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Posted by
1216 posts

Wow, Sarah Murdoch was sharing a video live this afternoon from Venice. There was nothing like the lines in this article evident in the vid. Where are these folks going? Venice is for walking.

Posted by
85 posts

Shoot, That article was really sad to read and I feel sorry for the locals who have to deal with so many tourists during the peak season. In theory I'm heading there Sept 30th to Oct 3rd. I've already made reservations for a walking tour and our non refundable flight to Naples. I'm also still trying to find a place to stay that I like in my budget. My dream room with a view of the Canal was $325 per night at Hotel Marcone.

Fudge The last time I was in Venice was 1987. I don't want to be there if there's going to be a gazillion people. I hate crowds and especially long lines. Should I cancel our Venezia portion of our trip? I don't want to be stuck next to others on a packed boat with the the Delta etc. I was excited that I was getting to go back to there after such a long absence. From what I've read though is you can walk to pretty much anywhere in Venice except for maybe the Murano Islands. I know Venice Tourist economy needs the money but they should sell tickets to the city to limit the amount of people there during peak seasons. Is it going to be super crazy then?

I was also planning to go to a Vivaldi Concert of The Four seasons which luckily I haven't bought tickets for yet but should soon if l still plan on going. Anyone have suggestions of what I should do? Will it be crowded when I go do you think? Maybe people will think it won't be as crowded and so they will go and then it will be crowded. Grazie for any thoughts on this. L

Posted by
6783 posts

Venice is quite large but still walkable, and full of side streets, so it is relatively easy to escape the crowds out of the main Rialto - P. San Marco axis.
The situation described is largely linked to the limited capacity of the vaporetto boats, precisely due to Covid. The article mentions a capacity limit at 80%, which does not sound like a huge impact, but I suspect that the boats were filled well above 100% capacity in peak season in pre-Covid times...

Bottom line: go to Venice if that's where you want to go!

Posted by
85 posts

Balso were going to a bunch of cities on this trip but if there's going to be that many people crowding all the touristy spots then maybe I should forgo Venice. With Covid who knows how crowded or not it will be in early Oct. My friend and I can easily walk around and avoid the Vaparetti. Yes getting lost in Venice is a must. The last time I was there was 87. Thanks for advice. 😊 Grazie.

Posted by
6783 posts

I already gave it: since you want to go, you should still go. Crowds are relatively easy to escape and should be much smaller in late September than in the peak of European summer vacations.

Posted by
2097 posts

My wife and I met through a high school trip to Europe in 1966. We were in Venice August 7 of that year.

I still have the slides I took on that trip. I've scanned them in and was looking at them the other day. I took photos of St. Mark's Square mid afternoon. There were less than 100 people in the photo of the square. Times have changed.

Posted by
7181 posts

Well, if you read the entire article, you will learn that it also has to do with the same sort of revenue shortfalls that some places in the USA are experiencing.

Public transit is expensive. It never "pays for itself", anywhere. Just as American states and cities have suffered loss of revenue during the pandemic, so have European countries and cities. Vaporetto schedules and boat quantities are far below those of pre-pandemic SUMMER provisions. With a surge in visitors, the results are no surprise.

This kind of fiasco would be no surprise in southern Italy (alas.) But it's a bad harbinger, in a flagship tourism city of the north.

Posted by
2462 posts

We were just in Venice last week and yes, the vaporettos are crowded. We were taken back by the crowds when we arrived at the train station from Verona (which was far less crowded). But we managed to get onto a vaporetto suitcases and all.

We were there during the week but never observed armed guards. I would not say the vaporettos were running at 80% either. My impression was that as many people who could be crammed in, were crammed in. We only saw really long lines on the islands. There was a huge line to go to Burano from Murano and we were debating about whether to just go back to Venice but decided to see how many people would get on the next ferry first. Much to our surprise we got on. It was a bigger boat than we had seen previously and it was completely empty. In Venice, we took boats early in the day so we could sit in the front and those were not crowded at all. The rest of the time we walked.

Venice was crowded mid day between the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's but St. Mark's itself was never crowded. We were there all times of the day too (morning, mid afternoon, and evening). We never waited anywhere more than 20 minutes to get in and that was with the extra time it took to check covid cards in addition to buying tickets. We did have prepurchased tickets to the Secret Itinerary Tour at Dojes Palace and that allowed us to go in another entrance without a line.

We had a great time. I would not change any plans.

Posted by
7595 posts

Last time we were in Venice we had a B&B in the area close to the main train station. We walked all over the city and never took the vaporetto.

Posted by
85 posts

Thanks everyone. Depending on what Italy says August 30th about US tourists we might decide not to go. Luckily someone told me that if I flew through London Heathrow airport that we would have to quarantine possibly for 5 days. I obviously missed that info when I saw the great Airfare prices for BA and booked the flight. They just said have a negative test before flying. A British Airways guy kindly was able to switch our flight to fly from SFO to JFK to Milan via American Airlines thus avoiding England and the UK. It will be interesting to see what Italy decides because I don't have 5 extra days to quarantine in Milan if they impose that policy. I'm vaccinated and we will get pretested before the trip.

I've saved 3 apartments on Airbnb but none that I'm super excited about with nice light and window views of anything nice. I'm on a budget and my friend isn't but am also looking at possible hotels that have better views and include breakfast. Prices on rentals has gone down since I started looking so I'm finding other places now that I didn't see before. I saw a place I really like and the person is supposedly a Superhost but the place has zero reviews. I'm concerned that it could be a fake apartment unless this person has multiple places they rent and this is a new property for them.

The lovely lady who was just in Venice can I ask you how much were you paying for meals out? I'm hoping It will be around $20 per dish or less. I'm not counting going to get an espresso and a treat that I'm assuming would be less per person. I love but can't do bread sticks as I'm GF and I'm more or less vegan but my friend will eat anything. I know it might be harder but I plan to have some places already looked up for GF baking, GF pasta places etc. Grazie for that information.

Posted by
6783 posts

If you're on a budget, and given your dietary requirements and preferences, an apartment makes a lot of sense. Speaking of which, I would also be spooked by a lack of reviews on an Airbnb listing, but I guess new listings have to start someday...
Regarding restaurants, GF is relatively straightforward (as long as you are not too sensitive to cross-contamination!) in Italian cities, but vegan is very challenging, and I worry that the combination of the two will be quite the headache if you don't have the possibility to cook at your accomodation...

Posted by
15679 posts

Vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Italy:

https://www.happycow.net/europe/italy/

You'd have to forego any dishes made with gluten. of course.
My guess is that very, very few posters have needed to accommodate both GF and vegan diets

As it sounds like your vegan diet is by choice (versus GF, which is usually out of necessity due to celiac disease) I'd make an attempt to go with the "less" part of "more or less" for the sake of your friend. if your diet is very narrow, she may get pretty tired of the mealtime hassle of trying to find an acceptable place for you to eat. She may also not be wild about eating/cooking in. If you are able to set the vegan part aside for a large part of this trip, it'll make things a lot easier.

I also wouldn't worry much about an accommodation with a view: a hotel room or apt. isn't where you should be spending a lot of time! Crowds? They'll be unavoidable sometimes so just be ready to deal with them when/where they occur.

Posted by
85 posts

Thanks Kathy and Balso et all, I've been vegan since 1991 but I've traveled the world to SEA and Latin America so I know sometimes dishes are made with lard etc or broth is Chicken etc etc. I won't freak out but of sadly my body can't really do meats or dairy such as cheese etc. Luckily I'm not Celic but have a GF issue and so I get stomach aches from various foods. It sucks going to one of the best places on earth for food and not being able to eat all this delicious dishes. I have gut issue so I also can't drink alcohol but my friend knows and doesn't mind . With such a short stay in Venice I'm wondering will I want to deal with going to the store to buy ingredients and cook or with a little research have various places picked out to eat at? Again thanks for advice I guess only I can decide what I think will be best and yes not having any reviews on a place is suspect but the person is a super host unless you can buy that title. Grazie a tutti

Posted by
85 posts

Hey Aussie can you send the link again?. When I click on it it's not coming up its showing properties in Australia I think. I've looked at a lot of places so I may have all ready seen it. Maybe when I do this on my computer it will work. My regular WiFi at home is down until tomorrow. Thanks.

Posted by
26840 posts

The link isn't taking me to the intended webpage either.

Posted by
1220 posts

Apologies, the link is to the Australia Air bnb site. To find the apartment maybe search Air bnb for an apartment “a stone’s throw from the Frari”. Physically, stand with your back to the Frari entry, cross the bridge in front of you, turn right for a few metres, turn left under the sottoportego and you are in Campiello Zen, Turn left at the news kiosk, first door on your left.