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The Venice Experiment
by Barry Frangipane with Ben Robbins
"My secret plan to move to Venice was ready. It was time to see if my wife would buy into the idea of leaving our home to live for an entire year in a foreign country."
And the journey begins – Barry and Debbie Frangipane, a middle-class couple tired of the rat race leaves it all for the lure of Venice. But can they make it in a foreign land? Read about the hilarious twists and turns their lives take during their year in the city of water, as they show us a Venice we never knew existed. The Venice Experiment is about fulfilling dreams on a journey that any of us could make – but would we?
Crossing the Grand Canal
Posted by: barry
While tourists dream of traveling the Grand Canal in a gondola with the gondolier singing Volare at the top of his lungs, the average Venetian takes the cheaper traghetto. It’s a gondola with no seats, used to transport up to 12 people across the canal at a time.
There are only four bridges crossing the Grand Canal, and it is frequently easier to cross using a traghetto than it would be to walk all the way to one of the bridges, cross, and walk back to your destination. When we lived in Venice, Debbie and her dog Freckles took the traghetto across the canal in the morning and headed to the Rialto market. After buying fruits, vegetables, and meats for the day, she returned home standing up with Freckles between her feet while the gondoliers rowed back to her side of the canal.
Next time you are in Venice, make sure you experience traversing the canal with a traghetto. No one will sing for you, but for fifty cents, you can travel like a Venetian. Be aware – tourists who try to shoot video while standing up in the boat occasionally fall in.