Verses On The Vaporetti

  Inspired by London's Poems on the Underground here is a link to what loosely translates as Verses On The Vaporetti, although I’m slightly puzzled by the need for it: I can understand why you might want to contemplate some inspiring verse when you’re trapped on the tube in London. But bored on the boat in Venice? Are we nearly there? Oh not, not the Grand Canal again? Now where are those poems? Mind The Gap.

"Street Art?” In Venice: A City Without Streets

Although the ambassador to Charles VII of France said in 1495 that the Grand Canal was "the most beautiful street in the world," and although it is full of traffic, it isn't like any other street. And nor are any of the other canals. But no streets doesn’t mean no street art. Here’s a selection, starting with some political satire on the Vogalonga boat race around Venice, continuing with some trenchant commentary on the Venice Bienniale arts festival, and ending with a cheeky bit of street art/opportunism from Marc-Antoine Leval, who needs to do his homework - this isn't Banksy's signature.


 

Venice: Pedestrian City

Venice is the world's only pedestrian city: Great for walkers. Bad for bikes (banned), buggies, wheelchairs (although some vaporetti are wheelchair-accessible, there is the small matter of all those bridges), hydro-phobics, petrol heads and traffic engineers, not to mention Google Streetview (no streets for that Google camera car). As well as getting around on foot, Venice does have public transport in the form of the water buses run by ACTV (vaporetti are the larger variety, while the slimmer and faster boats which ply the inner canals are motoscafi. The double-decker motonavi, more like small ferries, ply the Lido). Most canals in the city are too small for public transport and the larger craft can only pass around the outskirts of the city or through the central, wider canals. All other areas can only be reached by foot, or the eye-wateringly expensive water taxis. Sometimes known as La Serenissima, Venice may be quiet, but it isn't silent - the main canals are commercial arteries, full of chugging boats delivering passengers and supplies, removing garbage, ferrying the living and the dead (we saw a coffin on a water-borne hearse). The boatmen shout out, engines throb, horns hoot and toot (this is Italy) and an occasional speedboat passes by with a sound system set to max (pimp your keels?).
Pictures by Yours Truly show tube-style map of the actv public boat network, real time boat stop information, and a motoscafo approaching a stop.