RufusTFirefly

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.

tinarose

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?

NYCFoodSnob

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!

Zeus

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

ira

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.

sicula

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.

Holly_uncasdewar

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?

Txrangerterry

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!

NYCFoodSnob

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

faithonholiday

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.

madmax

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.)

Rick

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

amcc

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.

Holly_uncasdewar

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

robbiegirl

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.

chardonnay

robbiegirl, you made me smile, thanks.

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

SeaUrchin

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?

robbiegirl

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.

faithonholiday

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.

WillTravel

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.