Venice does have streets and alleyways and sidewalks--some wide, some narrow, some along canals, most not, but, unlike the USA, all are for pedestrians, pushcarts, and baby carriages only.

I drive my car over many bridges, some are even floating bridges. Should I consider getting life jackets for all passengers and the driver? How about replacing seat cushions with flotation devices? Replacing the visor with a flotation visor? Do I need a flotation device for my most frequent passenger, my dog?

Faith, your last paragraph may have the answer. Will this trip devolve to babysitting a nervous family member until you lose sight of why you went in the first place?

Hey, Holly_underwear, better pull that G-string down, girl, before you start flossing with it. I didn't call you a liar and nor did I suggest the event did not take place. So, chill, hon!

Don't worry! If your gondola tips over you can walk to shore on top of the garbage.

Hi Rex,

From the American Heritage Dictionary

Street: "A public way or thoroughfare in a city or town, usually with a sidewalk or sidewalks. b. Such a public way considered apart from the sidewalks: ... c. A public way or road along with the houses or buildings abutting it.."

Note that there is no reference to vehicular traffic.

Rex:

You wrote, "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!)..." - -

I heard that Venice is sinking but until now I didn't realize just how far.

That was pretty crude even for you, NYCFS. You certainly are the epitome of "If it weren't for low class, she wouldn't have any at all" now, aren't you?

What's the matter? New man in your life "out" on you already?

Just back from a rainy week in Venice and tourists were wearing life jackets in gondolas. Mind you, not everyone, but enough that we noticed!

What's this...a pot (T-Fal) calling a kettle (Alessi) black?

Aha, life jackets! I will have to tell her, we are having a family GTG tonight.

I would assume the government would require that they at least carry them on board, but maybe not, I am thinking in American terms here!

Good point about babysitting my lil' cousin! She is the baby of the family for sure, although just a few years younger than I am.

All joking (and cat-fighting) aside, the basic thing to keep in mind is that Venice is a wonderfully safe, and wonderful place. Not knowing how to swim is no reason to skip it. Your cousin can even bring her own life-jacket. I'm not kidding. (Though I can't imagine seeing someone walking around there in a life-jacket myself.)

I can easily hear my mother-in-law saying the same thing to my wife. Wife was deathly afraid of water and flying when we first met. Now we fly to England to go canal boating and I don't have to fill her full of trank's to get there and she never asks about life jackets when we get the boat. but if her mother was still around I'm sure she would fret until we got back.

Rick

I've travelled quite a bit and Venice just surprised me. It was the first stop on my honeymoon, so I was still shell-shocked when I got there and the place I least researched, but the lack of streets just blew me away. I guess somewhere in my head, I figured there was a part of the city where there were cars, and then there was the part with canals. But there are only canals and pedestrian passages. I don't think the average person will fall into a canal anymore than they would trip off a sidewalk and fall into traffic, but in reality, if you do trip, in some areas you CAN fall into a canal. So, I think that Venice, for someone with a fear of water or drowning, would be a horrible choice for a vacation.

I'm scared of frogs, so camping in a rainforest on vacation is pretty out of the question. What I would do with your cousin is go somewhere else where there would be less anxiety about water, maybe Rome or Florence where the water is less omnipresent.

Just make sure she doesn't watch the movie Summertime before she goes, or she'll never get on the plane.

I am a Clinical Resource Manager on an Oncology floor in a very busy hospital.

I come home from work and check this board.

I have to say, this topic really made me smile. Daily I see people who wish they would have and could have done this and that.

Go to Venice and bring an inflatable innertube or something. Blow it up right before the gondola trip and then toss it in the garbage can afterward.. my goodness.

robbiegirl, you made me smile, thanks.

I could just picture Cousin walking with an innertube! Maybe one with a horsey head?

Oh no, we American tourists have enough of a reputation, now if we start wearing horse headed flotation tubes on the Grand Canal what will be next, swim fins?

Hmmm, a horse head in Italy??? Now THAT might be asking for trouble. How about a fish or something.. a rubber ducky.

Really, Faith. Please do not feel that we are making fun of what you had written. We are just playing around and seriously mean you no harm. I truthfully doubt the gondola will tip over.

Please look online and really see how many of them have capsized. She is more likely to be hit by a car walking across the street.

Thanks for all the encouraging posts but after our family meeting things have changed.

Her parents offer/insist that they subsidize our trip and that we go first class on them, if we don't go to Venice.

Now I don't like to be bought out, but a free first class trip would be nice too. I am tempted to accept and then we would work on a new itinerary, luckily my cousin and I get along fine because I understand her (knowing her parents).

I will post our tentative and see if it passes Fodorite scrutiny.

Faith, I think that sounds like a good deal. Your cousin can always go to Venice on her own when she's a little more confident. I wouldn't advocate capitulating to parents, but if they are paying, they're allowed to have silly whims, and it's not like you won't see a lot elsewhere.

I guess if she fell in a lake and nearly drowned, you can understand her parent's point of view, but I personally would have insisted on swimming lessons a long time before this!! How old is she again to have her parents still be insisting what she does? My mother had swimming lessons at the grand old age of 76, because she couldn't swim well and always wanted to! Anyway, I'd go first class too and go to Venice without her another time!

Yep, I agree, take them up on their offer and go back w/o her with the money you have saved.

Are you going to have to swear to them that you will go to a place completely without water?

I do think they are just fanning her fears to keep her under their wings, that would bother me, but I guess you are used to it. Maybe you can edge her a little towards the coast?

Those are some really sick people. They need help.

This topic has certainly given me some things to think about. The next time I visit to a hilltown, I'm taking along bottled oxygen in case of pulmonary edema from the altitude. And I'm cancelling my visit to Pisa for obvious reasons.

If they feel so strongly about it that they will pay for the trip if you don't go to Venice, I agree; Go to Venice another time without her.

Stay away from Rome. Too many fountains.

Why not get them to pay for you to go to Verona?
You can then hop on a bus and go to Venice. Of course Lake Garda is probably out too!

Faith : The situation they've now put you in stinks - but I see your point. Bruges (only for a day or two) might also be a new option now, just to give your cousin a taste of what she's missing.

You all are funny people - Thanks again!

This post has just cranked up my urge 100% to return to the lovely Venezia for a second visit!

Tam

I agree with Rufus--those parents need professional help. I sure hope they haven't been this controlling and obsessive about this issue their child's whole life. And how old is this "adult" child of theirs? Can she not form opinions on her own?

After playing dodgeball with cars on sidewalks, vespas, bikes and the general chaos that makes Italy such a delightful mess, we found Venice a car free oasis of relaxation. If you're feeling like you need to wear a lifejacket in Venice, then you should probably consider wearing a helmet as a pedestrian in Florence and Rome....hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad idea :-)

As for those controlling, manipulative parents - I wouldn't take a penny of their dirty money, you're just acting as an enabler for their head games. However, if you do take their money, I'd go to Venice anyway. These people deserve to have their strings pulled for a change, it might even be considered therapeutic for your cousin to break out of her shell.

Wait a minute, NYCFS is gracious enough to "thank" Holly for the Rosalba/e-mail suggestion and then Holly comes back to bite off NYCFS's head because NYC can't find any corroborating documentation? Then, after Holly screams with condescension at NYC, Holly accuses NYC of being crude and classless? What's wrong with this picture?

This thread is funny and so are many on this board. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for my swim.

I think we have the characters and plot for a novel here!

Byrd

I agree with 39Steps. Take their money and go to Venice anyway. Hopefully, little cousin will get a backbone and cut those apron strings. She should take a traghetto ride, standing of course, and you can take a picture of her doing so. What a souvenir to give to Mom and Dad! It's a shame that parents who can afford to send their child and a companion on a first class trip to Italy couldn't have spent some money on that child earlier in life to give her proper swimming lessons.

It would be wrong to take the money under false pretenses.

Either take the money and don't see Venice, or don't take the money and see Venice.

Well the tip about not watching 'Summertime' before the trip is a good one..but then again, while Katherine Hepburn did make it out of the canal, she apparently never got over the nasty eye infection she'd gotten there. It goes to show 'ya..ya always worry about the wrong things.

So much material on this forum for years and years of comedy, keep them coming!

The plot thickens: We have decided to celebrate her 40th Birthday in Italy. Yes, 40! (but this means we will have to travel in March).

She has lived a charmed life in her parent's guest house, working as a wedding decorator when she gets bored. She is a lovely person really and I think it is time she lived life instead of watching it in old movies, which she does every day.

I'm going to call her when I have a few minutes and get started planning, I'll start a new thread for tips. I have a few ideas up my sleeve....

A "wedding decorator" whatever next?

40 years old? I thought she was perhaps 19 to 21. If she wants to go to Venice, she should definitely earn the money for it.