Hi everyone. I want to talk about strikes, not the baseball ones but the labour ones.
Collective bargaining is an integral part of European culture, with the right to strike guaranteed in the French and Italian constitutions. The percentage of workers covered by collective bargaining is 99% in Italy and 98% in France. Compare this to 30% in Canada (2023, Stats Can) and 11% in the U.S (2023 US Bureau of Labour).
Strikes in France are regular enough that people can joke about them, and in Italy the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has a webpage dedicated to strike notifications. In both countries labour movements announce strikes well in advance so people can make alternative arrangements if they need to.
And the strikes, whether they are transportation or retail or another sector, are why backup plans area must. It can be a very frustrating day if the place you want to visit is blockaded by angry farmers and their tractors (which did happen to me once).
Which brings me to today’s story.
Last week Barb read a story on line about a rail strike in Italy on May 20th. I googled and sure enough rail strike May 20th.
We checked our travel plans and we had decided that May 20th was the day we had planned to go to Venice, and the best way of doing that was… by train of course. We had purchased water taxi passes and entrances to two sites, all of which were non-refundable, so we couldn’t change our day without some financial loss. We do have a rental car, so getting to Vencie wasn’t actually a problem, it was more of an acknowledgement that all the sources said it was best not to drive, but still, we had to get there.
What to do? We will have a rental so obviously we’ll drive but where to park. Everything we had read about cars and Venice stated parking was a nightmare and people definitely needed to make a reservation.
Thus began the Great Venice Parking Hunt.
Start with a mapping app, in this case both Google and Apple maps. Tell them to go to Venice. No, not Venice Beach, Venice, Italy.
Ah, there we are. Now ask it to search for parking lots nearby.
Very similar results. There are a lot of parking lots near Venice. I will start with the ones on the islands, near the train station and cruise port. Click on the symbol, go to the website, hunt around for the price (which may or may not be obvious).
€60 for the day. Ouch. Read the reviews.
“If your car is larger than a mini, be prepared for dents, scratches and 5 point turns to get in and out of the spaces.”
“People drive like maniacs, stick close to the walls when walking to the stairways.”
“The view of the city from the parkade was only enhanced by the smell of salt air and urine.”
Perhaps I shall look elsewhere?
The airport has several lots, a few with shuttles from the lot to the airport and then a water taxi to the train station. €12 for the day plus a free shuttle to the airport! Take the water taxi from the airport. Runs every hour. Only €10 each. Takes 45 minutes or so to get there. Bus from the airport only takes 15 minutes. Only €3. Reviews were generally good. That will work, but I keep looking.
Found one that took reservations, was €6.25 for 12 hours, was right beside a bus stop with ticket machines for the bus into Venice and the water taxi in the city. Perfect.
I booked a reservation, explained it to Barb, and it only took about 2 hours of research.
I start to do research for a blog on labour strikes in France and Italy and discover the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation’s page listing all the labour action upcoming in Italy. However, May 20thisn’t listed. Not for this year anyway. The May 20th strike was in 2024.
Our train dates are fine, both for going to Venice and transitioning to Rome.
Note to self, the internet can be a tricky place, look for complete dates.
Ciao.