Immersion Heater

A shop that specializes in household goods would be your best bet. I googled "negozio casalinghi venezia" and it returned a link to the Venice yellow pages with numerous such shops listed, some in Venice and the rest in Mestre. There's a map you can zoom in on to find ones near you. If you're in the San Marco area, it looks like there are 2 shops closeby. The one called Punto Casa has a promising sounding name.

You may have better luck getting a British style small ELECTRIC kettle in a hardware shop...good luck.

Try Amazon.IT and have it shipped to your next destination?

a negozio di ferramenta?

I feel your pain. I burned mine ( purchased in Switzerland 12 years ago) up at the beginning of our Patagonia trip in March. I searched for one in Punta Arenas but no dice. After that we were out of range of stores for a week, so I gave up and ordered a 220 v one from Amazon when we returned home.

I am surprised Ratti did not have one---they stock an amazing array big housewares and hats ware in that place.

You might try Il Bottegon mentioned here:

http://www.ogvenice.com/hardware--electronics.html#FXd1SxEzvguajPMk.97

Actually there are two of them, in Castello and San Polo, so check both.

Frank II,

My first suggestion would be to ask the staff at your hotel if there's a store nearby that sells items of that type. The locals usually know where to buy just about anything.

Just saying, with the locals vacating Venice over time, you might have more options at your next stop where they might serve a larger local clientele.

Hardware shops are a good idea. I bought our 2-3-cup kettle in one somewhere in Europe, it's lightweight and doesn't take up a lot of space. That type of shop should have immersion heaters as well. Ask at your hotel desk?

Frank

Not meant in any mean spirited way, but reading of your string of "setbacks", I cannot help but ask if in your previous life you were an Egyptian Pharaoh

Certainly hope you have been able to enjoy Venice. I had only 2 nights there and hope someday to add to that total

Hopefully you have enough good experiences to remember that will in time push the not so good ones into the "trash bin"

be happy you are not here in Seattle where it has rained 153 of the past 210 days

Frank,
When I was there in October I stayed in a AirBnB over by the hospital. Our host, Massimo owns a hardware store off of Palazzo Widman. He speaks great English and if he doesn't have one I am sure he can point you in the right direction.

The first thing I did was ask at my hotel. They sent me to Ratti and on the way found two other hardware stores and a kitchen store. Non had it. (The kitchen goods store didn't know what it was.)

Fortunately, I brought two with me so I still have one that works. But now I want a backup for that one just in case. I'll try at my next destination since I leave Venice this morning.

And no, this is not ruining my trip to Venice. This is not my first time here. I've been here since Tuesday. And with all the travel I do, if these were the only issues I faced, I would be one of the luckiest travelers ever.

I do have a small travel kettle but I don't bring it because it takes up too much room. Next time I will have to decide....one less shirt and at kettle or take the shirt and hope the immersion heater holds up.

Decisions, decisions.

It is not something I am proud of....but I have made tea with the water from my tiny clothing steamer.. love that thing...keeps all my cotton linen items looking great on the road!

Addendum - just relooked at the map it is more near C.PO Santa Maria Nova on C. Larga G. Gallina street. But is probably a moot point as you are leaving this am.

Now you have me thinking Frank. I always have my coffee maker with me - well water heater with 2 cups, a drip melita type filter, small containers to store coffee, creamer, & sugar - it all stacks together and fits inside the pot smaller than a child's lunchbox thermos. I bought it 20 years ago, my husband laughed at me but he has since enjoyed numerous morning cups! I never thought about a back up but now I'm wondering as my kettle is getting older - I think I will throw the immersion heater in the bag! Like you - I do not go far in the morning without a cup of coffee.

I would look in outdoor/camping shops rather than hardware stores

In case people are interested, this is my coffee/tea gear:

Immersion Heater

Collapsible Travel Cup and it works fine with the immersion heater

Cardboard cup holders ("borrowed" from places like Starbucks) because the cup will be hot. They fit perfectly. I then get some individual packets of instant coffee and tea bags.

Ooooh! Neat cup, Frank!

Subject of immersion heaters and travel kettles in general, our little pot is probably top of the list of things I won't go abroad without, depending on country. We are very early risers, and having to go without several cuppas first thing would be torture!

I have made tea with the water from my tiny clothing steamer.

JJ, that is a bang-up creative solution, IMHO. When you think about it, the reservoir part really isn't all that different than a kettle's, just smaller?

Jj. You rock

How many stars does a hotel need before you get a coffee maker in the room? Traveling solo I understand the need to keep hotel costs down.

Maybe it is not based on stars but on how many North Americans and Brits they have staying there.

Italians are used to stopping by a coffee bar and getting a much better cup of coffee to drink standing up. No point in having in-room coffee makers for them.

Maybe it is not based on stars but on how many North Americans and
Brits they have staying there.

I'm thinking that's probably the reason too, Sasha. We had a kettle in a business-type hotel in Milan once but none of our other Italian accommodations. Those rooms weren't "economy" priced, either.

Joe...had a chuckle at your response....Frank have you thought about going to the nearest coffee bar to your hotel. I mean you are in Italy...land of espresso and cappucino. Don't know about you but when I travel I like to immerse myself (pun intended) in the local culture and customs food and drink. If anywhere on the planet, Italy is where you want to experience every regional cuisine and food/drink culture. If you're not open to that, then what's the point of travelling???? You're missing out on some of the best bits.

LOL, this trip isn't Frank's first rodeo (see his profile).

Finding coffee at 4:30 or so (when we usually get up) isn't a given everywhere. Nope. We plug the travel kettle in the minute we roll out of bed and are 2-3 cups into it before even thinking about doing anything else! Force of habit, ya know.

I am certain no one would appreciate me wandering about half awake in my jammies looking for coffee at 5 or 6 am! I can't move more than 10 feet in the morning without my coffee - I'll continue to carry my coffee maker for that first early am cup o joe! There's plenty of time to experience the Italian coffee culture once I am awake!

@Kathy - I thought the very same thing - this isn't even Franks 20th rodeo!

Christi, we are kindred spirits. ☕️

Agreed. I need CAWFEE before my esspresso too...early risers need their jolt!

I've never been to a rodeo!!!!!!!

If people really think I give up getting my morning espresso in Italy, they must be smoking something I wish they would share. (I'm sure Rick would want to share.)

Like others have stated, I need my morning "something," It is sort of my early morning defribrilator. (sp?)
I need it first thing to get the heart started. Then it's time for the morning assault on breakfast.

And sometimes at night, after a long, busy day, I like a cup of hot tea to relax with.

That the reason of bringing an immersion heater.

We stay in mainly not chain hotels. No apartments for us.

@Tom - mine is a small kettle - 110 or 220. It has two cups that nest, a small container for coffee that fits inside the cups, a second small container for creamer/sugar, and a fine filter basket for the coffee, there is a piece that sits on top of the filter and coffee to keep it from floating when you pour the hot water through. It makes a pretty good cup of drip coffee. Everything stores inside the kettle and is smaller than a kids lunch box thermos. I bought it 20 years ago or so...

(Almost) no apartments for us either aside from one in a B&B in Brugge. Could be they've added kettles since but off the top of my head, didn't have them at Hotel Domus Romana and Hotel Giulio Cesare in Rome; Hotel Giglio in Florence; Antiche Mura in Sorrento; Marmela in Capri; La Spiaggia in Monterosso; Arli Hotel Business and Wellness in Bergamo; The Bridge Hotel, Amsterdam; Bensons Hotel, Aachen; Trierer Hof in Koblenz; Waldhaus Wilhelm in Maikammer, Hotel Bavaria in Munich.

We did have them at the Best Western Madison in Milan, B&B Antwerp Museum Suites in Antwerp, NH Brussels Grand Place Arenberg in Brussels and Holiday Inn, Kensongton Forum, London. Hotel in Paris has since added them.

Christi, your kettle sounds exactly like ours! Is it a Unold?
http://www.unold.de/en/unold/electric-kettle/8210/

@Kathy - very close - with ours the filter sits on top of the cup and drips directly into the cup. Other than that the same - I love how compact it is.

When we rented am apt in varenna it came w basically an American style coffee maker. Nothing in our hotel rooms in italy and Slovenia. However in England, Ireland and Scotland i have always had tea kettles that also came w instant coffee shudder but that at least gives me the tenacity to put on clothes and find the breakfast room. I used to travel w an immersion heater and a tin cup, but gave it up after 9.11

It never occurred to me to bring an immersion heater to Italy. Just the thought of the WONDERFUL espresso waiting for me in the breakfast room was enough to get me going . ( At home I wish there were a way to inject coffee intravenously to get me going)

A cup of tea in the evening is a legitimate reason for an immersion heater, but I have always chosen a glass ( or maybe a bit more) of wine as the end of the day in Italy. Its ITALY, not England.

And Tom MN, you really should post a warning when you reveal something like you dilute the espresso to make coffee out of it. To me that's like going to Ruths Chris steakhouse and asking for a bottle of ketchup for your steak. You can certainly do as you wish, but please give others a warning that there is "potentially disturbing" content :-). ( I nearly shorted out my keyboard from the tears I shed, at what to me is a horrible thing to do to a cup of espresso)

Breakfast room? Shoot, they don't open until 6:30 - 7:00. I'm up 2 hours before that. No WAY I can wait that long for my joe. Can't do straight espresso either: rips my stomach to shreds. It has to be cappuccino or diluted a bit or I'm doubled in half.

It's 5am in Trapani and breakfast starts at 8...

Love the creative solutions but I just have to wait 3 hours.