Chances are there isn’t as much room on the water buses (vaporetti) in Venice at this time of year. Nor is it as cool.
No wonder many people prefer to visit Venice during the winter.
There are plans to give priority on the vaporetti to residents during some of the time frames. Let’s see how that one pans out!
Hello World 
We try to avoid mid-summer and the school holidays. It usually works!
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Good on you! And, if you know the city a bit, you can generally walk, unless you’re lugging heavy suitcases!
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Yes, walking is good…then you can eat lots of delicious local delicacies of the sweet variety. I make sure I never have a heavy suitcase, so that’s not a problem. (no more than four pairs of undies is the key 🙂 !!!)
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Oh, dear, every attractive city has its tourist times. When I get bent out of shape about tourists in the summer, I remember how nice people were to me in Vienna and London and San Francisco and Denver… We’re all tourists at some point. Though I do dislike how they dither at the Metro Doors and stop at the bottom of escalators to peer around…You’ve convince me to visit Venice in the off season!
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Yes, when we’re tourists we sometimes forget not everyone else is on holiday, and they may have somewhere to be in a manner less leisurely than ours. The off season in Venice (and other places, no doubt), is getting shorter all the time.
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I thought last winter that it was the first half of December and the middle of January.
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And, that was about it, Caroline!
How is little Ms Mimi?
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I think it would be lively, but incredibly frustrating to live in a high tourist area. We love going downtown here as there is always so much going on, but we can always come home to calm and not be fighting the crowds and traffic right in front of our own place.
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We get just a tiny taste of what it must be like, day after day in the “hot, must see, must tick off the list” tourists spots, Darlene.
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Yvonne I wonder how in the world they would figure out who was a tourist and who was a local? I can see why locals would grow frustrated with the crowds.
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Hi, Sue. Check Caroline’s reply below (she lives in Venice), to see what they’re trying to do to separate the sheep fro the goats. I wouldn’t want to be one of the gate-keepers.
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Oh boy I see a big headache coming on…
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It’s unbelievable how crowded the vaporetti get, and long queues of people waiting to get on. For those who are trying to get to school, work, etc., I wouldn’t doubt that some of them are mighty tempted to give us a little shove into the canal!
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When the vaporetto is crowded, sometimes I’ll put on my headphones with some opera or Italian pop music playing and pretend it’s my own movie soundtrack.
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That’s a good way to try to stay tranquil about the situation. Sometimes your movie gets pretty crowded, and full of big pieces of luggage, I think.
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I wrote a poem years ago about taking a vaporetto on New Year’s Eve and being very happy. I had a lovely time in Venice – so beautiful.
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That’s a lovely memory to have. If you posted that poem on your blog, could you put a link here, please.
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I wrote it long ago – before blogs existed. It was published in a book of poems. I might post it one day if I ever find the book. Thanks for your interest.
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I love the vaporetto in winter! Oh heck, even crowded I feel so damn lucky to be on a vaporetto in Venice. Love the picture!
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You’re responsible visitors to Venice, and deserve good experiences every time you visit.
It was a chilly day on the water, the day I took that photo.
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There’s an experiment already underway to introduce separate entrances at some boat stops. Only people who live, work or study in Venice have their Cartavenezia passes enabled to get into the priority gates. So far it’s just been implemented at the number 2 stops at Piazzale Roma (towards Rialto) and Rialto (towards PR), plus possibly one or more of the San Marco stops.
It doesn’t help me, living near Ferrovia, unless I first go to PR – and then the ACTV staff there often open both sections at the same time. The next phase includes the Ferrovia stop but the boat is already full when it gets there…
Bring back the separate boats, I say!
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So, it sounds like the ACTV staff aren’t really putting heart and soul into the separation! Does your ‘enabled ‘ look significantly different from the one many of us frequent visitors have?
The separate boats on the busy routes and busy times seem a sensible approach. Then, visitors going to or from Ferrovia and PR with luggage have a fair chance of getting onto a vaporetto in a timely manner, and Venetians have their fair go.
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No, and they keep moaning about in in the press, but to be fair I’m sure they’ve had a lot of grief.
The cards still look the same, but are electronically enabled for priority access. People who live in Venice proper got their cards updated automatically, while those who work or study here had to present evidence to one of the main ticket offices in order to get their cards converted.
Apparently the separate boats were scrapped because not enough people used them. Reasons I’ve heard is that they didn’t go far enough (PR to San Marco, I believe) and they were only every 20 minutes. I suppose also for commuters travelling between PR/Ferrovia and Rialto, the 2 or even better the 2 bis would still be quite a bit quicker, and so many might think worth the discomfort. I’d be happy to work around those restrictions, though!
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I wouldn’t want to be one of the ACTV gate keepers!
You’d think they could have fine tuned the separate vaporetti until they got it as good as it could be.
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I’ve never travelled in summer. I think you’ve just confirmed why. Hard to live and work in a city that’s on every tourist’s must-see list. People who live on the coast here would concur, I think.
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It must be so frustrating for people on touris beats to cope with us, day after day, in their living rooms, so to speak.
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Tie a raft behind each gondola and put the tourists there?
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Now, that made me laugh. Oops, I’ll be the raft. Nah, I’ll walk.
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🙂
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They should. It’s not cool for residents to be forced out of their own city…
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I just don’t know how they’ll enforce it, in a peaceful manner.
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Issue residents with badges, or something. And put more boats on?
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I sometimes take the Manly Ferry, close my eyes, and think of Venice.
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You need to have an iPod or similar with Italian voices talking to you!
PS Tell Helvi I’m eating smoked salmon for lunch. She’ll love that. 🙂
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It’s been a few years since I visited Venice and had a gondola ride but have happy memories of that visit 🙂
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You’d see some (not so good) changes, I think.
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I’d say, a lot of them… 😦
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