One of the many nicknames for Venice is The Floating City, and a new luxury cruise ship has sourced the inspiration for the interiors of its ‘floating boutique hotel’ from the City of Water. The completely refurbished S.S. La Venezia has been decked out in traditional Venetian-inspired designs, and its classic appeal makes it look like a modern take on the Orient Express, but on water.

With plans to set sail through the Venetian Lagoon and northern Italy in March 2021, S.S. La Venezia is part of the Uniworld collection, and all of the company’s ships seek to emulate the destinations that passengers will see on their itinerary. The ship’s interiors were created by Fortuny, a design house that has been operating on the Venetian island of Giudecca since 1921. The company is renowned for its handmade fabrics, the exact creation specifications of which are still a closely guarded secret.

"Over a century after its founding, Fortuny continues to prize originality, made only possible by artisans deeply committed to their craft," Uniworld’s CEO and President Ellen Bettridge said in a statement. "For our guests, this means a setting and style of service that is wholly immersive in the enduring fascination and magic that is Venice, and is born from more than 100 years of experience."

Murano glass work, bold fabric prints and decadent wallpaper complement the sleek art deco elements found throughout the vessel. Floors are made from marble or brass-inlaid parquet, and staterooms come with huge floor-to-ceiling picture windows.

"Whether guests stay in a classic stateroom, one of the four junior suites or two grand suites, they will experience the unmistakable essence of the city, beginning in the lobby which strikes a bold resemblance to 1930s Venice," Toni Tollman, one of Uniworld’s artistic directors, said. "They will see echoes of the portico of the landmark bridges in the patterns of the fabrics or a reference to the local fish dishes, the basis of classic Venetian cuisine, and enjoy the unmistakable swirls and pops of color of Murano blown glass, another signature craft of Venice."

Cruises have become a controversial topic in Venice in recent years: large cruise ships – classified as those weighing more than 1000 tons – were banned from the city’s historic center in September 2019 after a ship crashed into a dock and injured five people that June. The protests have continued this year, with residents decrying cruise ships and large motorised boats making waves in the city’s waterways. Venice has also been battling over-tourism, and the government said it was planning to introduce a €10 tax on daytrippers.

S.S. La Venezia has 63 cabins for a maximum of 126 passengers. Rates for the Venice & the Gems of Northern Italy itinerary start at US$2899 per person, and the experience can be booked on Uniworld’s website .

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This weekend, Venice took the first step in preventing the high tide from flooding the city centre by deploying its new sea dams in an unofficial test drive – even though there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done.

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Acqua alta floods are sadly a recurrence in Venice’s lagoon, and that same warning had been raised over the weekend when continuous rains brought weather alerts and damages throughout Northern Italy. On Saturday October 3, Venice’s city council decided to lift the MOSE.

The MOSE Project (which stands for MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, or Experimental Electromechanical Module) consists of a system of mobile dams located around the lagoon which can be raised when the need arises to isolate the city from the Adriatic Sea and protect it from the high tide.

Construction for the MOSE dams started in 2003, and the project took seventeen years and 7 billion euros to complete – the 78 bright yellow barriers that make up the system were tested for the first time earlier this year. While the MOSE held back the high tide on Saturday, the same didn’t happen on Monday – the tide was lower than the MOSE deployment threshold, so the dams remained in the sea and the city centre ended up flooded, including Saint Mark's Square and Saint Mark's Basilica.

The general consensus and takeaway are that Venice certainly took a step in the right direction, but there’s still work to be done and calibrations to do so that the MOSE can be an effective tool to protect the city. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Venice’s dam system you can check out the MOSE Project’s official website here.

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Venice takes the first step in fighting off the high tide

In normal times, the idea that you’d get a clear view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge or that you wouldn’t have to wait in line for hours to visit the Doge’s Palace is a fanciful delusion. But these aren’t normal times and in 2020 we have the rarest of sights: Venice without the crowds.

Visitors to Venice

It’s mid-August and my wife and I are wandering the narrow streets of Dorsoduro. We pass the occasional cluster of German-speaking visitors stopped along the path looking inside a shop window or consulting a map. Any other year and these paths would be a steady throng as dense as a crowd leaving a stadium.

To understand just how big that crowd is, consider the numbers. Last year this small city of 53,000 residents welcomed over 26 million visitors. That’s like if New York City, with its population of 18 million, had to deal with 88 billion visitors a year. That’s crowding on a scale unimaginable by most other tourist destinations.

Since lockdown ended on June 3, people have returned to Venice, mostly Italians and, latterly, visitors from neighboring Austria and Germany as well as a handful from France and other EU countries. But there are no non-European tourists, who ordinarily make up 50% of all visitors. There are also no cruise ships, those hulking wave machines that account for 1.9m of all visitors and are seen by most Venetians as a mechanical pestilence on their precious city.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cut tourism by four-fifths and virtually wiped out the tourist economy, which employs 65% of the population. Even in this city famed for its pragmatic approach to commerce, the coronavirus has tested Venetians’ habitual sangfroid in the face of crisis. And Venice knows a thing or two about crises.

Until a couple of centuries ago, outbreaks of plague were a regular occurrence – indeed, the word "quarantine" was coined here in the 14th century, when ships suspected of carrying the bubonic plague were forbidden from disembarking cargo or personnel for forty days – una quarantena in Italian.

The sights

Our walk takes us from the Punta della Dogana art museum and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which are keeping limited hours due to the lack of visitors. We’re there on the wrong day so both museums are closed.

Thankfully, most of Venice’s big-ticket attractions are keeping full summer hours, so we can visit the Scuola Grande Di San Rocco, named after the patron saint of plague victims. The highlight is Tintoretto’s 16th-century Heaven on Earth ceiling panels, painted during a brutal outbreak of plague that claimed half the city’s population in 1576–7.

Any other year and the line to get in would be enormous, and once you were in, you’d be crammed into the Sala dell’Albergo like art-appreciating sardines. Today, we shared the magnificent room with no more than a dozen others.

Local businesses

Empty museums, unobstructed views and the total absence of cruise ships are wonderful for us, but local businesses don’t quite share our enthusiasm. One-third of the city’s hotels haven’t reopened, while those that have are doing their best to fill their rooms by offering low-season rates in the middle of summer.

We stayed in the Hotel Giorgione, an elegant four-star in the Cannaregio district that would normally be full: instead, occupancy is around 70% with most guests booking at the last minute.

“We reopened on May 28 and it was an act of courage,” manager Marisa Milanese tells me with a wry smile. The hotel hopes to take advantage of bookings that might have gone to those places who made the decision to stay closed, but even the most optimistic assessment sees it operating at a loss this summer.

While many of the city’s restaurants are also closed, these tend to be those that cater primarily to tourists keener on the view than the quality of the food. Those that are open are “living day by day,” according to local food blogger Monica Cesarato. “It’s very hard to organize supplies, as restaurants have no idea whether they’ll be empty today or get a lot of day trippers.”

But Cesarato doesn’t think it’s all bad. “Good restaurants that cater to local tastes are actually doing very well, especially those who were active on social media during lockdown, as they stay in people’s minds.”

We tried some local recommendations and were not disappointed. At El Sbarlefo San Pantalon, a nondescript bàcaro (local bar) in the Dorsoduro district, we ate some of the most delicious cicchetti I’ve ever had. This Venetian-style tapas, mostly based on seafood, is ubiquitous in the city, but the really good stuff is a far cry from the mediocre fare you’ll find in many a tourist spot.

We tried to get a table at Hostaria Bacanera, recommended to us by Monica as one of the best spots in town for good, contemporary Venetian cuisine at moderate prices, but the hostess apologetically told us they were full: I scanned the tables and, sure enough, the only voices I heard were Italian with a strong local accent.

We left Venice after a couple of days with none of the exhaustion that results from a visit to one of the world’s most popular tourist hotspots. We also did what is recommended by all Venetians engaged in protecting their city from the perils of overtourism. We stayed in an officially registered hotel, we ate in local restaurants and we made sure to buy our souvenirs from local artisans.

And as much as I want Venice to recover fully from the economic devastation it has suffered, a big part of me feels much like St Augustine did when he yearned to be pure: give me tourists, but not yet.

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Italy was one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak early on, at one point recording more fatalities than anywhere else in the world. The northern section of the country was particularly affected, but despite the dire situation in the spring, Italy flattened the curve of new cases and travel restrictions are beginning to lift. Here’s the latest.

Editor's note: This story was last updated on August 12, 2020. We will update this piece regularly to stay on top of the latest travel advice.

Travel restrictions in Italy

According to the latest guidance from the Italian government, travel for tourism purposes is currently allowed between Italy and EU member states and non-member Schengen area states, along with Andorra, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, San Marino, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, the UK, and Vatican City. This applies to citizens and foreign nationals in those locations, as well as members of their households.

Anyone who has stayed in or passed through Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Kosovo, Kuwait, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Oman, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Serbia during the previous 14-day period will be refused entry. (For exceptions, see points 1 and 2 here.)

Foreign nationals temporarily living in Italy are always allowed to return home. For residents of other countries who need to pass through to return home, flight transfers are allowed as long as you don’t leave the airport (for exceptions, see point 8 here); cruise passengers can return to their country of origin, and ferry passengers who disembark with a vehicle can continue on to their home country, as long as they don’t stay in Italy for more than 36 hours. (Depending on where you’ve been prior, a quarantine may be required before you’re allowed to continue on; see below for details.)

Before boarding planes or ferries, travelers must complete a self-certification form vouching that they’re just passing through. And anyone arriving from abroad should be prepared to provide a self-declaration justifying their reasons for traveling to Italy if they’re stopped for a security check by airline officials or or law enforcement.

Will I have to quarantine when I arrive in Italy?

If you’re arriving in Italy from countries other than EU and Schengen area states, the UK, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City, you’re required to self-isolate for 14 days. (For exceptions, see point 4 here). Once you’ve quarantined as needed, travel between regions is allowed, but you’ll need to pre-register if you’re visiting Sardinia, Puglia, Sicily, and Calabria.

As of August 11, residents returning to Puglia from travel to Spain, Greece and Malta have to self-isolate for 14 days upon re-entry. The rule does not apply to Spanish, Greek or Maltese residents visiting Puglia. In Campania officials now require residents returning from any foreign country in August to take either a swab or a blood test and notify their local health authority. While the region of Emilia-Romagna is introducing mandatory testing for residents returning from Spain, Greece, Croatia or Malta, as of August 12. Tourists visiting the region must also be tested within 24 hours of arrival. The rules follow a recent spike in infections linked to citizens returning from holidays abroad.

Across the country, masks are required indoors, on public transit, and outdoors if a safe distance can’t be maintained – except in Lombardy, where they’re required inside and out.

Current lockdown status in Italy

Most restrictions have been lifted, but temperature-taking and hand-sanitizing may be required at restaurants, bars, beaches, pools, amusement parks, shops, museums, and hotels, and social-distancing is a must practically everywhere. For restaurants and bars, masks must be worn when you’re not seated at your table.

Hotels are technically open, but according to one report, only 40% were actually welcoming guests as of early June. Many attractions are limiting entry and requiring visitors to book in advance, so check websites before you go.

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Rome: The Vatican Museums have introduced timed entry, and advanced bookings are required. Visitors must wear masks and have their body temperatures taken upon entry, and social-distancing is mandated once inside. Similar rules are in effect for the Colosseum and its surrounding archaeological park.;

Florence: The Duomo Cathedral and its museum are providing visitors with wearable social distancing technology, and the Uffizi Gallery is limiting the number of patrons allowed, with temperatures taken at the entrance and masks mandatory once inside. The Galleria dell'Accademia and Palazzo Pitti have also reopened with restrictions in place.

Venice: Doge’s Palace is currently open from Thursday to Sunday, and ticket prices have been reduced to from €15 to €13; it will be open daily as of July 31. Restaurants like the famous Caffè Florian have reopened, and gondolas have reportedly taken to the canals once again.

Elsewhere: Visitors to the Leaning Tower of Pisa must purchase tickets in advance for timed entry, with 15 people allowed for each 15-minute increment. Designated entry is also standard at Pompeii, with 150 people allowed per 15-minute time slot, and visitors must follow one of two one-way routes around the historic site.

What they’re saying in Italy about COVID-19 and travel

Ahead of Italy’s reopening this spring, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio voiced objections to some European countries’ travel policies for the one-time virus hotspot. “If anyone thinks they can treat us like a leper colony, then they should know that we will not stand for it,” he wrote on Facebook, per a Politico translation. His indignation notwithstanding, domestic travel is down, and international visitors have been slow to return, with one report predicting an 82% drop in airport arrivals this summer and another indicating that nearly half the local population is without holiday plans this year.

But some research shows that Italians are increasingly eager for vacation, and between mad dashes for the beach and some high-profile parties and gatherings, news reports reflect an urge to be out and about after months of quarantine. Still, others describe a scene across the country that’s very different from pre-pandemic times. “Rome – usually wildly frenetic and inundated with noisy trucks, buses, bikes, motorcycles, not to mention careening taxis – is now actually calm and restful,” one American wrote in late June, noting that while Italians were out “in sizable numbers,” English-speaking tourists were nowhere to be seen. “In future, just as Venice is now considering ways of controlling the annual tides of visitors, so surely will Rome,” he wrote.

Venice’s problems with overtourism have been a topic of conversation for years, and now that there are more locals on the streets than travelers, conservation groups are working toward sustainable solutions. “We are using this time in a positive way," Melissa Conn of Save Venice told CNN. "What will follow will be slow tourism, not mass tourism anymore. We are confident that we can rebuild, reestablish and rethink Venice, concentrating on helping the city withstand the elements and tourism."

COVID-19 snapshot

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What travel looks like in Italy in 2020

With travel picking up again in Italy, Venice is once more mulling ways to limit the number of tourists allowed inside the city.

For a long time now, the lagoon city has been concerned with finding ways to reduce overcrowding while also making sure that both residents and tourists can enjoy all that Venice has to offer. The latest solution dates back to last autumn when the local administration decided that all visitors would be charged an entry fee ranging from €3 to €10 – a scheme that was meant to be implemented this summer but that has moved on to the summer of 2021 because of the halt COVID-19 put on traveling.

And although the implementation date seems unchanged from what was previously announced, meaning that the summer of 2021 will still see the start of the scheme, there are some news about the way in which it will be enacted. Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a press conference that the administration is thinking of pairing the entry fee to turnstiles located all over the city.

Venice postpones its entry fee scheme until 2021

The turnstiles would help in regulating the access of tourists to the city – all residents, workers and students that need to enter Venice on a daily basis would have the virtual key to the turnstiles through an app on their smartphones, and tourists would fill the remaining spots each day by booking their entrance.

Mayor Brugnaro is confident that “tourism will return to Venice”. And he added that “what we have to do is keep on maintaining and showing a safe city and think of tomorrow.” The Queen of the Adriatic’s first steps towards a return to normality include the Venice Film Festival, which will happen in September and will be the first of the European film festivals to take place after the COVID-19 lockdown.

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As restaurants begin to serve food to dine-in customers and shops start to open for the first time after over two months of lockdown, Venice residents are also beginning to see the familiar sight of gondolas traversing the city's iconic canals.

Although the city is still closed to tourists, gondoliers have donned their iconic white-and-blue striped shirts, as well as gloves and face masks, to transport locals. Tape has been placed in each vessel to help passengers maintain social distancing requirements while onboard.

According to Giovanni Giusto, the city councillor for the Protection of Traditions, the restoration of gondola service is the first step of a city returning to normal. "It's good news, a sign of everyone's desire to get back to normal as soon as possible, but without ever lowering our guard in order to defeat the virus once and for all," he said, according to Agence France Presse.

Sanitation workers are spraying boarding areas with disinfectant prior to passenger boarding, and only locals will be able to use the gondolas until Italy opens its borders to European Union citizens on June 3.

Italy's restrictions began on March 9 to combat a rising death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, which has grown to over 32,000.

On May 16, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the country was taking a "calculated risk" in easing lockdown restrictions in the face of a crippling recession.

“We are taking this risk and we have to accept it, otherwise we could not restart. We cannot wait for a vaccine,” he told reporters.

May 18 saw the opening of restaurants, bars, barbers and museums, and citizens were free to begin travelling within their region. On June 3, Italians will be able to move freely around the entire country, and visitors from the European Union will be allowed to enter Italy.

In spite of the reopenings, Italian authorities say citizens and visitors must respect one-meter social distancing requirements and have a protective mask to be worn at certain times.

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Planning a beach holiday for the year 2100? The travel agent might suggest Dolphin Sands in Tasmania….because it might be one of the only remaining beaches on the planet.

That’s if sea levels rise by a metre, the estimated outcome at current temperature patterns. Even with significant investment in sea defences, many of the world’s current coves are likely to be washed over or wiped out, effectively submerged by water as a result of the melting polar ice sheets.

A tough and immediate reduction in greenhouse gases would only limit frothing sea levels to 50cm. While carbon dioxide emissions did take a fall of 17% in April 2020 due to COVID-19, there is no assurance this will be made permanent due to policy change and the Climate Action Tracker report from June 2019 shows that prior to the pandemic, we were producing more carbon dioxide emissions than ever before.

The general consensus from climate scientists is that rising temperatures will make extreme weather events more frequent. Prolonged droughts and ferocious storms could lead to widespread flooding and regular wildfires (like those seen in Australia earlier this year), plus the destruction of natural habitats. Unfortunately, the world’s most beloved tourist landmarks won’t be sheltered from these environmental impacts either – and many will need our help to survive. Here are the major sites at risk from climate change.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Every five years, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority reports on the current health of the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system on the planet. The latest prognosis, released in 2019, doesn’t look positive. Climate change is circled red as the reef’s most significant threat and extreme changes in sea temperatures were responsible for mass bleaching of the coral in 2016 and 2017.

Forests are nicknamed the "lungs of the earth", and coral reefs are seen as the oceanic equivalent. But according to the UN Environment authority (UNEP), more than half of the world’s reefs – which include systems in Belize and the Bahamas – are in danger of deterioration. Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC or less will save more than 10% of the world’s coral; to protect 50%, temperatures mustn’t creep past 1.2ºC.

Statue of Liberty, New York City

It stands upon Liberty Island as a symbol of freedom, but for the many immigrants who arrived in the United States via New York City, the Statue of Liberty also represented hope. And it was that misty-eyed optimism – plus around $77 million in repairs – that licked Lady Liberty and the nearby Ellis Island back into shape following the havoc of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Sandy was labelled a once-in-700-year storm, but as the mercury climbs globally, mathematicians may need to rethink those odds. The Union of Concerned Scientists believe that Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s sculpture is under threats from the increased intensity of and more frequent storm surges. The US National Park Service, meanwhile, admits that the low elevation of Liberty National Monument makes it highly susceptible to changing sea levels which are rising four times faster on the Atlantic Coast than the rest of the US shoreline.

Ilulissat Icefjord, Greenland

Under the glow of the swirling purples and greens of the northern lights, the Ilulissat Icefjord is arguably the finest natural wonder of Greenland. Fed by the growing Jakobshavn Glacier, the Icefjord creaks as it calves and creeps past the brightly-painted houses of Ilulissat on the west coast of the Danish territory.

But it’s in trouble. The Arctic is warming twice as quickly as the global average and the loss of the polar sea ice is a tangible, physical manifestation of the planet getting hotter. There may be no sound more heart-breaking than the crashing thunder of the Icefjord collapsing into the sea. Not only are ice sheets essential for cooling the earth as the white ice reflects the sun’s rays back into space, but the 413 gigatonnes of ice we are losing each year directly contributes to rising sea levels.

Venice, Italy

Venice is often associated with climate change because rising sea levels lead to greater incidents of the city flooding. Nearly 36 million visitors came to marvel at the splendour of this historic lagoon-built city in 2019. With gold-gilded basilicas, grandiose marble palaces, galleries filled with dramatic Renaissance art and slow romantic gondola rides through its canals, it’s a remarkable destination to visit.

Regular flooding, particularly after exceptional high tides, is a real issue for the city; one that’s been aggravated by the dredging of deep-water canals to allow cruise ships into certain channels. According to the Venice Resilience Lab, the number of tides above 110cm has doubled each decade since the major flood of 1966.

In an effort to protect the piazzas and architecture from sustained water damage, the city has been building three retractable floodgates across the main lagoon inlets since 2003. Beset with delays and bankrolled to a cost of $6.5 billion (at the last available estimate), Project MOSE should allow Venice to control the lagoon’s water levels once complete. However, a Unesco report suggests that the gates will need to be used frequently to combat rising sea levels, before the barriers are eventually overwhelmed.

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Spliced by the equator, these extraordinary volcanic islands 1000km west of Ecuador, are home to one of the most fascinating but delicate ecosystems on the planet. Creatures sublime and strange mingle without much – though sadly increasing – interference from humankind. As such, a quarter of its 2900 marine animals and a third of its native trichophyte plants remain endemic.

As well as growing concerns regarding overfishing and trying to control invasive species, climate change is expected to take a toll on the ecosystem. The acidification of warming oceans, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather are all likely to upset the balance on the islands.

According to UNEP, the biggest disruptor will be the El Niño weather pattern, a natural climatic occurrence which periodically warms sea surface temperatures. With climate change, the number of severe El Niño years are likely to double in the next two centuries. The results could be disastrous for the depleted Galápagos penguins and marine iguana populations, which lost 75% and 90% of their numbers respectively to El Niño events since the 1980s.

The Maldives

The Maldives has long been the dream destination for deep-pocketed honeymooners: a string of 1200 white-sand islands, spread loosely in the Indian Ocean like a scattering of gold coins. Its warm cyan seas, coconut palms and glistening coral reefs are nature’s paradisiacal tonic to the human-made opulence of the country’s five-star-and-above, don’t-lift-a-finger resorts.

But the country has an elevation problem. Its highest natural point is the eighth tee of a golf course on Villingili Island which, at a mere 5.1m above the waves, is unlikely to give anyone a high-altitude nosebleed; many of its other islands merely paddle above the waves. Sea level rises wrought by a temperature rise of 2°C or above will likely spell the submerging of this atoll-based nation – along with other low-lying archipelagos, such as the Fijian islets and the Marshall Islands.

What can we do?

From minimising our impact when flying to not flying at all, choosing to live responsibly, and travelling sustainably can help to reduce the impact of climate change. Choose ethical tour operators, and consider the other positive impacts you can make on your travels.

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This article was originally published in November 2019 and was updated in May 2020.

6 bucket list destinations at risk of disappearing due to climate change

Venice is often called "La Serenissima" – but rarely has it looked as serene as it does now, with its streets nearly empty because of COVID-19. The Italian city usually welcomes millions of travellers a year, but the global pandemic has left it currently free of crowds.

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Virtual Vacation: Italy

WATCH: See the streets of Venice free from tourists 

Italy has been one of the countries around the world worse hit by the spread of COVID19, with the virus bringing cities to a standstill. With Venice under lockdown, a non-profit group made up of inventive and passionate women has been using traditional boats or batele to deliver much-needed supplies to the community.

Row Venice is dedicated to preserving the traditional style of Venetian rowing ( voga alla veneta) where rowers stand up facing forward, a stance made iconic by gondoliers. The group usually organises fun events such as rowing lessons and food tours, but with the current state of affairs has had to be inventive with how they use their skills in a safe and positive way.

“Once Venice was locked down to control the spread of COVID19, more people started ordering the delivery of organic produce from private producers on the mainland to their homes in Venice. Given our traditional Venetian batele and competent rowing instructors were all idle, we decided to volunteer our services to help with the additional demand. We found we had no trouble finding producers who needed our assistance,” Jane and Nancy of The Row Venice Team told Lonely Planet.

Mainland producers have been bringing food by car to Piazzale Roma, where it is then loaded into the boats and transported by oar to pre-defined pickup points or to the doorsteps of clients. The boats are not the same as the well-known gondole, but refined reproductions of batele a coda di gambero, a historical boat used for purposes like this.

Jane and Nancy said that the idea came from wanting to offer some form of tangible help during the crisis. By doing this, not only are they helping households get the food that they need, but they are also helping suppliers meet a demand surge. “It also gives our talented instructors a chance to row and maintain their fitness level while the racing season is on hold, and to demonstrate that ecologically-friendly transport solutions are possible, and in many cases, preferable,” Jane and Nancy said.

So far the reaction has been very positive, and residents love having their orders arrive directly to them by Venetian rowboat. “This is precisely the way all transport was conducted before the advent of the outboard motor in the 1950s. The producers are also very grateful; they can make sure their orders get filled. In the case of one producer, they had no other way to fulfil orders by boat. The whole service has been very gratifying for us.”

More information on Row Venice is available at the official website.

Keep up to date with Lonely Planet's latest travel-related COVID-19 news here.

Read More: The canals of Venice look very different without tourists

Venice

All Stories

This new luxury cruise ship is set to sail around Venice next spring

Venice takes the first step in fighting off the high tide

Visiting Venice this summer: a very different experience

What travel looks like in Italy in 2020

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6 bucket list destinations at risk of disappearing due to climate change

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These Venetian women are delivering supplies to those in need via traditional boats

Places in and around Venice

San Polo & Santa Croce

Venice

Neighborhood

San Marco

Venice

Neighborhood

Castello

Venice

Neighborhood

Cannaregio

Venice

Neighborhood