I’ve been reading Venice Film Festival coverage for decades, and not once have I seen snaps or video of the physical layout of the Venice Lido Grand Casino area, or of the magnificent press lounge. It’s a sprawling, beautiful, bucks-up, well-tended village unto itself, flanking the Adriatic and shaded by hundreds of mature pine trees. Newbies instantly feel very well taken care of. I do, I mean.
But it was hellish getting here early this afternoon. Every vaporetto gate attendant told us something different, and they all passed along dicey or erroneous info. Total confusion.
I realize, of course, that it’s simply in the character or nature of “laughing Mediterranean” fellows (a Harold Pinter line from Betrayal) to adopt a casual attitude that isn’t too detail-oriented or overly hung up on the clock. Public transportation is so well-ordered and easy to follow in Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona. But not here.
We took what we thought was a Line 20 vaporetto and quickly realized it wasn’t heading for the Lido. We got off at Redentore, and then took another to Zattere and got off. Then we got on a vaporetto that had a Mostra Cinema (MC) sign on it, and it took us back to San Zaccaria (briefly) and then it dropped us at the ‘wrong’ Lido stop — a 15- or 20-minute walk from the casino. We tried to take a bus south but couldn’t figure the bus system, so we finally hailed an Uber but there were no drivers. We finally got a regular cab to take us to festival headquarters, which was seven blocks away.
Oh, and the cab fee was 13 euros, or roughly half of what the Uber guy would’ve charged us.
Festival veteran: “All very strange. All the Line 20 boats are going to the Lido Casino today. Maybe you just got off too early? It makes two other stops at small islands before it goes to the Lido Casino…”
HE to Festival Veteran: “No ACTV employee seems to know what a Line 20 is. They ‘say’ they know, and then they give you a bum steer. It’s NOT strange — it’s totally par for the course.”
Festival Veteran: “Line 20 is pretty common during the festival. Dock B. It ALWAYS departs and arrives at Dock B, San Zaccaria. You have to look for it there in the inside left corner of that dock.”
HE to Festival Veteran: “Did you read the part that says ‘at Zattere we got on a vaporetto that had a Mostra Cinema (MC) sign on it, and it took us back to San Zaccaria (briefly) and then it dropped us at the wrong Lido stop — a 15 or 20-minute walk from the casino’? It’s the truth — it’s what happened.”
Festival Veteran: “I think you got on the wrong boat this time because there are ads for the MC line everywhere for the festival on every single boat now. But these are just ads. You really need to check the boat numbers. It will have a little sign on the boat say ’20’ or ‘MC’ in a colored circle.”