aliced

What Venice should have banned is the obnoxious and huge Michael Kors billboard on the Grand Canal directly opposite the train station. Now, forgive me, if another retailer has taken up this space since our visit 2 years ago. I don't like his product line and like it even less after I saw this atrocity.

I do not believe the City can afford to introduce such a tourist-limiting ban. Fellow visitors, consider booking your stay away from the train station where hundreds and hundreds roll by daily. Yes, they are a bit noisy on the cobblestones but how many people travel with anything else?

Fra_Diavolo

Although I am of partial Italian descent, I do tend to see the old country as a sort of comic opera with buffoons singing the leads.

bvlenci

Annhig, The headline of the Italian article does mention rolling suitcases, which are called "trolley" (both singular and plural) in Italian. However, other types of merchandise carts can also be called trolley. In fact that may have contributed to the confusion in some of the Italian sources.

Further down in the article, the commissioner is quoted as saying, "Il documento contiene esclusivamente un riferimento ai mezzi di trasporto merci via terra, ovverosia i carri e i transpallet, che avendo le ruote dure rovinano gli storici masegni veneziani, oltre a provocare inquinamento acustico particolarmente fastidioso se avviene nelle prime ore della giornata, quando ancora molti cittadini dormono. "

[ The document refers exclusively to means of transporting goods, that is, handcarts and "transpallet" (a cart with four wheels for transporting pallets), which, having hard wheels, ruin the historic Venetian "masegni" (paving stones made from a porous volcanic stone), in addition to causing noise pollution, particularly annoying if it occurs in the early hours of the day, when many Venetians are still asleep.]

AJPeabody

From NPR:
"Correction
Nov. 21, 2014
After this report was broadcast, city officials in Venice issued statements saying that they are not planning to ban rolling suitcases. The regulations they are considering would apply to trolleys and handcarts used by vendors."

annhig

bvl - that's how I had translated it - phew. It even made the Radio 4 news this am and I was able to tell DH to stop panicking - he would not need to come with me as my sherpa. [not that he'd mind that much - he loves Venice too].

bvlenci

Given that the word trolley is a general term that can be used to mean both suitcases and handcarts, I have to ask myself whether Mr. Hoe-the-garden is backing off his earlier intentions. Especially since a handcart would almost always be called a "carrello".

annhig

Commissioner Zappalorto>>

thank you so much for the translation of his name, which I have to say I wouldn't have guessed but makes sense now you point it out.

There are some great gardening terms but my favourite is the past participle of potare [to prune e.g. roses] which is "potato".

Holly_uncasdewar

Here is what my landlord in Venice emailed me this a.m. in response to my query:

"The last madness!

Indeed, we do not know anything for sure yet, but all the tourist operators in Venice are in trouble over this rule, which initially seemed to interest the large, old wagons owned by commercial activities in Rialto only, for the reason that they do damage on the flooring with their solid weels... but now it seems to be extended to common travel trolley too as an anti-noise measure... there will be allowed only inflatable (!?!) wheels.

Now frankly I do not know of any kind of travel trolleys with inflatable tyres for sale... so probably it will be withdrawn.

However, I'll keep you informed."

Sojourntraveller

Much ado about nothing.

It does however raise the question of why the majority of tourists find a rolling suitcase necessary. The comment by annhig(could have been by most tourists) that, "i don't fancy carrying my luggage very far." and "I was able to tell DH to stop panicking - he would not need to come with me as my sherpa.", point to the issue and question most tourists should be asking themselves, WHY do they pack so much stuff that their bag becomes too heavy to comfortably carry and need to make jokes about requiring a sherpa?

Try packing light and being able to carry your bag yourself comfortably.

annhig

WHY do they pack so much stuff that their bag becomes too heavy to comfortably carry and need to make jokes about requiring a sherpa?>>

well we can rely on you not to make any jokes, SJ.

being serious for a minute, the reason I don't want to carry my luggage very far is that I have previously suffered from a frozen shoulder and would prefer not to do so again, if it's all the same to you.

bvlenci

I have never seen as many amusing surnames in any country as in Italy. There's a lawyer near where we live called "Pigliapoco", which means "takes little" (or doesn't take a lot).

Then there's "bites-ear", "rest-shoulder", "beautiful-leg", "short-leg", and "castrates-dog". It's a game in Italy to find pairs of strange surnames. For instance, suppose Mr. La Puzza (the stink) marries Miss Dal Cesso (of the cesspool).

But the very strangest surnames are numbers. I once saw, on the rolling credits of a news program, a director named "Cinquantaquattro" (fifty-four). I thought I must have seen wrong, but I looked in the online white pages and see that it is indeed a surname. Not only that, most of the numbers under twenty are also surnames, and many of those above twenty. I can't imagine how these names came about. I've looked up a few of them, but remain unenlightened for the most part. "Thirtytwo", according to a legend, is the number of people in a town in Puglia who survived an enemy massacre. I doubt that all of these number surnames are descended from the survivors of massacres.

annhig

thanks again, bvl, for the elucidation.I didn't know that about italian surnames being numbers. I'm sure that you know that we have a tradition of surnames that reflect the professions of the father [never the mother, as I suppose they didn't work - that's a joke!] or place names.

more confusing are the "christian" names which are days of the week [Tuesday for example] months, [April, May ,June] or place names [India is quite popular]. I've no idea why some are acceptable, but others aren't.

Sojourntraveller

I understand some people may have a physical limitation that makes a wheeled bag attractive to them annhig and obviously there is no objection to that. However, it doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of tourists pack far more than they need to. Just look at the departures area of any airport in the world. Imagine the difference in how quickly and easily things would go if everyone just travelled with what they could confortably carry.

Check this picture. Tourist on left, tourist on right, traveller in the middle.
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...ng-TG-C-1.html

Peter_S_Aus

Some people travel with minimal luggage. It depends on the destination(s), length of stay, activities that one may contemplate doing whilst there.

We travel relatively heavy when we visit Venice, because we stay for a couple of months. We also buy quite a lot of stuff in Venice, things that are either unobtainable in Australia, or which we like and are cheaper in Venice than in Aus. So we need wheels.

Could be that the "traveller" mentioned above has handed her luggage to one of the gentlemen beside her. Anecdotes are no data.

The "no wheels in Venice" thing is just a phurphy.

bilboburgler

Ah, I love to wake up in Venice to the natural sound of the wheels drumming through the alleys.

IMDonehere

Here is the solution, the first hover board. Just put your luggage on top of it, put on a dog leash, and you are set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSheVhmcYLA

Be careful Flanny, Venice is going to ban misanthropes.

annhig

I understand some people may have a physical limitation that makes a wheeled bag attractive to them annhig and obviously there is no objection to that.>>

so kind SJ. ref that picture you posted, the girl in the middle might have been a guide or perhaps she brought her own sherpa.

Sojourntraveller

Or perhaps she just travels light. Do you actually think no one does so?

People travel for long terms (months, years) with as little as 11 lbs./5 kg. as I wrote above. They don't need wheels (which only add weight) or sherpas. They go to the same places and do the same things as anyone else. The difference is they do so without needing a heavy bag or wheels to handle the weight because they can't carry it.

All it takes is starting by saying, 'I won't carry more than x pounds'. Once you set that limit, everything else has to fit into that criteria.

NYCFoodSnob

<i><font color=#555555>"I understand some people may have a physical limitation that makes a wheeled bag attractive to them"</font></i>

Attractive is a gross and ignorant understatement. Many travelers are older now, and that trend will continue. There are serious health benefits to wheeled luggage. Using your neck and shoulders to carry uneven weight, especially when tired, can do serious damage to your body. Ask any orthopedic specialist.

<i><font color=#555555>"the vast majority of tourists pack far more than they need to"</font></i>

And the weight of their luggage and what they pack is none of your business.

The vast majority of tourists are not experienced travelers. The more you travel, the more you learn what is or is not necessary.

No two travelers have the same needs. Not everyone flying these days is on vacation at a beach resort.

<i><font color=#555555>"Imagine the difference in how quickly and easily things would go if everyone just travelled with what they could confortably carry."</font></i>

Comfortable and carrying luggage is an oxymoron. Unless you're a business traveler, carrying only today's newspaper and a 9-pound briefcase (very rare) and not staying overnight, there is absolutely no way to travel and carry luggage comfortably. The average, smart traveler learns his or her pain threshold and plans around it.

<i><font color=#555555>"People travel for long terms (months, years) with as little as 11 lbs./5 kg."</font></i>

Unless you're visiting a nudist colony without luggage, I don't believe it, and I find the statement ridiculous and silly. It's extremely difficult to find an empty piece of luggage that weighs less than 11 lbs. And determining whether it's worth its cost deserves its own thread.

Sojourntraveller, spare us your communist rants on how you think everyone should travel.

annhig

NYC - i think that you are being unfair to communists. Have you seen SJ's recommended hotel on lake Maggiore? i find it difficult to believe that he showed up there with only 5kgs of luggage.

http://www.hoteltamaroascona.com/de/galerie