Mar 15, 2010 Instructions for Use
It’s always a quandary: How should we get to Venice from the airport? Bus and vaporetto combination? (Convenient, reasonable, slightly cumbersome depending on final arrival location.) Alilaguna waterbus? (Slower, cheaper, handy.) Taxi? (Expensive, private, faster, glamour.)
VeniceLink.com, run by the private Alilaguna water bus service, offers some convenient options that might help making those decisions a bit easier…and you can book online. For example:
- They offer the best price by far for a private water taxi for airport, Marittima cruise port, Piazzale Roma, train station, Lido, and Hilton transfers, and more.
- They also offer an AirportLink shared taxi option for even less (€27 per person one way, €50 round trip), as long as you are willing ride along as other passengers with different destinations are picked up or dropped off. (There is two person minimum.) That’s €25 per person to be delivered to the nearest stop to your destination, the same price as the Alilaguna line that’s direct to San Marco.
- You can book your slightly discounted Alilaguna waterbus tickets for transfers from Marco Polo airport online, for one-way or round trip.
VeniceLink also offers three-island excursions, which are not recommended. It’s impossible to see all these islands in one day, and if you insist, you’re better off buying a vaporetto pass and do it on your own time. (It’s much cheaper, and you won’t have anybody rushing you back on the boat.)
A small request: Make the lagoon happy and ask your taxi driver to please, slow down. He won’t…but at least you can let him know the health of the lagoon is important to you, yes?
Mar 10, 2010 Vita venexiàn
These fat white flakes turned to slush almost immediately, and by Friday will be distant memory, hopefully. In the meantime, we’ll huddle up with a nice bowl of zuppa di lenticchie (lentil soup), pasta e fagioli, polenta con ragù, or, heck, polenta with anything…
Did I mention, it’s March? March?
Feb 16, 2010 About Venice
“So what’s a battipali,” you ask? “A human pile-driver,” might be the translated response.
Ever wonder how the piles that define Venetian parking places were once driven into the soft canal bed? (When you didn’t have the mechanized version handy, I mean.)
Easy: you found a big strong he-man, gave him an attrezzatura (implement) created just for such a task, and…
….WHACK. Fatto.
I am so sorry I missed this (but at least we have the enduring image).
Photo courtesy Arzanà.org
Feb 15, 2010 Wine for all & all for wine
Friuli is famous for its spectacular whites. In fact, anytime anyone tells me they don’t really care for white wine, my response is usually “Yes, you do,” while handing them a Tocai or Ribolla or Chardonnay or Malvasia or a blend from Isonzo or Collio or the Colli Orientali. There is a pause, and then: “Oh, this is good.”
Another convert.
Forget these magnificent whites for the moment, though. At this upcoming tasting it’s Friuli’s reds that will take center stage:
- Sunday, February 21
- 10 am – 7 pm
- Hotel Monaco e Gran Canal
- Entrance: €10
There you’ll find over fifty producers offering a wide variety of rich reds. Those created from familiar varieties like Merlot and Cabernet (Franc and Sauvignon) stand alongside others with less recognizable names, but highly recommended for conducting research: Schioppettino, Marzemino, Refosco, Terrano, maybe even a Tazzelenghe or Pignolo.
Another reason to attend: a selection of specialty foods will be offered by the restaurant Il Ridotto dell’Acciugheta.
Even if you’re not in Venice at the moment, do make sure to check on wine events during your stay…they’re always fun, inexpensive, and offer an excellent opportunity to taste many wines you’ll never find back home.
Latest Entry
Just in time for Easter, the ACTV announces the arrival of ten new eco-sustainable vaporetti (water buses). As you can see in the photo, they don’t look much different than the models they’ll be replacing; in fact, they’ll carry the same number of passengers.
