Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How to Save Money on Transportation in Venice, Italy

By Barbra Sundquist


Even by European standards, Venice is a rather pricey city. Keep that in mind if you're going there. But that doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune there; with a little bit of advice you can actually save money in Venice.

One of the best ways to keep your Venice travel costs down is to make use of public transportation rather than the very expensive private water taxi rides. The Venetian form of public transit is called a vaporetto, or water bus.

Buying a multiday pass for the vaporetto service is a good way to ensure you'll spend as little money as possible on transportation. It's a great deal that not many tourists are aware of. You can use vaporetto quite freely with a multiday pass and come on and off it whenever you like. A multiday pass offers you a very convenient way to save money and time.

You can save money in Venice in other ways as well. If you wish to experience a ride in a traditional Venetian gondola, without paying a hundred euros for it, try a traghetto ride. A traghetto is a gondola that goes in one straight line from one side of the Grand Canal to the other, and is considered a part of public transportation.

Riding in a traghetto will get you to experience a genuine part of everyday life in Venice, and also allow you to save time searching for bridges to cross the Grand Canal.

What are traghetti? They are old gondolas stripped of their fancy decoration. They are rowed by two oarsmen: one who stands in the back like a traditional gondolier, the other closer to the bow.

A word of advice: Don't confuse traghetto and vaporetto. A traghetto is powered by two oarsmen and is actually a gondola going from one side of the Grand Canal to the other; the vaporetto is a motorized water bus.

There are various traghetti operating at seven convenient spots on the Grand Canal. Just look for the striped pole that marks the spot. Be aware that most of the traghetti only operate until about lunchtime each day.

And there you have it: some excellent ways to save a lot of money in Venice using public transportation. In summary, make sure you're using traghetto instead of private gondola and water bus instead of water taxi.




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