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| Evelyn Waugh, among many others, wrote that Venice is best approached from the sea--but that was well before ever-more-gargantuan cruise ships started arriving in the lagoon in disturbing and damaging numbers. A water taxi from the airport--or, for that matter, an Alilaguna waterbus--is a pretty nice way of arriving, too. |
Beautiful classic lines to that watertaxi, so much more nostalgic than a white /plastic finish job.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me of the kind of taxis seen in the film DON'T LOOK NOW--but those classic lines come at a very high price. My son, who religiously follows the Venice boat market via Subito.it, showed me a wooden water taxi today in something like that classic style built in 2006 and now for sale used: it's in okay, but not great condition, and the asking price? €185,000.
DeleteHence, those white/plastic ones.
By the way, an increasingly common sight is white taxis whose bodies (or parts of them, such as the cabin roof and hood) have been covered with an adhesive plastic film that looks like wood, to give them the appearance of being wood or partly-wood boats. The film, my son tells me, must be replaced once a year, but to do so costs less than paying to re-varnish an actual wood taxi each year (not to mention the price difference between a fiberglass and a wood taxi to begin with). I suspect most visitors don't notice the difference, and of course it doesn't matter to the quality of one's ride in the boat.
Unfortunately you don’t see much of the lagoon from the Alilaguna waterbus between the Marco Polo airport and the city, because the passengers have to sit (required) in the bottom of the boat, with only small windows above their head. You can see the sky, but not the lagoon, the islands or the city buildings (in particular in the boats of the ‘Alilaguna Linea Arancio’ I am generally using to reach more rapidly the center of the city by the Cannaregio Canal). I suppose it’s a question of security due to the boat speed and shape. Unless the regulation has changed recently or the boats have been modified, it is prohibited to stay with the boat operators on the narrow platform (unlike the vaporetto), in any case generally full with suitcases. Tourists on their first trip (often the only one) may be disappointed. This was the case for my teenage son on our first trip, who decided to sulk and read a book without trying to look up. Old wooden as modern plastic water taxis are a pretty nice way of course, but ‘a bit’ expensive.
ReplyDeleteIt’s probably a little old-fashioned, but it’s a nice way to arrive by train in Venezia up to Santa Lucia Station (never stop in Mestre Station, of course). For a long time I went to Venezia by the night train which existed daily from Paris through Switzerland and Milano. I suppose it was possible, and it may be still possible, from many places in Europe. I remember perfectly my first arrival in May 1972, probably around 6:30 am, the shock of the first sight and of the silence. I still keep in mind not a feeling of emptiness and sleep, but of beauty, calm and silence in a real city with real people in their everyday life, and not in a theatre set or a dream as so many people say and write. The silence has often disappeared nowadays (at least before the covid), but there is still a specific noise and resonance in Venezia (sound of doors opening and closing with their electric lock in the silent ‘calli’ for example). Just before the covid, reopening of a regular direct night train line from Paris was announced (it has been always possible to use train from Paris, changing in Milano or Turino, but only during the day, nearly a 12-hour journey, time-consuming and annoying), but it has been suspended due to travel restrictions. It may change, I hope so, when the pandemic is controlled. We all need to learn to travel more often by train, whenever possible.
Thank you for all your posts.
I love your description of how you came to Venice in 1972 and your sense of things upon arrival, Auvraisien, it's much more interesting than the usual, seemingly inevitable characterizations of the "dreamy" city. It confirmed the sense of the gray wintery workaday city I got from a 1970 melodramatic Italian (perhaps made for tv?) movie entitled ANONIMO VENEZIANO, whose story is forgettable but whose use of Venice as a backdrop is far-ranging and fascinating in its ordinariness (if not geographically accurate, as the two characters don't so much seem to walk around the city as teleport themselves from one location to a distant, though no less interesting, spot).
DeleteI think you're correct about the Orange line and the challenges it presents to seeing too much of anything in most cases--the larger boat whose line color I don't recall right now that goes from/to Lido I think might have better windows. I can understand your son just deciding to read instead. And taxis, even with the very minimal discount sometimes offered to residents, are pricey (though one tassista told me it's because their engines are so large their fuel expense for just one trip to and from the airport is substantial, and maybe this is at least partly true?).
The first half dozen times I arrived in Venice we used the "Alilaguna", and I'm quite sure I had a perfectly adequate view from most seats! Could be a pest getting down to the Alilaguna stop, with luggage, and trekking over from Fondamenta Nove...
ReplyDeleteNowadays I tend to use the 'bus directly from the Airport to the Pizzale Roma Bus station now, it's less hassle in many ways, and a No 1 vaporetto gets me very close to where we normally stay.
The sound I actually most connect with Venetian streets and alleys is, perhaps rather sadly, the distinctive clattering of wheeled suitcases. When I heard almost the same sound in a quite street recently, here, it made me quite nostalgic
I think visibility does depend on the line, Ella, or more specifically, on the type of Alilaguna boat that typically operates on that route: the larger boats have seats and windows that are a bit more amenable to a bit of sightseeing.
DeleteFor better or worse the sound of those rolling suitcases has also become intimately associated with Venice for me too. It's nice to think that that sound heard in a place far from Venice recently evoked pleasant memories for you, while the same sound today, when I heard it here in Venice itself, triggered a flash of dread in me: as in, "Oh no, will the crowds soon be back in their former numbers?" Same sound, different contexts, interesting....