rreptile Report This Comment
Date: January 12, 2005 01:39PM

Are these gondolas used for anything other than taxis or tourist boats?

mkcerusky Report This Comment
Date: January 12, 2005 02:29PM

Once they used to be the equivalent of today’s cars, i.e. they were the main transportation medium. Nowadays they are mostly what you said, included parades and rowing races on the channels. However there are also some that are used just as “buses” to cross channels where there are no bridges nearby: you can cross the “Canal Grande” on a Gondola for 0.50 Euros, which is the only way I had to go on a Gondola that otherwise is too expensive

Anonymous Report This Comment
Date: January 12, 2005 11:07PM

is italy nice for tourism ... thinking of going there at some point

Stiffler Report This Comment
Date: January 13, 2005 12:50AM

It's great there. The women are fantastic. Hope you're not addicted to Coca Cola though. You have to mortgage your house to buy a can.

mkcerusky Report This Comment
Date: January 13, 2005 11:37AM

Stiffler probably you didn't buy it in the right shops! However in Italy the cheapest drinks (compared to other countries) are water, coffee and cappuccino....of course it always may be the case that you find a mean seller that raises the prices for foreign tourists, however this should not happen for coffe and cappuccino because their prices is established by the councils and the bar should expose (by law) the correct prices that you can check.
You also have to consider that if you have some drink in a bar, if you drink it standing they have one price, but if you sit down and the weither serves you, then the price raises, and in some cases it raises a lot!

rreptile Report This Comment
Date: January 14, 2005 06:17PM

So how do the natives get around then? Do most of them drive cars now or do they have fancy motorboats that they bomb around in along the canals? (Are there traffic jams??)

Forget about cocacola while in Italy... just go to the coffee bars and stand at the bar. And remember that "latte" in Italy means ONLY milk. If you want coffee and milk, order "cafe latte". And only do that before 10 in the morning if you don't want to be sneered at by the barman. (so many food rules!)