Venice Travel Forum

This is after the fact because I'm already home. But...

I read on a website today that one needs to validate a vaporetto ticket someplace before you start to ride. I didn't see anything about that. Was I really supposed to do that? Would I have been in trouble if someone had asked for our tickets?

My real questions - two people offered to give me a free ticket. TWO different people. One a man and one a woman. I didn't take the tickets because I was afraid it was some kind of scam. Was it?

There is a fairly new policy that you need to validate your tickets before using them. There is a small box next to the ticket both that you stick your tickets in. It looks like the same kind of bpx that the trains use. You are indeed fortunate that they didn't check your tickets as you could have been fined.

I would be cautious about taking those "free tickets" I have not heard of any scams but you never know.

Mike

Vaporetti have 'caught up' with other Italian public transport. Validation before first use is the norm: if an inspector had checked you could have been fined (and probably would have been).

As for the free ticket, there would probably have been a catch somewhere (e.g. sign up for something), or perhaps it was just a promo for something....or perhaps they just had a spare ticket and were feeling kind? No-one offered me one in April. :-(

BUT if you buy the ticket just before jumping in, it could be pre-validated at that very moment... Expecially if you buy for your exact number of people, they assume you are jumping in, and prevalidate. When i buy a bucket, they sometimes, to be sure, ask confirmation that i want non- validated tickets.
Never heard about free tickets, unless it was someone who just used it, and wasn't controlled. If inside the time limit, it could work (but it's illegal...)
Ciao
Francesco

i was offered the use of a 3 days ticket (one day left to run) by a nice swiss woman when i was in venice

I didn't take it because then i didn't know what she was offering me (I didn't know it was illegal effeti)

and when we left we gave our tickets with one day left to run to some people at S.Lucia station -

I was afraid that maybe the free ticket was a distraction so that I could be pick pocketed.

I didn't see any validation box nor did I see anyone do that - I bought two 12 hour tickets at the bus station (Plaza Roma) at about 12:30 pm. So maybe they pre-validated them.

I'm looking at the ticket. It says

"05/05/2008 13:00" at the top, and then there is printed on it
"CONVALIDA/VALIDATE", and there's something written/typed on top of that that I can't read.
THen "P.I. 0076090272"
next line "AD1 800386"
next line "Tourist Ticket"
next line "12 H"
next line "Comune di Venezia
next line "P.I. 00339370272"
next line "€ 14.00
and at the bottom "01-051 765960"

on the back is a lot of stuff in Italian and then at the bottom it says
"TICKET MAY BE USED ONLY IF MADE VALID"

wel that could have been the case of course - when i sent the husband off to offer tickets to people i told him to make it very clear he was not a pick pocket

I always try to give my tickets away to travellers wityh rucksacks. its amazing how often you get turned down. same with parking tickets. people are so suspicious. In London if I have a one day travwel card its easier. I gues its like hitchhiking. if you feel happy to do it, either way, its a good thing. I still like to hitch hike if I have the chance. its an eaasy way to meet nice people, and generally I find it quickert than travelling by coach, though not as quick as the train, but way more interesting.
In venice I didnt do this as the venicecards were so covered with stamps and punches that it would have taken an age to explain, and we were running close to the wind on getting our flight.

I think vaporetti tickets are automatically validated with date/time when you buy them, unless you ask for them not to be. Which explains the date-stamp etc on your ticket.

I'm not sure about all the tickets but we definitely had to validate our tickets. Perhaps, if you only bought a one day ticket it would be different?
Mike

Hmmm, we always buy our tickets online and pick them up at the booth. Maybe this might be the reason we always need to validate them???

Hmm......interesting.....maybe passes don't get validated automatically? Or maybe wherever I read the info/saw the info was wrong?

There are yellow validation machines on the boats; I suppose one would have to look for them though, and if one didn't know about required validation......

Two hmmmmmms, eh? :-)

Yes, it might well be because you bought them online.

if in doubt - validate

you won't get fined if you validate when you don't need to

Grandma "05/05/2008 13:00" could be the validation date... But it's may, 5th 2008!
Did you travel in the future?
F

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A TIME TRAVELER....

Not a time traveler - just a typing mistake. It was April 5, and written like 05/04/08 in the European way.

So, it was pre-validated when sold...
Ciao
Francesco!