Perche

The red line is a little quicker if you are going to San Marco. "It looks like the Vapor. and the Alilaguna..." ACTV and Alilaguna are two separate companies that both operate boats called a vaporetto. ACTV doesn't have any vaporetti that go right to the cruise terminal. They will leave you pretty nearby, at Piazzale Roma, but then you'd have to take a land taxi, or the People Mover the short distance to the Cruise Terminal. Only Alilaguna has a vaporetto that actually stops right at the Cruise Terminal, and it is their blue line.

Philatravelgirl

IMO Stay put its is definitely a PIA to pack and move especially if any bridges are involved which there always seem to be. I've stayed at the Westin and it was nice/great location. I was in Venice again in May and spent five days in different parts of the city. The hotel has its own boat/gondola dock which was convenient but expensive. I'm posting about my Italy trip on my blog (same as user name) for next few weeks.

For the cruise terminal I did a weird thing - I left my big suitcase at the airport storage for two days and only took small bag to the hotel (easier to take boats and walk streets) and then boat back to airport for a local taxi right to terminal (you could book ship transfer if offered). I hate luggage in Venice if I don't need to have it

philemer

Got it. Here's my plan. Please critique it.

Buy a 72 hr. Alilaguna pass for €65 online http://alilaguna.com/en/my-account?p...;category_id=1 and use it for VCE>S. Marco ride, ride to the islands, local rides and, finally, ride to the Cruise Terminal (Linea Blu) on our final day. We'll be on the island ~72-74 hrs so this should be great. Yes?

I don't mind a 1.5 hr. ride from VCE>S. Marco Piazza in the early afternoon. Lots to see.

Forstbetrieb

The Westin has a nice " Romeo and Julietta " table for a special dinner.

Perche

No. Alilaguna is for airport to SM and for SM to the cruise terminal. Alilaguna is the small private company that only has a couple of vaporetto routes, including the airport to San Marco (blue and red lines). ACTV is the city vaporetto that goes everywhere else, and that you will need a 3 day pass for because it will be the backbone of your transportation.

You just need an Allaguna ticket from the airport to SM and anther ticket for 3 days later fom SM to the cruise terminal. You need a 3 day ACTV pass so you can ride the ACTV vaporetti ad lib, as many times a day as you need to instead Paying 7.5 euros each time for each one of you.

philemer

Thanks for your patience. I figured this out about an hour before you posted. Now I just need to make a decision.

I know the Red line is a little faster but would we see more sites from VCE to SM by taking the Blue line?

philemer

Thanks for that tip. Will ck it out.

philemer

After reading some reviews on the Gritti Palace, and speaking to someone that stayed there last year, I decided to splurge and spend 90K pts. This only leaves me 20K++ but my wife should love it. It's our wedding anniv. the day we check in!!!

slawecki

when we have stayed at the e&r, breakfast is not included, and runs about 50 euro per head, per day. (same with the danieli) we eat "down and around the corner" for 5 euro or so.

philemer

Yup, you have to be Platinum with SPG to get free breakfast. If not your best bet is off-property, IMHO. ^

Perche

Italians don't eat breakfast. It's just for the tourists. You won't miss it.

Another thing you'll like is getting used to small portions. In the US you get enough to fill up, and also enough to take home for dinner the next day. Getting served so much food that you have to put some in a bag and take it home to finish it the next day sounds as ridiculous to an Italian as saying the Pope just robbed a bank. It doesn't make sense.

In Italy if you want something more than a coffee you have a croissant or some other type of pastry. Since you can't make croissant at home when an italian eats breakfast at home they eat cookies. In a US supermarket there is an aisle with 25 different varieties of breakfast cereal. In Italy that same aisle is filled with 25 different types of breakfast cookies.

In Italy they eat eggs, but only with dinner. Coffee and pastry, that's it. Best experienced outside the hotel, at a local place so that you hear the language, and get a sense of things in Venice.

philemer

Caffe latte & a croissant sounds delicious to me. Do most bakeries also sell biscotti?

With smaller portions & all the walking maybe I'll drop a couple pounds.

Perche

As long as you go to a bar. You get stunned coming back from Italy, where a bar means a coffee shop that sells alcohol on the side, not the other way around, where a bar is a place to get liquor, and to have coffee if you need to wake up. You don't need to go to a bakery for breakfast. You go to a bar.

Be careful with biscotti.

In english, to go from singular to plural, you add an "s." To go from biscuit to biscuits requires adding an "s." Italian is different. You change an "o" to an "i." If it's a feminine word, you change an "a" to an "e."

Otherwise, you can get into a, "who's on first, no, who's on second scenario.

You can't say, "I want a biscotti." Biscotti is plural. If you want only one, you ask for a biscotto. If you want two, you ask for two biscotti. Asking for "A" biscotti is like asking for black coffee, with creme. It doesn't exist, and will make the bartender puzzled. Asking for, "A biscotti," is like asking for a cheeseburger without the cheese. It doesn't exist.

It's the same with panino. You can't eat a "panini." Panino is the singular. When it goes to plural, you change the "o" to an "I." You can't ask for a panini. It's like saying, "I'll take two sandwich."

Up In The Air

Don't get me started!

In the UK it's becoming commonplace in trendy sandwich bars to offer paninis or even (horror of horrors) panini's!! Ugh!

And they offer caffè latte which they refer to as a latte (or rather lartay), and sprinkle chocolate powder on your cappuccino!

Giggleswick

Two pizzas, two bagels, one tamale, one pierogi. All grammatically incorrect in their original language. And there are many other examples., not just restricted to food items. Like it or not, when words get assimilated into another language, they eventually become subject to the grammatical rules of the new language.

IME, Italians fortunately tend to be forgiving of the solecisms of tourists. I have not yet been publicly rebuked for using the passato prossimo instead of the imperfetto, or for mis-guessing the gender of a noun ending in "e." For that matter, I've blundered my way through Poland, Hungary, Finland, and other countries making god-knows-what rookie mistakes in attempting to order food and so forth, and have not yet had my face slapped. If the local people are laughing at me for having the temerity to make the attempt, at least they 're doing it behind my back.