, buy your Boat of Art ticket today!!

New Vaporetto line numbers

Recently, ACTV announced a renumbering of several vaporetto lines, effective November 2, 2011.  Here's a handy chart to help make the transition. I can't even imagine what kind of havoc this is going to cause with all the maps of Venice having the old numbering system on them. I still see maps with Line 82 (changed to number 2 several years ago) on them. All very confusing for tourists, I'm sure.

Everything looks pretty easy enough, except for whatever they did to the LN line. It's now 10, 12, 14 and 14L ??

 It will be lots of fun for awhile. I'd better print this chart out!