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Saturday, March 3, 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 is a good way of saving even more money on the vaporetto. Lots of people don't know about this or are not sure how to use it. The multi-day pass means that you can get on and off the vaporetto anytime you like. In this way you will save money and have more precious time for sightseeing.

Here's another money saving tip for Venice. If you want to experience riding in a traditional Venetian gondola, but you don't want to pay the 100+ euros that a private gondola ride costs, try a traghetto ride. A traghetto is a public transport gondola that takes you in a straight line from one side of the Grand Canal to the other side.

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.

Be sure to get your terminology correct: it's easy to confuse the words "traghetto" and "vaporetto". To clarify, a vaporetto is a motorized water bus that runs the length of the Grand Canal. In contrast, a traghetto (or traghetti, plural) is a gondola that is rowed by oarsmen and crosses the Grand Canal from side to side.

There are seven main points where you can find a traghetto. Look for the striped poles that mark those spots. Take into account that they operate only before lunchtime every day.

So there you have it: two great ways to save money in Venice are by using the water bus instead of the water taxi, and taking a traghetto ride instead of a private gondola ride.




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