I saw something today that I have longed — longed — to see, and had despaired of ever seeing. Ever. And had ceased to believe that my grandchildren, if I ever had any, would see it either.
Signs. They have finally installed signs showing route maps on the vaporettos indicating each blessed stop of the blessed line being ridden. You can’t believe it? I can’t either, but there they are.
That surely will be helpful to many travellers on the vaporetti. I have been on some where ‘someone’ announced the next stop. But, I can’t get Ca Rezzon-ca (that’s how it was pronounced) out of my mind! Is that how Rezzonico is said in Venetian?
And, I strongly support you about the need for more, and larger rubbish bins around the city. The animal scavengers may not agree.
The correct pronunciation is “Cah Ret-ZON-ih-co.” I can’t say that I’ve heard anyone, electronic or warm-blooded, pronounce it the way you mention hearing it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Anyway, it’s utterly pointless to have an announcement telling you what the next stop is if you still have no orientation to give you a clue as to whether it’s the next one you want going toward your desired destination. Seems obvious to me. I suspect that one reason they instituted this sytem (only used, and now only intermittently, on the main tourist lines, #1 and, I think, #2) was to tack on the much more important statement, in five languages, to “Please keep the city clean and tidy.” Thank God they’ve quit that now. Perhaps they noticed that nobody paid any attention, or — more likely — they realized that it was not pleasant to be addressed as a delinquent pre-schooler, even if that is how you actually behave.
As to the “animal scavengers,” of course they would be unhappy to have their daily gorgefest put out of reach. But there’s plenty of non-biodegradable trash, such as the paper used to hold pizza slices, or plastic ice-cream cups, or beverage cans, or empty cigarette packs, etc. etc., that are put wherever there is space — windowsills are great, except for when it’s my windowsill — because apart from the Piazza San Marco, where there are bins every two steps, it can be quite the quest to find one when you need it. A trash bin, in my view, is worth 19,348 multilingual announcements.
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That surely will be helpful to many travellers on the vaporetti. I have been on some where ‘someone’ announced the next stop. But, I can’t get Ca Rezzon-ca (that’s how it was pronounced) out of my mind! Is that how Rezzonico is said in Venetian?
And, I strongly support you about the need for more, and larger rubbish bins around the city. The animal scavengers may not agree.
The correct pronunciation is “Cah Ret-ZON-ih-co.” I can’t say that I’ve heard anyone, electronic or warm-blooded, pronounce it the way you mention hearing it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Anyway, it’s utterly pointless to have an announcement telling you what the next stop is if you still have no orientation to give you a clue as to whether it’s the next one you want going toward your desired destination. Seems obvious to me. I suspect that one reason they instituted this sytem (only used, and now only intermittently, on the main tourist lines, #1 and, I think, #2) was to tack on the much more important statement, in five languages, to “Please keep the city clean and tidy.” Thank God they’ve quit that now. Perhaps they noticed that nobody paid any attention, or — more likely — they realized that it was not pleasant to be addressed as a delinquent pre-schooler, even if that is how you actually behave.
As to the “animal scavengers,” of course they would be unhappy to have their daily gorgefest put out of reach. But there’s plenty of non-biodegradable trash, such as the paper used to hold pizza slices, or plastic ice-cream cups, or beverage cans, or empty cigarette packs, etc. etc., that are put wherever there is space — windowsills are great, except for when it’s my windowsill — because apart from the Piazza San Marco, where there are bins every two steps, it can be quite the quest to find one when you need it. A trash bin, in my view, is worth 19,348 multilingual announcements.