I just read an interesting article in the NY Times about Chioggia, which shares the Venetian lagoon, but which (so far) doesn't prohibit cruise ships such as the Viking Sea, which is pictured in the article.
-chioggia-italy-cruise-ships.html
I'm curious to know if anyone on this forum has docked there, and if so, what they thought of Chioggia. Naturally it doesn't have the name value or other lures that Venice has, but is it a reasonable destination? How about getting from Chioggia to Venice? I assume there is lots of available transportation between the two towns.
Chioggia
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I have been to Chioggia on a 21 person bike/barge trip. It is lovely and I would hate to see it ruined by cruise traffic. (Then again, as one of Venetian heritage, it kills me to see the cruise ships in Venice as well.)
On the other hand, we realized that the money that tourists bring into places like Cancun, Cozumel, and Venice give locals a level of income that they would otherwise not have. Is it worth it? A hard one to answer.
We were docked in Marghera in March; a 45 minute bus drive took us into Venice. It was one of the very first cruises into Venice after the pandemic lockdown, so they were still trying to figure out the logistics of docking ships in a chemical plant. Not ideal, to say the least; I question whether the security concerns of having tourists in and out of a dangerous chemical plant outweigh the ecological concerns of having a ship docking in the lagoon.
The price of tourism? I suppose. I remember seeing 200-year-old graffiti in Arles at the arena there, at the Pont du Gsrd in France. Not a recent problem, to be sure, and certain not to go away anytime soon.
You really can't compare Venice and Cancun. Venice is fighting what may be a losing battle to the Adriatic Sea. The ship (especially the big ones) were causing much destruction of the sea walls and canal bridge with their wakes as they entered and left the city. Whether or not they want the cruise traffic is immaterial. If they needed to save the city, they must go. At least Viking gets to go to Chioggia or Fusina. We board Sky this Sunday and are in Venice the September 9,10, 11 so I will let everyone know where we dock. Our schedule and the port schedule say Fusina/Marghera but we shall see. Either is better than the RCL corp ships that are going to Ravenna or the Carnival Corp ships that are going to Trieste.
You're absolutely right, Cancun and Venice aren't at all similar; what I was really referring to was the fact that in both locations, as well as other widely-popular tourist destinations, there are tradeoffs that occur, and not all of the ramifications are positive. I didn't actually see ecological damage occurring in Cancun, but in Europe I've seen lots of examples of damage to priceless structures.
I certainly don't know enough about the situation in Venice to opine on where ships should dock these days, and tend to agree that it was a good decision to prohibit ships in the lagoon. However, and I base this on our visit there in mid-March, they weren't prepared to have cruise ships dock at Fusina. We were docked in front of a chemical plant, prompting Viking to put flyers in each cabin telling us what to do in the case of a chemical emergency. Not comforting, to say the least.
In addition to that, the security detail at the gate, through which our buses had to travel each day, seemed totally unprepared for tour buses; what should have taken 2 minutes took as much as 10, with a half-dozen or more guards milling around, seemingly unclear on procedure; this happened each day, and when there were multiple buses coming and going all day, one would have thought they'd get it together. But no. I assume it's better by now...
What I was trying to express (apparently I failed) was that tourist spots suffer from the very industry that supports its residents. In Cancun, the hotel zone is modern and clean, but I wonder about the rest of the area; in Hawaii the locals are bemoaning the constant crush of visitors, and it's turned a paradise into a morass of traffic and commerce. As I mentioned, I've seen graffiti all over Europe at delicate ancient sites--somehow tourists think it necessary to carve their initials into the Parthenon, Apollo's Temple, at Delphi--and some of this is irreversible.
In the case of Venice and its nearby town Chioggia, there needs to be a well-conceived and orderly solution for docking cruise ships; putting cruise ships at Fusina isn't that solution. Having to bus from Ravenna isn't much of a solution either, but again, I'm not an expert on the area so don't have an answer. What I do know however, is that the restriction on cruise ships seemed to have been undertaken without enough planning, even though it had been discussed for years.
It's really the same problem that Yosemite and Yellowstone Parks face; tourism is overwhelming the parks, damaging the ecology, yet crowds are increasing all the time. And then when you hear about knotheads driving cars up the Spanish Steps in Rome (which happened a few months ago), you realize that tourism is a double-edged sword for which a solution is yet to appear.
We departed from Chioggia on Viking Sky in June. It was about 45 minutes without traffic. However, when we traveled there, it was on the weekend and, apparently, Chioggia is a popular beach town. So there was a bit of a traffic backup. When we got to the ship on Saturday, there wasn't much of a crowd yet. The next day, I walked into the town and found it was a nice mini-Venice town with several canals. Since it was Sunday, not a lot was open, but there were some restaurants open and it looks like I just missed a street market. There weren't any crowds to speak of in the town and I found it quite pleasant after a couple of pre-cruise days in Venice. If Viking made it their permanent "Venice" home, that would not be a bad thing for the passengers other than the extra commuting time to get to and from Venice for any excursions.
I have a question for hbtraveler. You say you walked into the town from Chioggia Port. The "terminal" building doesn't look ideal. It seems to be surrounder by a chain link fence, Were you allowed to walk on the internal road down to the exit at the roundabout of was there a port bus which took you down there?
I walked from the terminal to the roundabout, not realizing that there was a shuttle bus that took you from the terminal to the roundabout. I took the bus back to the terminal when I returned from my walk of the town. The terminal area (at least when we were there) wasn't very busy, so I wasn't worried about safety when I walked from the terminal to the front gate by the roundabout. The terminal building itself looked pretty new.
We are having to take a private transport from Venice to Chioggia since we are coming in a day early. Where are taxis/cars allowed to drop passengers? Can they get to the cruise terminal or do they have to drop off passengers at a roundabout? If it's at the roundabout, don't know how we will negotiate any distance with our luggage.
I don't know if anyone is still following this thread, but we are headed to Chioggia as a 3-day stop on a Viking cruise in October and am trying to figure out the logistics in getting back and forth from Chioggia to Venice. Also wondering if folks found Chioggia worth spending a day itself? Viking is offering excursions on the first and third days of our stay there but not the second day so we're trying to sort out what to do that day. Thanks for any info and suggestions!
I have been following posts about docking for Venice and researching possible options for the three days we are there next February. I found this thread useful for the information about the dock, its accessibility to Chioggia and to transport to Venice. 152ee80cbc
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