Sorry it's taken me so long to get this blog up. I wrote it on the plane on the way home, but haven't been able to actually post it to the internet until now. This is not my final post about Italy...I have one more reflective post that I will get to before the weekend, so please check back for that one. Until then, here's our last weekend in Venice.
Christine and I read in a blog about Venice of a new “People Mover” to transport people from the parking garage and the cruise ships to the island. Since it was just the 2 of us this weekend, we decided to give it a shot and see what it was all about. When I think “people mover,” I think of one of those moving conveyor belts at the airport where you just stand and it moves you along. This Venetian “People Mover” was essentially a monorail over the water, connecting the mainland to the island, and is supposed to be much more efficient than the vaporettos. It costs €1 for a one way ride, and there are 3 stops; The beginning, at the parking garage, one stop in the middle for the cruise ship passengers, and then the end at Piazza le Roma, where all the train traffic arrives. Considering the price, ease, and speed of getting from one side to the other, the people mover turned out to be highly convenient. A one way ride on the vaporetto (water bus) costs €6,50 and it generally takes at least 30 minutes to get from tronchetto (the parking garage area) to your destination. The only drawback to the people mover was the location of drop-off. The vaporettos obviously have more access to the areas in Venice, and you can generally find a bus stop somewhere within 3-5 blocks from your destination. Piazza le Roma was easy for the location of our hotel, but if we had been staying on the other side of the island, we would have had a hike to get to our hotel.
