Traghetto

ABOVE: A traghetto ferries passengers across the Grand Canal. INSET BELOW: A Venetian mother and her daughter (wearing inline skates) wait to board.

Until 1854, the Ponte di Rialto was the only bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice. Even now, there are only four bridges along the canal's 2.5-mile (3.5 km) length. If you need to cross the canal and you aren't near a bridge, you have two choices:

• Take the No. 1 vaporetto, which zig-zags from one bank to the other as it follows the Grand Canal, or better yet:

• Head for the nearest traghetto pier and get rowed to the other side. As a tourist, you'll be expected to pay €2,-- (nearly three times the resident rate of 70 cents), but there is a workaround for frequent visitors: See our "money-saving tip" below.

Traghetto (plural: traghetti) means "ferry" in Italian. On Venice's Grand Canal, traghetti are the passenger boats that cross the canal at seven points between the railroad station and St. Mark's Basin. The boats are large gondolas without bow decoration, brocaded chairs, and other luxury trimmings. They are rowed by two oarsmen: one who stands behind the passengers like a traditional gondolier, the other closer to the bow.

Most traghetti have been operated by the same families for generations. As recently as the 1950s, there were some 30 of these gondola ferry routes. Today, there are officially seven, although you'll be lucky if you find one or two operating at any given time. Two of the most reliable are:

Pescaria (Rialto fish market) - Santa Sofia (near Ca' d'Oro):

San Tomà - Sant'Angelo:

Other official routes include:

• Fondamente S. Lucia (in front of the railroad station) - Fondamenta San Simeón Piccolo

• San Marcuola - Fóndaco dei Turchi (by the Natural History Museum)

• Riva del Carbòn - Fondamente del Vin

• San Samuele - Ca' Rezzónico

• Campo del Traghetto - Calle Lanza (near the Salute Church)

(Please note that these additional routes may operate sporadically--if at all--and you shouldn't waste much time looking for them when the Pescaria - Santa Sofia and San Tomà - Sant' Angelo traghetti are so much more consistent.)

• Note: Traghetto routes are clearly marked on some Venice street maps (look for straight lines across the Grand Canal), and you'll often see signs on buildings pointing toward the traghetto landings when you're walking through neighborhoods along the Grand Canal.