Related Venice Favorites Tips

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Favorite thing: I did mention this already several times – one of my major interests to learn and see in Venezia was how the city “works” as a city, which is built on water.
It all started ages ago: legends entitle March 25 of year 421 as the date when Venezia was founded. Those days, the peaceful life of the inhabitants of Venetia region was interrupted by overrunning Germanic tribes of Goths and Langobards as well as Huns, which were ransacking villages and made the locals flee from their homes on the mainland. They went to hide in the lagoon’s islands, among fishermen and salt farmers. Now the little settlements became quite crowded and there was need to make room for more people to live. The first islands that have been inhabited were Burano, Mazzorbo, Murano, Torcello and Malamocco (the southernmost tip of Lido island) and at that time of much significance for the lagoon; Torcello was maybe the most important one with the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, built at the order of bishop Altina early 7th century. Malamocco was seat of the first doges from mid 8th century on.
With several more disputes and migrations, the little houses and the islands were soon not enough to host all the fugitives. Also, after another serious attack by Pippin, son of Carolus Magnus, in early 9th century, the doge Angelo Partecipiano decided to move to rivo alto (= high river bank), which was more or less impregnable, so that Pippin and his troops gave up their plans to merge the lagoon into their territory. This all gave room to start the first settlements around what is now Ponte de Rialto.

Fondest memory: All in all, Venezia is built on more than 100 islands, in a very much advanced “technology”, given the time of the constructions. As a lagoon is not deep but shallow and as a lot of tiny islands were already existing, the people did “fasten” these islands with tree trunks (usually oak) which were hit into the condensed clay ground. This clay ground (called caranto)is originated from the deposits, the river Brenta brought along, before it was redirected to the south, and it forms a quite solid base of the lagoon. The principles of building on the single islands was more or less the same: the tree trunks had to be below water level at low tide. They were covered then with a (horizontal) layer of larch planks, followed by a base “wall” of Istrian marble, which served as the fundament of the building. This wall was meant to be below and above the water level, at least during the days when most of Venezia’s houses were built. The tree trunks, or all the wood below the water level in general, became very much hard over the time, as organisms, causing putrefaction, could not destroy them due to the lack of oxygen. Well, this was the idea behind the constructions. But the building masters did not foresee the course of modern times and the ever increasing boat traffic in the lagoon and in Venezia’s canales, thus increasing the oxygen level and giving rise to slow rottening.
Maybe this explains now why I am ranting a bit in some of my other tips about the negative impact of motor taxis and huge cruise ships.

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Favorite thing: Consequently, there are no cars in Venezia. Well, there are, but only up to Piazzale Roma, where the road coming from terra firma (Mestre etc) ends and where busses and cars have to stop. All the traffic from here on is transferred onto the water. We, tourists and locals, are transported by vaporettos, gondolas or the expensive and unecological operating taxi boats. Post and parcels are being transported by boats, food is transported in boats, and any goods you can imagine are transported on the different boats. It is very much exciting to sit at one of the fondamentas or canales and watch the boats go by with their different loads. If you watch long enough, you can see how immense the variety of boats is, designed or built for the needs of their “service”.
The boat on photo 1 is most probably one that transports building material. It was on its way to Isola San Michele, where the burial grounds are actually expanded. So this needs to be quite big and broad to be able to load up many bags of construction material.
Whenever canales need to be cleaned, or houses to be renovated or build, a crane is needed. Now at home or anywhere else on terra firma (solid ground), the crane is driven by truck in front of whereever it needs to operate. In Venezia, a special boat needs to transport them; photo 2. And given the weight of these cranes, the boats must be really solid ones. They looked like mixture between ferry and aircraft carrier (well, a small aircraft that would be). I was always amazed to see these boats navigating around. Given the weight and the height of the crane, the captains must have enormous skills. But then again this is Venezia, the people are so much used to live with the water.

Fondest memory: The more “small” goods, like flowers (photo 3) or logs (photo 4), can easily be transported in small boats - to deliver directly in front of the house. Well, if the house is situated at the water. But this logboat also had a mini-crane to lift up the logs.
And last but not least the garbage. Venezia is very much advanced when it comes to garbage “management”. Well, it has to, given the loads of us tourists that invade the city daily. Each household places the garbage bags outside at the doors. The garbage man comes in the morning and puts the bags and the ones of the countless bins into his wheel cart (photo 5). The photo is a bit dark, but it shows the cart, which has only 2 wheels. This is to make it easier to move over the countless bridges on the way. The cart is then emptied into the boat, again with a help of a small crane. During my early morning wanderings through the city I did see this procedure at several spots, so there is a well functioning system and specific garbage boat stops behind that. For the friends of Nobby I should add that the boat owner also had a friend travelling with him, you’ll see him if you look close at the boat’s bow.

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Favorite thing: Depending how long you will stay and what you like to do and see in Venezia, these cards might save you a lot of money. !! Careful: not to be confused with the Venice Card, which is available only for residents (of Venezia and Veneto)!
Venice Blue and Orange Card are available for 1, 2 or 7 days and include several free entrances or reduced entrances.

Venice Blue Card:
The blue card gives you free transport on all vaporettos of ACTV (including vaporettos to the islands of Burano, Murano, Torcello, San Michele, Sant’Erasmo, Lido, San Servolo, San Lazaro), and to the public toilet facilities in town, discounts on several exhibitions and shops which have the Venice Card sign at the entrance.
It is available as Junior Card (up to age 29) and as Senior Card (age 30 and higher).

Venice Orange Card:
The orange card, in addition, gives you free entry to all 10 municipal museums of Venezia (Palazzo Ducale, Museo Correr, Marciana Library, Archaelogical Museum, Ca’Rezzonico, Palazzo Mocenigo, Casa Carlo Goldoni, Ca’Pesaro, Museo Vetrario on Murano, Museo de Merletti on Burano).
If you purchase the 2 or 7 days card, you also get free access to the 16 churches associated with the Chorus Pass (see below). The Chorus Pass alone is 8 Euro (as of May 2007).
And you get discounts for several non-municipality owned exhibitions, such as Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Grassi, etc.

Fondest memory: The prices are given at the website (select blue or orange in the left navigation menu). Note that the website lists all places, where you can get discounts, and the location of the toilets as well.

If you are here for 7 or more days, the blue card definitely pays off, as you can travel to the islands as well, and it includes the use of the public toilets.
Compare prices with the 24, 48 and 72 hour ticket for Vaporetto lines – it might come cheaper if you buy the blue card:
72 hours vaporetto (excluding toilet use) is 30 Euro (as of May 2007), and with 55,90 Euro, the 7 days Blue Card is cheaper already than 2 x 72 hours vaporetto cards.
Toilets are 1 Euro each time.

Blue and Orange cards are also available with Alilaguna transport from the airport. But, this only pays if your hotel is located near Piazza San Marco or at Lido. The price for this airport transfer is 23 Euro more than without. Alilaguna one-way ticket to/from the airport is 12 Euro to Piazza San Marco; so you would save 1 Euro.

The cards can be bought online (with a discount of 2 Euro compared to buying in the city), at the airport or in the city at the main vaporetto stations or at the tourist offices.
I have chosen the Venice Blue Card, but didn’t buy it at the airport, as I was here for 12 days and wanted to use it until my last day. Also, as I stayed close to Fondamenat Nuove, my airport-transport was only 6 Euro with Alilaguna, so it would have not meant any saving for me.

Note that the cards need to be stamped prior to use.

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Favorite thing: I might have heard his name already some time ago. But it was only after my visit in Venezia that I found his books mentioned on some websites. What a pity that I didn’t discover him earlier, or well, maybe not, as he and his writings got me even more hooked on La Serenissima and her magnificent soul. So next time I’ll visit her, I have his books with me and follow his footsteps, maybe – or surely – I will discover even more of her hidden gems and spirit. Born in London in1819, John Ruskin was an artist and a poet, and already in his teens, when he wrote articles about the poetry of architecture. Over the years he got dedicated to Gothic style and wrote “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, followed by “The Stones of Venice”. The latter has 3 volumes (for 180 USD), but there is also a short version available, to get an idea of his investigations in the city. He must have made sketches of literally every palazzo, arch, campanile, church, bridge, … well, stone. I had to smile when I realised that he also went around each of the columns at Palazzo Ducale and made sketches of each of the capitals; something I also did, but lazy me used my camera.
For a more practical and today’s approach I highly recommend the book of Sarah Quill “The Stones revisited”. She went to Venezia to take photos of the building he has described, and thus wrote a modern guide through Ruskin’s Venezia. The book is fascinating to read and also helped me to identify some of the lesser known palazzi, I took photos of during my trip along Canal Grande.
In addition, there is a shorter version of “The Stones of Venice” available, which I also recommend to buy if your likes are architecture.

Fondest memory: And there is also a fascinating website of architect Jan-Christoph Rößler, who wrote about Venezia’s architecture and describes a lot of the palazzi:
The Art and Architecture of Venezia

The books I have mentioned above, are available at Amazon:
The seven Lamps of Architecture
The Stones of Venice
The Stones Revisited

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Favorite thing: So why am I writing about all that ? Just to make aware how much of effort it is to keep a place "running", which is entirely built “on water”. While preparing my trip, I found so many negative remarks about the city, that it is smelly in summer, has acqua alta all the time, is expensive and is one single tourist trap.
Well, again, it costs a huge amount of effort and money to keep the city functioning. The goods for preparing meals need to be transported by boat, and then in wheel carts (similar principle as described above) over bridges and through the small calles. That’s very much “manpower” intense. And as this is Italy, and not a so-called third world country, people’s salaries are not that low to give us special deals on meals as in say Uzbekistan or Tajikistan.
Electricity, clean water, the possibility to pull the string in the bathroom and get rid of our human waste – this all requires specifically designed mechanisms to transport to and from the houses and the hotels. The water, now with a higher oxygen content than before we masses have started to invade the city, gnaw at the houses and require a much more frequent restoration than in La Serenissima’s past days.

Or take the gondolas. Yes, a ride in a gondola is expensive ! A licence to navigate a gondola costs around 70.000 Euro, the gondola itself is not a mass product where thousands hop from the belt every evening. It takes some months to finish a gondola (as by now there are not many artists left, who master the building), and then it costs around 40.000 Euros. As hardly anyone wants to take a gondola ride in winter, the guys have only several months, maybe 6 or 7, to work. And if in the past days one gondola was passed on from father to son and maybe grandson, this is no longer the case today. Again, the very much high oxygen content (thus algae) requires a much more frequent repair and care for the boats. By now, the life cycle of a gondola is not longer than maybe 25 to 30 years.

Fondest memory:
Oh, and a fiaker ride in Vienna costs 100 Euro per hour – does anybody complain about that ? It is easy: if it is too expensive, then just leave it, but stop complaining.

Acqua alta – yes, it is more frequent today than in the past. And parts of the reason are the deep navigation channels that have been digged into the lagoon to enable the oil tankers a shortcut to the plants in Maestre. But also to enable these …. cruise ships to come close and sail through the lagoon.

Or the toilet fees. Yes, we have to pay a toilet fee (if we didn’t buy the Venice Blue or Orange card, or use the ones of a restaurant when we have lunch or dinner or a coffee). Public toilets do cost 1 Euro per “nose powdering”. But the money is paid for a good reason. And of course it is us, who have to pay – no one would expect the Venezianos to pay for our nature calls, would one ?? And apart from that, in other European cities we also have to pay, and also quite a “nice” amount. In some German towns the fees in cities or at highways are also as much as around 0,70 Euro.

Please remember this all before you want to rant about the prices, smells, and other things.

Favorite thing: I have been to Venice in March and in May. In May it was very pleasant, cool and bright. And I noticed no smell at all. I seem to have heard so much about the famous Venice reek.
In March - again no smell - hardly any tourists - and it was cold. Of course I come from Australia so it doesn't have to be very cold for me to think it is cold.
The first day was cold but clear - but as I was walking back to my hotel with my friend at about 9pm - amazed that all the shutters seem to be slamming down on the cafes and bars (this is obviously an early to bed early to rise city) I suddenly had the witch in my hip bite me that always means rain. And soon. I mentioned it to my friend and she glanced up at the ice cold stars twinkling and said - It is a starry night.
But the witch in my hip is never wrong and we woke to rain. It was almost sleet. Very miserable. Particularly as there do not tend to be overhangs on the buildings so one gets the full force.
So make sure you have a brolly. Which was fine when I was there because there were few people on the streets. So you weren't poking someone's eye out. I am so short in a crowd with an umbrella I am a perfect menace.

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Favorite thing: Even if I knew or have read all about Venezia’s water transport, I was again and again fascinated about every “special” boat I saw = how La Serenissima “works”.

Yes, of course, mail cannot be transported by car, so DHL (photo 1) has their boats to pick up mail and parcels from their spots in the city and transport them to the mainland.

In case of fire, the fire brigade sets out in boats (photo 2). Luckily I didn’t see any fire while I was there, although I have read that they have approx. 300 operations per year. Next time I’ll go and visit their headquarter to learn in theory how they work. From what I have read, they use canal water to kill the flames. But this water needs to be “clean” at least in some way. I have also read that the big fire which destroyed old La Fenice operahouse, could not be put out as the respective canal was tilted. Since that time, cleaning of the canals became high task, and also another reason for us tourists to consider when we look at the price level of Venezia. Cleaning of the canales does cost quite some money.

Fondest memory: I already mentioned that I felt extremely safe in Venezia, that’s why I did see the Police only peacefully circling through the canals. But in case of need, the can speed up of course – that’s why Commissario Brunetti always catches the bad fish :-)

Oh, and we also don’t like to use the transport as in photo 4 – the Ambulance boats. Venezia’s main hospital is located in western Castello, and has a large section of a canal reserved as docks for the ambulance boats. I still cannot imagine how it must be to do serious ER action on patients in a boat at high speed. But here again, Venezianos are used to live with and on the water….

This one was in the transport section before, but.. I think it better fits to the general info about Venezia.

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Favorite thing: Sitting on the side of the grand Canal, having a glass of wine, watching people.

Fondest memory: As I was walking back to the hotel one evening, about 10, I heard some music comming from down a side calle. I followed it to a little canal with a small bar. There were many people outside, as a band was playing old american rock, I sayed there for about 2 hours listening to the music and talking to actual venitians, not tourists. I only wish i remembered the name of the bar. It was on the ferrovia side of the Grand canal, heading towards the Rialto, and the side calle was on the left, after an old church {I know, not much help}