Travel Day – Firenze to Venice – May 18, 2022

Today we are scheduled to take the train to Venice from Firenze! To start off this train trip is free, due to a mix up in the booking process when I booked our tickets on May 8th in Rome. I find it is important when something goes incorrectly AND you receive a feedback e-mail to provide factual advice on how a business could improve. Andrew and I have taken trains in Italy previously and the type of train we were taking is very hard for me to get onto as the steps are very high. In Italy they have a service called Sala Blue which is for people with mobility challenges and they assist them getting on and off trains. So I booked our tickets in Business Class, confirmed our seats and then wrote a note asking for the contact information for the Firenze and Venice Santa Lucia Sala Blue services. The response I got back was that the train service does not deal with the Sala Blue. End stop. No other information. I just happened to get the customer service feedback at the same time as I received the response so I responded to the Customer Service e-mail and indicated that I was surprised that for Italia Rail to sell tickets and not provide at least the phone number or e-mail address to their customers was strange. I then went to bed. Got up in the morning and there was a response from the CEO apologizing, complimentary tickets and contact information for the Sala Blu offices that I had requested. I was shocked! I was only providing feedback that it would be nice and I was fully intending to look up the information myself! Oh well, one thing off my plate to do! Now, fast forward, we are in Firenze and the Sala Blu people found us and are waiting with us and the lift to get me onto the train. Very happy with the service! It was a 2 hour and 20 minute ride and things went very well! Got to Venice, bought our Vaporetto tickets and got onto the correct boat and off to the hotel. Now, another short story. We were staying at the Sr. Regis Venice – yes pretty nice hotel – all on points remember! The Butler had e-mailed me 3 days prior asking if I needed them to do anything for me so I asked for 3 things – 1. Reminded I needed an accessible room. 2. I eat gluten free (as breakfast is provided) and 3. What is the best way to get to the hotel using a wheeled mobility device (wheelchair) from the Vaporetto stop for boat 1? I knew we had to take Boat 1 from when we were there with Karen, as Boat 2 has stairs at San Marco square. I received a response for Items 1 and 2 and then told me the Vaporetto stop at the train station for Item 3. So I wrote back and thanked them for confirming the train station stop but it was how to get to the hotel from the Boat 1 stop at San Marco Square that I needed. I received no response. This was the day before we travelled. On May 18th, while on the train, I still did not hear back I translated my needs into Italian and sent them another e-mail indicating I needed to know how to get to the hotel without going over a bridge that has stairs thinking that might be a better approach. Three hours later I still had not heard from anyone and we found ourselves at the bottom of a bridge, very nice bridge with 20 steps up and 20 steps down and I was exhausted and unable to do the climb. So we called the hotel. They sent the concierge over and they just did not seem to understand what the problem was. Oh dear. You have a FULLY ACCESSIBLE HOTEL but no way of getting there? Does that note make sense to you? Nope. So Andrew took the luggage over the bridge to the hotel while they called a water taxi for me and that water taxi (which yes I had to go down 3 stairs to get onto) took me down the canal about 200 feet and around the corner to how most people arrive at the hotel – by water taxi! Do you THINK they could have told us that in an e-mail? Perhaps. When I talked to the Front Desk Manager (I was really mad at this point) as he also did not see the logic of accessible hotel but no way to access it – he said “why did you not take an accessible water taxi”? I almost lost it on the very nice French man. As I said to him as calmly as I could, “if someone had responded to my e-mails with that information, especially considering my e-mail lead off with I needed a wheelchair accessible room, then this whole discussion would not have been necessary”. So the compromise? They would pay for our trip back to the train station on Friday in an accessible water taxi. So now we are at the beautiful St. Regis! Wow – is all I can say. We sat out on the patio and watch the traffic go by while waiting for our room – which we were upgraded to an accessible suite which was nice. For dinner, we walked to the only restaurant on the island (remember Venice is a bunch of interconnected islands) where I did not have to cross a bridge and had dinner – which again was scrumptious! Tomorrow we are off to “accessible” Venice which are the Islands of Murano and Burano!

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