Culture Shock:  An Americans' Guide to Getting Around (and Getting Along) in Italy

Riding buses is a bit different than what we’re used to, but not too bad.  The bus-stops list all the stops for that route, in both directions.  You purchase your bus tickets at a Tabacchi (newsstand), board from the rear, cancel your ticket and find a place to ride, all without removing attention from your pocket, purse, wallet, camera, or whatever.  Penalties for getting caught riding the buses or subways without a properly cancelled ticket are quite severe.  The transit police do compliance sweeps from time to time. 

Venice adds a bit of adventure to bus-riding.  Since there are no streets, trucks or cars, everything moves by water along the canals.  Public transportation is no exception.  Vaparetto  rules are pretty much the same as street buses.  You purchase tickets at a kiosk, board, cancel your ticket and find a place to ride.  This is used often by tourist and local alike.  Once there were so many people on board we could barely move and the vaparetto was riding very low in the water; we decided that a long walk was a preferable way to get back to the convent we were staying at.  

Another form of public transportation unique to Venice is the tragetti.   These are black gondolas that just cross the canals where there are no bridges. The 75 cent fare for crossing is much cheaper than the regular hired gondolas which are quite pricey and crowded.

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