Being disabled can surely limit your options when you are traveling. This can be especially true if you wish to visit the city of Venice, Italy. The bridges and the all the stairs can make getting around for most people a bit hard. However if you plan ahead it is possible for everyone to have a great time while visiting this city.
Most if not all the hotels in Venice have elevators but it is always a wise idea to make sure before you book. Also when confirming that the hotel has an elevator it might be a good idea to find out the size of the elevator as this may be a factor in you actually using it. I know of several large hotels that have very small elevators that probably would not accommodate the larger wheelchairs.
Make sure you visit the Azienda di Promozione Turistica which is the local tourist office. These people can lend you a key to some of the handicapped lifts on some of the bridges in Venice. Also when you visit this one of these offices make sure you pick up a map designed to help those that have physical impairments. On these maps you will see that the locations that are handicapped accessible are usually highlighted. Many times I have noticed that they are highlighted in yellow but that could change from year to year and I would just make sure with someone in the office before you ventured out.
In June of 2004 Venice passed a law requiring 80 bridges in the city to be handicapped accessible. At this time some of that work is complete although there is some more work to do.
Alternatively you could just go with some experts in the industry. There is a great company called Accessible Italy that offers tours for the physical handicapped in Rome, Venice and Florence. Not only do they offer superior customer service but since they have been in business since 1993 they have encountered and solved many of the hurdles you will have as a disabled traveler. It is certainly worth looking into.
Tags: disabled travel, handicapped lifts, hotel, hotels, italy, lifts, tourist, tours, travel, traveling, venice, venice italy, visit, wheelchair