The exchanges below were overheard and recorded by the tourist organization Venessia.com on their Facebook page and made me laugh out loud, so I translated a few of my favorites and in some places added comments in parentheses for clarification.
1) Spanish couple: Excuse me, would you tell me where I can get a vaporetto to Florence?
2) Dialogue between a woman and her child in Campo San Giovanni e Paolo:
Child, pointing to the transparent plastic pieces that protect the sculptures: “Mamma, what are those boards for?”
Mamma: “nothing, honey, they’re just magnifying lenses so that people can see the details of the statues better.”
3) Frenchman: “The vaporetto tickets are valid for one hour, correct? So can I decide which hour I want to use it for? For example could I use it for half and hour today and half an hour tomorrow?”
4) Overheard on a foggy day, on a full boat leaving the Fondamente Nuove, by a French tourist: “look we’re going into the open sea!” Pointing at the island of Murano, “And look, there’s Croatia!”
5) The other day, in front of my house I saw a family of Nordic tourists – a mother, a father and two children – who had just gotten off a vaporetto. The smallest child, probably 8 or 9 years old, was on a leash and was wearing a life jacket!
6) From a Sicilian couple: “Excuse me, would you tell us where the Egyptian museum is?”
Me: “I think it’s in Turin”
Couple: “No, it should be in Venice. It’s extremely famous. And that big tower in front of us – what’s that?”
Me: “It’s the San Marco bell tower”. I felt like saying it was the Mole Antonelliana.
7) From an Italian tourist: “Excuse me I am looking for ‘Calle’”
Me: “Calle what?” [Streets in Venice are called Calle]
Italian: “Calle! A street that is called Calle!”
8) An American tourist, pointing at the North Lagoon, asks: “Is this the Grand Canal?”
Me: “no, sir, it’s the Lagoon”
Tourist: “Oh, I thought it must be the Grand Canal since the other one {indicates Grand Canal} seemed small”
9) Tourist from Atlanta: “It’s raining today so there’s nothing to do in Venice”
Me: “Ma’am Venice has many amazing museums”
Tourist: “Well I heard that Mestre has malls. When it rains at home we go to the mall to go shopping, so I think I’ll go there.” [Mestre is a suburb of Venice and people often stay in Mestre to visit Venice, never the other way around.]
