I have a question for you about luggage/parking. We will be in Venice for 2 nights and plan on leaving our car in the parking lot Tronchetto and take the water boat to our hotel. We were thinking of leaving most of our luggage in the car, and just taking a small overnight bag to the hotel. Someone told us that the car may be robbed in the parking lot and we should carry all our luggage to your hotel. What do you think about this? Are the parking garages safe enough to leave extra luggage in the car? We will be driving a minivan – Opel Zafira. Thanks very much for your help.

Hi with,

In general, any visible personal effects are subject to theft.

It helps to back up to a wall, if possible.

We parked at Tronchetto and I wouldn't leave anything of value in the car. Noone bothered our car, but the lot is not really monitored. Also, be careful when you are leaving the lot that you don't get onto a private boat that will cost quite a bit. there are men who look official at the entrance to the garage who will point you to a private and expensive boat instead of the public boats/waterbuses.

There is a service at the Venice airport where you can check luggage. You could drop it off before you park your car. I am not sure of the cost, but at least it would be safe.

This might or might not be wise, from several standpoints, but a (Zafira or any other) minivan will almost surely have an understructure to the (rear) seats which would permit the attachment of a bike cable/lock. I deally, you would not hve any personal belongings visible at all, but if this is hard to avoid, then I think the cable/lock would serve as a deterrent to break-in theft.

I guess others could argue that such measures might be interpreted as meaning &quot;there are <i>really</i> valuable items inside this bag&quot; - - so in theory it could lead to a thief inclined in breaking in, with the intent of slashing the bag, and rummaging for the &quot;goodies&quot;.

Concealing, or using the check-in option at the airport would be at the top of my list of strategies... or just pack light enough that taking every bag is not such a bad choice.

Best wishes,

Rex

We parked in the Tronchetto last year and were told it is monitored very much and we left 90% of our stuff in the trunk. Nothing was visible to entice anyone. We had no problems what-so-ever. Everything was safe and sound 3 days later. Of course it was only clothes. We had taken the camera and laptop with us and enough clothes for 3 days. It was our first stop on our vacation so we had not yet purchased a bunch of stuff yet. I say, leave your clothes in the trunk.