Venice was supposed to be one of the high lites of the trip, but it was a supreme let down. We were really looking forward to Venice before we left Canada. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible–very very cold and super rainy. We were wearing 4 layers of outerwear some days. I bet if the weather had been better we wouldn’t feel the same way about the Venetian portion of the trip.
The city itself is awesome. We were in Venice just after carnival. There was loads of confetti littered all over the place which was kind of sad. The streets are mazed, but well signed, so fairly easy to navigate. There are no cars or even bicycles allowed on the maritime portion of Venice. Realistically, traveling by car, or anything with wheels really, would be near impossible as there are a lot of bridges and narrow pathways and stairs. Taking the vaporetti boats for transportation is sweet, but more than confusing!
Certain stops happen at certain times of the day, or days of the week or times of the year, and dashed lines or solid lines are different times as well, and solid circles for the stops, or with the line through, under or around or God knows what they all mean! It was easily the most confusing public transportation I’ve dealt with. We managed, but had to pay very close attention to the maps. We didn’t take a gondola ride; they were uber-expensive.
