A
water-bus is the
quickest way of getting between
far-flung points, and even in
cases where it might be quicker
to walk, a canal trip is
sometimes the more pleasant way
of covering the distance. The
lack of clear numbering on many
of the boats is confusing at
first, and the ACTV map of the
lagoon transport system seems at
first glance to resemble the
wiring diagram of a telephone
exchange, but in fact the routes
are pretty straightforward.
There are two basic types of
boat: the vaporetti ,
which are the lumbering
workhorses used on the Canal
Grande stopping service and
other heavily used routes, and
the motoscafi , smaller
vessels employed on routes where
the volume of traffic isn't as
great (at the moment this means
the two 'circular routes' -
#41/42 and #51/52). On both
types there's a flat-rate
fare of L6000/3.10 for any
one continuous journey (unless
it's a traghetto journey in
which case the fare is
L3000/1.65); a return ticket
costs L10,000/5.17.
Tickets are available
from most landing stages, from tabacchi
, from shops displaying the ACTV
sign, at the airport, from the
main tourist office, and from
the two ACTV public offices - at
Piazzale Roma (daily: summer
6am-midnight; winter 6am-8pm),
and in Ramo dei Fuseri, close to
the northwest corner of the
Piazza (Mon-Fri 7.30am-6pm, Sat
7.30am-1pm). The Ramo dei Fuseri
office is your best source of
free up-to-date colour maps of
the main routes, as the tourist
offices seem to run out of them
very quickly. In the remoter
parts of the city, you may not
be able to find anywhere to buy
a ticket, particularly after
working hours, when the booths
at the landing stages tend to
close down; tickets can be
bought on board at the standard
price, as long as you ask the
attendant a soon as you get on
board; if you delay, you could
be liable for a L26,000/13.46
spot-fine.
The ACTV web site is at
ACTV produces three tourist
tickets : a one-day
(24hr) ticket (L18,000/9.3); a three-day
(72hr) ticket (L35,000/18.08),
and a seven-day (168hr) ticket
(L60,000/30.99), all of which
can be used on all water- and
land buses within Venice. There
are also 24-hour tickets for
families of three, four and five
(but children under the age of
four can travel free), as well
as a Canal Grande , a Laguna
Nord (Northern Lagoon) and a
Chioggia ticket; the last
three all cost L15,000/?7.75,
and allow unlimited travel along
the specified routes for twelve
hours.
If you buy one of these
tickets at the train station or
Piazzale Roma it will in all
likelihood be automatically validated
, unless you specifically
request a non-validated ticket;
the same goes for ordinary
tickets. When using a non-validated
ticket you must validate it
before embarking, by inserting
it into one of the machines at
the entrance to the vaporetto
stop or on board the bus (the
machines are painted orange);
the ticket is valid from that
moment, and you need to validate
it just once. The Carta
Venezia , which is
advertised at many vaporetto
stops and gives huge reductions
on all ACTV services, is not
available to non-residents.
