Life Jackets on Gondolas in Venice?
 

Hi, I think my cousin may join me on a trip to Italy, but her mother told her since she can't swim she shouldn't go to Venice.

She heard about a gondola capsizing on the canal and the people falling out, I said they must have life jackets but she is freaked out.

Anybody seen lifejackets on the gondolas or busses? Or is this a red flag that she shouldn't go at all (for my sake)? She hasn't traveled very far from home before.

Thanks, Faith.

I would hate to think that one's lack of swimming skills would prevent them from travelling to Italy. Seems downright ridiculous.

Number One- It is not necessary to go on a Gondola ride. Venice is very manageable on foot.

Number Two- I don't think they have life jackets on the gondolas. I might be wrong, but I never saw them.

Don't let something so small and unimportant stop you from going to see the world. I don't know how old your cousin is, but it sounds like her mother doesn't want her to ever leave home.
Hope to see you here.

Sorry, Faith, but this is one of the funniest titles I've seen here!

Tell your cousin to learn to swim. Good life skill, anyway. It is certainly possible to fall in the water in Venice - or practically anywhere else.

not to be disrespectful..but while travelling via vaporetto to the islands on a particularly rainy day in Venice, my partner told me the story of the capsizing vaporetto. My first response was..well to have seen Venice would have been worth it!

The gondolas aren't meant to be the sole means of transport around Venice's waterways -- that is why they have the vaporetti! I have never heard of anyone falling out of a gondola (unless they were drunk?!). The gondoliers are experienced rowsmen who know the waterways like the back of their hands. They certainly wouldn't put their boat or passengers in jeopardy or possible collision with another boat, etc. There is nothing to worry about! If it is a major concern, then ride the vaporetti - you will be safe there high above the water!

Well with that kind of thinking anybody who can't swin has to stay away from any oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds, can never go on a cruise, on a ferry, or on any airplane flying over water. Your cousin wouldn't be able to go anywhere!

No neither gondolas nor vaporetti have life jackets - there would be no room for passengers if they were all wearing life jackets. (FYI - in many places in Venice if the boat sank - I can't imagine how - all you would have to do is stand on top of it - the water there is generally VERY shallow.)

This is the silliest posit I have ever read here!

I think that there ARE life jackets - - almost certainly on vaporetti - - and truth be told, I bet you that there actually is some kind of flotation device even on gondole. The gondolier has some kind of compartment(s) in the back I think.

While the question seems a bit silly (to those eho have been there - - but someone uninformed might think that there is gondola traffic out on the open Mediterranean Sea!) - - there is not as much fun poked at those who have fear of flying. And we don't even know that the cousin or her mother have any actual fear in this situation. It was just a question for pity sake!

Best wishes,

Rex

If her mother is that concerned, promise her that your cousin won't go on a gondola or vaporetto. It's not necessary as you can walk just about anywhere as long as you don't want to go to one of the smaller lagoon islands or the Lido. It's highly unlikely that any vaporetto would capsize or sink--certainly the ones that service the canals of the old city would not be exposed to conditions conducive to such an eventuality.

Oh, the vaporetti do have flotation devices for passengers.

Any further info on that capsizing vaporetto?

Strikes me as something one tells greenhorns.

Yipes, if I ever fell in "that" water I would hope to drown because I know that the fecal bacteria would certainly kill me anyway!

I thought this was a joke, but I guess not. It would be very difficult to drown while on a gondola ride. Most of the canals are pretty narrow and shallow, and there are always lots of other boats around.

Besides - they strap you in, so that if it flips over, they can just right it up, and you'll just be a little wet!!!
:-)

Lifejackets on buses?

Ira, I, too, have been trying to confirm this.

Holly_uncasdewar claimed in the following thread that she read in Veniceword.com a traghetto with 16 people capsized in mid-November 2003:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34459709

I've searched numerous archives and there is no record of this event. I'm sorry I didn't ask friends in Venice over the holiday but I intend to e-mail an inquiry.

Howard--yes, on the water buses (vaporetti).

Rufus, of course. How stupid of me! Oh well, it's still early in the day!

Hi
As indicated above, faithonholiday's cousin's mother must be thinking of very old movies and books and is under the impression that gondolas are a form of mass transit nowadays. They aren't, any more than the horse-drawn carriages around Central Park in NYC are.

Vaporettos are wide and large water buses. I suppose water accidents are possible, but so are land bus and automobile accidents 24-7 everywhere else, and with much more frequency and higher fatality rates.

By the way, I wouldn't want to swim in the canals either, but they are not open sewers. Venice has pipes, and sewage treatment plants.

Silly or not, the depth of the water in the canals aren't too deep to begin with. If a gondola ever capsized I think one could almost walk ashore.

Sorry, Elaine, but Venice has no sewage treatment plant. So far, the canals are it and it's been this way since the beginning.

Hi NYCFS,

I can understand an overloaded traghetto overturning, but a vaporetto capsizing?

NYCFS: I remember seeing the article about the capsized traghetto in Buongiorno Venezia. If I remember correctly it was felt the accident was caused by the boat being overloaded with too many passengers.

Will be interested in what you are able to find out.

NYCFS - why don't you email Rosalba at Veniceword and ask her to either email you the (now old) news item or at least confirm the story.

regarding Venice and sewers, I could be wrong, but I've read elsewhere to the contrary. Perhaps "sewage treatment" is an overly optimistic term for me to use. But there are canals in Venice, and there are sewers (many of which unfortunately empty into canals or the lagoon), but they are not one and the same.

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/...out_venice.htm

http://www.airvac.com/news.htm

http://www.dhi.dk/softcon/papers/042/042/042.htm

Thank you, Giovanna and Holly, I will research further.

The NYTimes and the International Tribune came up with nothing in their archives, which surprised me. 16 passengers capsizing in Venice this past November seems like a story that would get published extensively. Yet, nothing on Google or Yahoo.

Elaine, there is tremendous hope that Venice will create a sewage system in tandem with the creation of Moses Gates. Many researchers are working on this issue and Airvac is just one company that has been able to achieve a little success (very little).

All of Venice's sewage is currently dumped into the canals and these are flushed (for lack of a better term) twice daily into the Adriatic Sea. This is just one reason why the Moses Gates project is so controversial. There is considerable fear of what might occur if you stop the constant circulation of canal water, even for just a few hours. It's a fascinating subject.

There may be life jackets stored on vaporetti - but the passengers certainly don't wear them - and by the time they could be found, handed out and put on by a boat full of people - I'm sure the boat would have reached shore.

Zootsi - Thanks for the chuckle :)

Tam

For what it's worth, we did see someone wind up in the water at the beginning of January. Brrrrr. Cold!

Not sure what happened. We were walking in a somewhat remote area, and we heard a commotion up ahead on a canal bank. An older woman was in the water struggling to get out, and some people were helping to pull her out.

Looked like she walked down one of the canal stairways (which I would assume are used to access private boats) and fell in. A restaurant/pub was nearby, so we assumed she was drunk.

Moral of the story - boats in Venice are very safe. Foolish people, though, can be dangerous.

Why would 16 passengers capsizing in Venice make the paper in New York? No one said there were injuries did they?

Would the evacuation of 16 people from an office building in Vienna - - due to a fire - - be expected to make the New York Times? If no one was injured?

These days, it would be on CNN.

Maybe, maybe not. In our town of Westerville, Ohio there was big coverage when candidate Bush came to our kids' high school. But then he came to the other two high schools in Westerville subsequently. Yawn.

Newsworthy depends on slow news days.

In the Dorsodoro area we watched either a drunken or a handicapped man (we couldn't tell from the distance) fall into the deep canal and pull his dog in with him. I didn't get to see what happened because we were on a vaparetto going the other way. It has worried me ever since.

Oh Rex, puhleeeze. You're not that naive in Ohio.

Evacuating 16 people from an office building on fire in Vienna can hardly compare to 16 being capsized in the Grand Canal of Venice. Fires are far more common than gondolas capsizing with a boatload full in Venice. This is just the kind of item one might find on pages 2-3 of the NY Times Travel section or, especially their website.

Ira is right, I doubt CNN would ever pass on an item like this. Venice is a hot topic these days and every tourist (and writer) who visits this city can imagine themselves falling into the Grand Canal in absolute horror. Since when does someone have to get hurt to make the news?

Traghettos travel on the GC only and the GC averages a depth of 9 feet but can go as deep as 13 feet near the Rialto. The smaller canals range from 3-5 feet deep.

zootsi may think it's funny but doctors insist you can drown with just a teaspoon of water. Here's some interesting reading:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydispl...ondsubsection=

...and happy drinking and swimming everyone.

Hey, hon, just because YOU can't find the article anywhere

DOESN'T MEAN IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Okay, call me naive, but I would still submit that we have no idea how common or rare it is for folks to end up in the water while using public transportation in Venice. I also have no idea how common fires in Vienna are. How would I?

Okay - - case in point - - a story in Corriere della Sera involving a gondola and 12 passengers; had to be evacuated; two minor injuries - - http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/C.../gondola.shtml

This made news outside of Italy where?

Good morning, I am sure it must have happened because that part of the family dwells on disaster news, they will pick out the tiniest article and talk about it like it happens every day.

My cousin is an adult, but really belongs in the Victorian Era, she is naive and just now starting to peck out of her shell. This is why I want to encourage her but not at my own (expensive) expense (she is deathly afraid of water after near drowning in a lake). She thinks you exit your hotel and have to tiptoe around deep canals in the dark (I don't want to come back after dinner so she won't fall in).

I have no idea what the canals are like so excuse my question - to me it isn't silly.

Even on this thread where you are all experienced travelers there is no certain knowledge if life jackets are provided in an emergency (thanks for checking the internet, I will read the articles now).

Thanks again all of you, and keep me updated!

Hi faith,

Venice has real streets, just like in the US. In some cases, there is a canal instead of a road between the streets.

Sometimes the street has a bridge going over the canal.

It is not easy to fall into a canal, even at night.

You would really have to work at it to fall into the water. Most streets are not along canals. Streets along canals that tourists would wander about on are wide enough that there is essentially no danger of falling in. Getting onto and off of a vaporetto is very easy--you'd just about have to want to get into the water and make a big effort to do so.

<<Venice has real streets, just like in the US. In some cases, there is a canal instead of a road between the streets.>>

Oh, ira - - this is terribly misleading to tell a newcomer to Venice! Venice HAS NO streets on which any vehicular traffic occurs, except for a few handcarts. There are ONLY canals. Now its true, there are PEDESTRIAN "streets", some as narrow as a driveway, a few reminiscent of an outdoor mall. There are a modest number of big canals (meaning as big as a driveway, and only one GIANT canal - - the Grande Canal has (foot) bridges over it that are close to 100 yars in span, faith - - it's about as wide as a four lane highway, i.e, it's like a small river. All the canals have "sidewalks" (or pedestrian "streets" if you prefer) - - usually, but not always, on both sides of the banks. They might be as marrow as six people abreast, or as wide as 16. Along the Grande Canal, there are whole (little) restaurants at the canalside, with the tables pushed right up against the railing.

There is plenty of basis for reassuring you and your cousin, but telling you that Venice has streets, "just like in the US" is laughably misleading you!

Geez, I'm with you Rex, this strikes me as a perfectly rational question, given that in the majority of situations, the rule is: nonswimmer + boat = life jacket.

As for the amusing, I suggest this as alternative: if a tree falls in a forest and the NYTimes doesn't report on it, did it make a sound? :)