Venice to ban wheeled suitcases

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/21/travel/italy-venice-wheeled-suitcases/index.html

Authorities deny ban

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...suitcases-city-following-outcry-tourists.html

Either way, Venice is NOT conducive to rolling suitcases. Vaporettos & water taxi's & Traghettos, steps over bridges, cobblestone walks, very narrow walkways/doorways.
Bags with backpack straps are FAR better.

Jim

Passepartout said:

Either way, Venice is NOT conducive to rolling suitcases. Vaporettos & water taxi's & Traghettos, steps over bridges, cobblestone walks, very narrow walkways/doorways.
Bags with backpack straps are FAR better.

Jim

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Totally disagree. Spent 5 days in Venice this last May, before our 7-nite Eastern Caribbean cruise to Greece (Royal Caribbean, Splendour of the Seas), followed by a week in Rome. Although the DW had a small carry-on and I used my backpack as a personal carry-on, we did check-in a roll-up garment bag (cruise ship stuff), along with a large 50 lb baggage filled hard-shell, spinner, Samsonite suitcase "with wheels". The only trouble we had was getting it, our other baggage, and my wife, off the water taxi from the airport at the tiny staircase at the Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice, no dock.

I placed the roll-up garment bag on-top of the wheeled suitcase and it was a life saver, just push and go.

Don't know if you ever switched planes in Rome from the International terminal over to Domestic, but it is a long walk.

Don't know if you ever carried baggage from the Venice cruise ship terminal and Piazzale Roma over to the train station, but it is a long walk. Granted it was a pain getting the suitcase up the bridge without a ramp, but the wheels were a life saver.

Don't know if you've ever been to Europe for 3 weeks combined with a cruise for 7 nites, but you can't make with just a backpack as you stated: wheeled suitcases are a necessity.

Ron98GT said:

Don't know if you've ever been to Europe for 3 weeks combined with a cruise for 7 nites, but you can't make with just a backpack as you stated: wheeled suitcases are a necessity.

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What did we ever do before wheeled suitcases? Of course they're not a necessity, they may be handy but not a necessity.

Ron, I have done all you suggest, and never said it was impossible. Just that the architectural barriers in Venice are NOT conducive to wheeled bags. You can easily avoid the bridge between Piazzalli Roma and the train station by using he vaporetto. The Vaporetto docks are pretty level with the boats for rolling aboard, but at 'rush' hour' all the commuters crowd the entry/exit areas of the vaporetto.

I feel for people who feel a need to bring along everything but the kitchen sink. I can go anywhere in the world with a carry-on size bag with backpack straps and stay indefinitely. Including formal nights on a cruise.

Jim

Pompey Family said:

What did we ever do before wheeled suitcases? Of course they're not a necessity, they may be handy but not a necessity.

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No, No, I need (want) mine

It was tough!

We have pulled our wheeled suitcases from Victoria Station to our hotel in Belgrave, in London, from our rental apartment near Ponte Vecchio to the train station in Florence and, most recently, from St. Lucia in Venice to the Best Western Olympia, from there to the People Mover and then a long haul to the Celebrity Silhouette.

London was the 'smoothest' trek, but my arms were aching dragging @50 lbs behind me and @20 on my back. Florence's cobbles, curbs and narrow streets were a challenge and we'd have opted for a cab had we found one- we were traveling a tad lighter than the London trip.

The most difficult was Venice. The Calatrava bridge should have been built with wheeled luggage in mind, but that was the least difficult of the bridges we had to cross to get to the Olimpia! And DH & I were traveling with a woman friend who isn't in good shape, so he & I took turns schlepping her bag.
She didn't cruise with us and paid many euros for a porter to take her bags to Piazzale Roma where she took a cab to the airport.

It's not easy even with wheels!