GoPlanB - don't worry about boats in Venice. It isn't necessary to take one, though I wonder how your family member will do on the train, which rocks more any vaporetto on the canal. In any case, as a previous poster stated, you can walk from the train station. You could have your luggage loaded on to the vaporetto (there are porters) of if you prefer private transfer, a water taxi. Then one of you would go with the luggage and the other would walk with the affected family member. While in Venice you won't need to get another boat. There are two bridges that cross the Canal Grande, Accademia and Rialto, so anything you want to do on the other side of the Canal will just require a bit of walking to get to, but in reality, that's the best way to learn Venice - through the soles of your feet.

Sandra

Hello Sandra,
Thank you for the waterbus tip, I have never thought about this neat idea, ie, take the waterbus with the luggage and the other will walk.
Now, this lead to another question, will the waterbus driver allow you to haul your luggage on board?
So much for now.

Why would you want one person to walk and not go on the vaporetto?

Sorry, ignore my question - I see why now!

We spent a weekend in Florence in February & stayed at the Palazzo Gamba - here's a link to their website;

http://www.palazzogambaflorence.com/index.html

The location is simply extraordinary - if you have a look at the website, that's not trick photography; it really is that yellow building overlooking the main door of the Duomo.

We stayed in the 2 bedroom Michaelangelo apartment which is one of the apartments featured in their website photos. The double bedroom was unremarkable but perfectly acceptable. The other bedroom, however, was something special. It had a high frescoed ceiling & huge windows on two sides thanks to it's corner position. There were two single beds as well as a variety of rollaways & a sort of mini sofa-bed - I'm really not too sure how many people it could have accommodated if pushed. The view overlooking the Duomo was just sensational.

Minus points? Well the lounge/kitchen was nothing to write home about as it felt almost as though it was situated in a sort of hallway between the two bedrooms (although, to be fair, the kitchen was well enough equipped). That wasn't a problem for us as we didn't spend much time indoors &, when we did, we sat in the big bedroom & watched the world go by.

I suppose another potential problem might be noise. It didn't bother us in the slightest but I daresay that Florence is a very different city in the height of the season to what it is in February. Given the Palazzo Gamba's central location some street noise is probably inevitable.

Those minor points aside, I would certainly recommend the Palazzo Gamba & if (when!) we go back to Florence it will be top of my list for somewhere to stay.

Jim