Is Venice, Italy the only major city in the world that does not have any cars or motored vehicles in the streets. Asked by Anchorman 59 months ago Similar questions: Venice Italy major city world cars motored vehicles streets Transportation > Automotive.
Similar questions: Venice Italy major city world cars motored vehicles streets.
Venice is the only MAJOR car-free city, but it is far from the only one. As of today, Venice is the only major metropolitian city that is considered to be car-free. In fact, there are cars allowed near the Venetian train station.
But, there is a growing movement to expand this practice to other cities. "For Car-Free Cities, the heroic city that never yielded is Venice. Venice is densely populated, yet still wonderfully quiet, open, and liveable--precisely because it was already ancient in its uniqueness before the auto came along.
Its canals and narrow bridges shielded it from the car as moats, ramparts, and drawbridges shielded castles from the besiegers of old. In Venice you can still taste a quality of European city life that could not be plundered by the 20th Century barbarians of steel and petroleum. " Those words come from proponents of the car-free movement.
The Car-Free Cities is a Web site posted from Amsterdam, Holland. Its name tells its agenda, and its bill of indictment against the urban automobile is damning: "The industrialized nations made a terrible mistake when they turned to the automobile as an instrument of improved urban mobility. The car brought with it major unanticipated consequences for urban life and has become a serious cause of environmental, social, and aesthetic problems in cities."
You can check out http://www.carfree.com/carfree_places.html for a list of other carfree places worldwide. According to their Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carfree_places, this list includes places such as: 1. Siena, Italy - Entire city is car-free.2.
Giethoorn, Netherlands - Canaled city. Entire town car-free.3. Louvain-la-Neuv, Belgium where the city surface is carfree; streets and parking are below pedestrian streets.4.
Île de Sein, France - Entire island is carfree.5. Zermatt , Switzerland - Entire town is a carfree Alpine resort with prototype "Utility Area" at the entrance; slow electric taxis and freight vehicles used, although these are sometimes driven at higher speeds. 6. Mackinac Island, Lake Huron, Michigan - Entire island is carfree.
7. Many European islands are totally carfree, and many more have at least a small area designated as car-free. Sources: http://www.carfree.com/ .
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It must be unique in all the world as a city with no cars or trains Our first (for this trip) train ride on Europe’s wonderful rail system took us from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Venice, Italy, on April 12. We arrived at the Santa Lucia Rail Station, stepped outside, and there was Venice in all her splendor just across the Grand Canal. We figured out how to get into the city proper, and to our hotel, using the public waterbuses (and thus have now added another means of transport to our already long list).
How can we describe Venice? It must be unique in all the world as a city with no cars or trains--you walk or take a boat everywhere. Once we got used to the very narrow pedestrian streets, the tiny bridges crisscrossing the spiderweb of canals, and the waterbus system, we discovered that Venice is really quite a small city.It is also an ancient city, comprised of 117 little islands (at least this is what the Lonely Planet Guide says).
It was the seat of a powerful city-state during the Renaissance, extending its power and influence by the sea. Always it has been a city of trade and commerce, with a rich religious life that is undeniably and ornately Roman Catholic. And, there are probably more tourists than there are locals, especially now that spring is here.
Mostly we walked ... and walked ... and walked. We spent a whole morning in San Marco Piazza (along with all the other tourists in Venice, we think! We heard more languages than we have heard in any other one place on our trip), which is the main square--piazza--of the city.
For over 1,000 years, this was the center of the Venetian government. There is a huge palace, now a museum, where the city’s leaders convened and governed for hundreds of years, and where the doges lived. The doge was a nobleman, elected for life, who represented Venice to the world.
The walls and ceilings of the private and public rooms of the palace are covered with huge paintings, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries, depicting both Biblical stories, and scenes from Venice’s history, especially her conquests and victories in battle over various ancient enemies. Behind the palace is the city’s ancient prison, dark, cold, and damp, connected to the palace over a canal by a small bridge called the Bridge of Sighs, named for the heavy sighs of prisoners as they were transferred with dread to the palace courtroom to learn their fate. San Marco Piazza is also, appropriately, right in front of the San Marco (St. Mark) Basilica, dedicated to the Gospel writer, who is Venice’s patron saint.
The legend is that, although he was originally buried in Egypt, his body was stolen from there in the 8th century by 2 Venetian merchants who hid his remains in a large barrel of pork and hustled it by boat back to Venice. Those remains are now, supposedly, buried beneath the basilica. Of course, we rode the elevator up to the top of the Campanile, the high bell tower in San Marco Piazza. From there, there are magnificent views of Venice in every direction, with all its red clay tiled roofs, and the Adriatic Sea in the distance.
A few minutes later, having descended to the piazza, we heard what sounded like all the church bells in the world ringing the hour. It was one of those pinch-me-is-it-real moments. The waterbuses are the public transport for the city.
All along the Grand Canal, which is the main waterway snaking through the city, and on other waterways around the many small islands making up Venice, there are stops, with platforms just like in train stations. You step onto large, wide, covered boats, which are always crowded with locals and tourists, and then rumble on your way. The waterbuses thread their way among a zillion slender silent gondolas and smaller motored water-taxis (both outrageously expensive); small barges collecting the city’s trash or delivering food and supplies to stores, businesses, hotels, and restaurants; and innumerable privately owned little outboard motorboats.
The boat traffic is hectic and orderly and noisy and just simply a wonderful part of Venice. All the churches seem to have large squares (called campos) in front or alongside them, where there are, inevitably, cafés with outdoor tables to sit and pass the time; street musicians on guitar, trumpet, or strings; tiny children being strolled or walked or carried by doting grandparents; dogs of every size, breed, color, and shape, on the leashes of their owners, who always seem to resemble their pets ; local folks walking purposefully on business or rolling small wheelies for groceries or other belongings (including small dogs); and tourists everywhere (giveaways because of map in hand and/or backpack on back). This being Holy Week, and, being who she is, Lorain attended mass on Maundy Thursday evening at the church nearest our hotel.
Bill, being who he is, did not. Worshippers of all ages crowded the pews in the front of the sanctuary. The liturgical singing was led by a young woman with an exquisitely pure voice, accompanied by the organ.
The Scriptures were read by lay adults. The 4 priests were aided by at least 6 young altar servers (both boys and girls) who carried censers and tall candles and linen napkins, etc.The congregational prayers were led by 2 children, the younger being about 7 and so small that we couldn’t see him behind the lecturn, although his voice, through the microphone, was clear and well-spoken. Whereas, in the United Church of Christ tradition, we are used to a reading of the Passion story by 8 readers as part of this night’s worship, there was instead the story from John’s Gospel of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet on the night before he died.
This was followed by the moving ritual of 2 of the priests washing the feet of 12 lay adults who rose up from the congregation. And there was, of course, the beloved Eucharistic liturgy, which seems the same in any language in the Roman Catholic Church. At the end of worship, the whole congregation, led by the children, processed to the back of the sanctuary to venerate the Suffering Christ, whose statue was now bedecked with cascading purple flowers.
What made that procession most interesting for Lorain was that it was done to the singing of a liturgical hymn (in Italian, of course) to Hal Hopson’s beautiful and familiar tune, The Gift of Love. Not being big-city people, 2 days in Venice was just enough for these 2 tourists to delight in her sights and sounds. By the way, you were right, women of the Wines-DeWan family: the gelati (ice cream), particularly the coffee-flavored, is to die for!
We are soon to leave, by train, for Tuscany, in western Italy, where we will be for Easter and the week following.. Sources: http://blog.gilestrip.net/blog/_archives/2006/4 .
In general yes ... Even though there are major cities where there are certain districts that have been closed to car traffic, I don't think there are any cities quite like Venice. I guess with Venice and its unique landscape it would have been almost impossible to create roads without paving the canals. There are also some small island towns around the world that do not have have any cars.
Nevertheless, the Venetians do use motor boats (though limited) in the canals; so, one might argue that motor vehicles are a neccessity that we need at some point.
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