Strike in Italy on Monday

On Monday 10th November 2008 there is a national transport strike in Italy. Railways will be on strike from 9pm on the evening of Sunday 9th for 24 hours. Most local transport will operate only limited hours on Monday.

If this strike goes ahead (occasionally they don't) it will obviously make travel very hard for tourists as well as locals. Trains will attempt to operate a minimal guaranteed service, and some local transport will also provide some kind of service.

For tourists it is best to adapt your plans to stay put. This isn't particularly helped by the fact that Monday is the day when most museums are closed. Check with your hotel or local tourist information office how the strike will affect transport where you are. In Venice the strike lasts 24 hours, but boats will operate a minimum guaranteed service to islands which would otherwise be cut off, and there will be buses operating during the morning and evening rush hours. In Rome there will be some transport for the rush hours, but ATAC, the transport authority, warn that you will have problems travelling between 8:30am and 5pm, and again after 8pm. Nightbuses may not operate.

> Official strike calendar (in Italian)
> ATAC - transport in Rome
> ACTV - transport in Venice
> Railways strike timetables ('cancellato' means cancelled)
> Article about the strike (in Italian), including transport strike times for different cities
> Strikes in Italy (our article)

Apology for gondola theft 34 years ago

There's rather a good story in today's Gazzettino, (for those who read Italian: Il pentimento di un marinaio inglese: torna a Venezia e dopo 34 anni si scusa per il furto di una gondola) about a British sailor's return to Venice. The repentant visitor, in Venice with his family, went to a gondola stand to make an apology 'to all the gondoliers of Venice' for an escapade in 1974. He was stationed on the HMS Fearless when, with four other sailors, he took a gondola from its mooring one night. The carabinieri turned up to reclaim it the next day. Now one of the culprits has taken advantage of a trip to Venice to make his apologies... and to take an official gondola ride. 'I wouldn't have believed it' the newspaper quotes a gondolier who remembers the incident.