Kicked off a Vaporetto! Is this usual?

It may have just been the boats last stop (regardless of the boat number), or there could have been a mechanicial issue, or well it's italy where you just gotta roll with the punches. It's not uncommon. I've been booted off at odd places. At least you were at rialto.

well...now you know how to get to St. Mark's from the Rialto Bridge...once you do it a time or 2, it's not too bad...

I saw in Rick Steve's Venice Book that some #2 boats only go as far as the Rialto- solo Rialto.

On one of my trips between the Rialto and St. Marks, I found the Osteria Enoteca ai Rusteghi. That was a nice little place to get some wine and a little panini. I was actually looking for the wine shop that sells wine by the liter and you can fill up your water bottle. It was closed when I found it but I went back later in the late afternoon and filled up a water bottle with some wine. Drank some of it on the boat back to Punta Sabbioni with 2 slices of pizza.

Welcome to Italy! That, to me, is part of its charm. As another poster said you have to roll with the punches. Things in Italy are not always what we in the states find logical - isn't that why we go to different places though...to try new things and experiences? From now on you can help others on this site with vaporetto questions! So there is a silver lining after all, your experience can help others as other traveler's experiences have helped you.

Cate,

Actually, I encountered much the same situation on my last visit to Venice. Apparently there was some kind of "labour dispute" happening at the time, and all the Vaporetti were only going as far as the Rialto Bridge (I'm assuming these were operated by Management crews under the circumstances?).

I didn't have any problems at all with the change of circumstances. I used the Map in Rick's book and it only took me a short time to walk to my Hotel, which was close to Piazza San Marco. It was actually a bit humourous, and as another post said "welcome to Italy!".

Cate--You just reminded of the evening we got kicked off a vaporetto!!! On our way to Murano from Venice, in the pouring rain (shortlived thunderstorm--bad timing), 9pm in the evening. What a shock, but it turned out to be a great and adventurous evening coming up with Plan B.

I think you just got on the boat going the wrong direction. We started at St Marks and went to the Rialto Bridge stopping at the parking garage (along with other stops) The run ended at Rialto Bridge (which we knew) and everyone was asked to leave the boat. This route takes you from San Marco the outer way and makes stops across the water from the main area of Venice before entering the Grand Canal by the parking garage and bus area and continuing onto Rialto. My husband and I made the opposite mistake on our first trip to Venice in 2003. We got on this same run and and it took us to San Marco when we wanted to go to Rialto. They made us get off at San Marco. All people must get off the boat when the Vaporetto reaches it last stop for that trip. There are other boats that go from the parking garage all the way to San Marco. They go the whole way down the Grand Canal. (The other run only uses the Grand Canal from the train station area to Rialto Bridge) I hope this doesn't sound like a confusing mess- If I had a way to use a map I could explain it better.

Cate
My first trip to Venice I got kicked off not one but two Vaporetto. We were comming back from the Lido and the driver left everyone off at the first stop way up near the via garibaldi. The young italians we were with told us that something was wrong with the boat. Luckily our hotel was just a short bridge away.
The next day we were kick off way on the other side of Venice, and spent the next three hours getting lost and found walking to san marco square. I think we sampled every gellateri on the way, and spent a lot of time laughing. At the end of the day, we hopped the vaporetto to go back to our hotel, it was the same driver. He surprised us by giving each of us a free pass to ride all day the next day. Gotta love Italy! :}Mer

How unfortunate that it was so much trouble for you to find St. Marks from the Rialto Bridge. According to the walking directions I found on Google Maps it is all of 0.6 km and should take about 6 minutes.

Jeff-As a person who has a great sense of direction yet wandered between Rialto and San Marco, I can tell you that Venice is one place where it is harder to find things than google would lead you to believe. It is a little like being a mouse in a maze-lots of tall buildings, streets twisting and turning, and tiny little "avenues" that you aren't even sure qualify as streets. Your only hope in Venice is to purchase a good street map from a vendor. I've only been "lost" there once (I give my map a lot of the credit) but you will have to take my word for this: googling something at home and actually finding it in Venice are two very diffrent things.

Connie: I have been there a couple of times and am familiar with the narrow winding streets. I am also aware of the large number of signs pointing the way to major landmarks such as San Marco, Rialto, Ferrovia, etc. and believe me, I have nothing but sympathy for someone who got "tired and a bit cranky" from having to walk that far.

Connie, thank you. Jeff, if you have sympathy, then why would you bother to Google the walk for me? (And I would have Googled the directions, too, if I had planned on finding San Marco from the Rialto Bridge.)

And yes, we were tired and cranky. I didn't plan on doing a trip report in this post, BUT when we were let off at the Rialto bridge, we had an earlier than planned lunch at an off the main track place on the other side of the bridge that was recommended on an another travel website (and with a map and vague directions, we DID find that place.) We also did a little bit of shopping- I was out of cash, though, after lunch and the first ATM I found was out of it. (I had used almost the last of our cash paying for our B&B and dinner the night before in the small town we stayed at where we did not see a bank.)

I had a map but it didn't show every small alley way, and we took a few wrong turns. We eventually DID find the signs to San Marco, though, but not until we were about halfway there. On top of that, I had a 2 year old in a carrier on my back (although my husband took turns carrying her). It was also one of those sunny cold days- beautiful and you need a coat, but you also get warmer than you would on a grey day. We stopped in a church and to look at a few things on the way, too. Oh, and my 11 year old was nagging about gelato, when most places were closed for the winter.

So, yes, we were more tired and cranky than we would have been had we started at San Marco like planned and then worked our way back up to Rialto (our original plan.) However, this did give us the opportunity to leave San Marco on the vaporetto at sunset, which was glorious.

Thanks for your advice and next time I will try to Googlemap every possible unexpected scenario before my trip. Thanks to everyone who told us that this does happen from time to time (and hopefully others will read and know this can happen.) I am mostly German and grew up there so I am better there. LOL.

The unexpected is part of the charm and makes for a good story later, but when its happening it can be unnerving. I have not been kicked off a valporetto, but there was some sort of strike on one trip to Venice and the taxi and bus drivers went on strike while visiting Venice and my grandson and I needed to get to back to our hotel.Finally a rebel taxi driver drove us back to our hotel. I was also on a train from Germany to Prague, when suddenly the train stopped in the middle of nowhere, no one spoke English. We were forced off the train and onto buses, driven around for about a half hour and then put on another train and finally arrived in Praha! We never did find out what happened, but finally came to the conclusion there might have been an accident on the tracks and we had to get to the other side of it... another 'funny story now', but I was sure we might never be heard from again! It made me a little leary of train travel for a while.

Thanks to everyone that posted. This is the kind of thing that could throw me off too since I'm not the most experienced travler. I hope I remember this post when I'm in Italy this summer. When something goes wrong, and I'm sure it will, I'll take a deep breath, stop for a glass wine and try to figure out my Plan B. Or, I'll try to go without a plan, but that will require wine and gelato.

Could not agree with Connie more. Venice is about the only place I have had a map and still got lost. It is a most confusing place. Yes, there are many signs to the most frequented places, but many are high up and faded. When you are flustered they are not easy to locate or read.

Cate, you have my complete sympathy, though I have never been chased off a vaporetto!