A lot of people love to travel and visit other countries and cities. Many wish to wander in beautiful places and marvel at historical sites, breathtaking scenery, magnificent landscapes, man’s works of art, and other wonderful things. Among the cities that most travelers and wanderers would check off their bucket list is Venice. Good thing this Italian city is becoming more accessible.

Venice, a city located in northeastern Italy and the capital of Veneto region, sits in the middle of an ecologically rich lagoon known as the Laguna Veneta or Venetian Lagoon. The crescent-shaped body of water lies between the Italian Mainland and the Adriatic Sea. The city is built on numerous tiny islets, 118 to be exact.

This magnificent Italian city is considered as one of the most urban cities in the planet. It is a crowded aggregate of churches, palazzi, squares, and man-made structures. Its landscape is dominated by brick, stones and stuccoed walls. Because lots of small islands make up the city, the place is divided or separated by numerous canals and connected by stepped bridges.

The beauty of the city and the many impressive spots and attractions it offers serve as an open invitation to foreign people to come and visit the place, and so more and more visitors tour the Venetian tourist spots, even those who use wheelchairs.

Being aware of having guests with mobility needs, the city council as well as hotel and public transport services owners developed a scheme to make these people feel more welcome and comfortable. Knowing that their city is quite difficult to navigate by one who uses a mobility device, transport services like Alilaguna make sure to have wheelchairs always available. Vaporetti, ferries that travel between bridge-free areas in Venice, are also being made accessible to wheelchair users.

To help wheelchair-bound guests go to the most visited spots in the city without obstacles, the city council provides a helpful guide or map showing how to reach those areas. The council also offers information about hotels and apartments that are wheelchair-accessible.

And because it is common to tour the city through their canals, the council and the gondola association plan to make the gondolas wheelchair-friendly. A special hoist or lift will soon be installed on these light, flat-bottomed boats to enable wheelchair users to cruise the Venetian canals. With the funding from the Veneto Region, the Gondolas 4 all will soon be available.

Being able to visit and tour the majestic Venice is something anyone can be overjoyed at and proud of. And for everyone, Venice has just made its city wheelchair-accessible.