Hello!
Today I’m
going to help those travelers that have reduced mobility and intend to know the
citys of Lisbon, in Portugal, and Rome, Italy.
In October,
2016, I traveled wiht my grandfather that celebrate his 80 years old birthday
abd it was a real trouble to find informations about acessibility since there
is any place that has all you need in only one place.
So I want
to put here every kind of information that I find in my research.
(IMPORTANT) My grandfather can walk but its difficult to
him, because of his age and artroses in his knee. So, sometimes we need him to walk or just get
up so we could carry his mobility scooter – resume: its necessary to travel
with someone to help you.
My tips can
help but its important to check everything before your trip because in some places we discover that the
acessibility was not avaiable in THAT DAY.
1) Acessibility in Airports:
When you
buy a plane tickets or until 72 hours before the flight you can inform the Plane
Enterprise that you are a passanger that need assistance. The enterprise will
inform the airport wich kind of assistance you need and will make it available.
The service
has no cost at all and the only thing you must do in the day of your flight is:
when you arrive in the airport, go to the helpdesk and inform your code tracking and flying company then they
will provide the assistance in that airport and inform the destiny airport.
We asked
for my grandfather a wheelchair and a person to help. That persons always helps
a lot not only with the transport but to make people go do the right and
simples way. People in wheelchair has a lot of preferences, so the
transferences is faster with them.
In Lisbon
airport they transport my grandfather in a golf car through the airport.
WebSite Lisbon Airport: http://www.aeroportolisboa.pt/pt/lis/servicos-e-compras/servicos-premium/experiencias-unicas
WebSite Fiumicino airport(Rome): http://www.adr.it/pt/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en-/pax-fco-reduced-mobility
2)About
mobility scooter:
You probably have already seen this
chair in tv or movies, and normally people use it in supermakets.
But its not really easy to find a
place that has a rent service in Europe.
I find some places in Lisbon and choose a mini scooter
of “Mais que cuidar” wich you can make them delivery it or catch by yourself in
the store (and save 50 euros!).
The rent cost 9 euros per day and
you can have a reserve by e-mail.
I really recommend this service
In Rome
it was really hard to find that kind of service and, when i found, it was
really expensive. Anyway, we choose to hire in "Acessible
Italy.com" and i’m glad of the choice since everything Works perfectly
with it.
This store doesn’t give the option
to take it in the store, so you have to pay 55 euros of delivery taxes.
The rent cost 34,80 euros per day
(and 198,70 euros per week) and you can reserve by e-mail.
3) Using public
transport:
We just use public
transport, that means: subway and bus.
In Lisbon there is a wonderful
public transport since most of them are accessible. The is a subway line that connect
airport to São Sebastião station that all the stations between are 100% accessible.
ATTENTION Stay in the station in a placa that the
subway “pilot” can see you, so he will look to see you getting in and off.
In places that transport in not
accessible, we used a hop on hop off bus
- http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tours/portugal/lisbon.htm,that
cost 19 euros for 24 hours ticket that are accessible to wheelchair and mobility
scooter.
In Rome, i really dont recomend public transport. A lot of stations
are not accessible and we faced a lot of problems in the ones that have
accessibility.
Besides, the streets doesn’t have
access ramp for wheelchair users, so they need help to get down the sidewalk.
To speak the truth, our travel just worked because of
my boyfriends help to carry the mobility scooter lots of times AND because my grandfather can
walk.
I recomend to get a hotel near Termini, take the
tourist bus and rent the mobility scooter to enjoy the atraction of the city
since its easier and more confortable. I
recommend WebSite: http://www.hop-on-hop-off-bus.com/rome-bus-tours but there are other companies.
3) Points of interest in Lisbon, Fátima and Sintra
(Portugal) to Wheelchair users:
I have to make a compliment to Lisbon since its a
beautiful and accessible city. All the sidewalks has access ramp and the transport
facilities make the life of tourist easier.
However, the neighborhood called Belém, tha place of
some atractions as para "Padrão do Descobrimento", "Mosteiro dos
Jerônimos" e "Torre de Belém" you need to take a cab or a touristic bus
(that i recomend).
Other place that
you need a cab to go is Castelo de São Jorge (São Jorge Castle).
We went with my grandfather to that places: Oceanário
de Lisboa, Elevador de Santa Justa e Mosteiro dos Jerônimos (is not fully
accessible). Padrão do
Descobrimento was under renovation.
Another places that a wheelchair user can go is: Castelo
de São Jorge (but its hard to get there and is not fully accessible) and Ruínas
do Carmo.
To visit Fatima
I recommend you to rente a car and rent mobility scooter, since the sanctuary
is really big. To go to Sintra, is better go by train but i dont
think is the best tour to do since most of it is seeing castles and palaces,
wich are not fully accessible (even when their website say they are, as Pena
Castle and Mouros castle) and i really dont remember if the public transpor is
accessible.
In that day my gransfather went by
foot and did the sightseeing bus tour, only. He was not interested in seeing castles and all.
4) Points of interest in Rome (Italy):
Repeting: Rome is not a city that is easy to tour if you are in
a wheelchair, even id you are mobility scooter.
However, I think it works if you
are in a hosted in a well located place (near Termini, as I suggest before) and
doing tour in a sightseeing bus, that ldrop you off near the principal
touristic points.
In the touristic places, the
treatment was really good. In the moment that we arrive at Coliseu, some of his
workers appear and take my mom and grandfather to other line to get tickets. The
same happened in other atractions: S’Angelo Castle, Vaticano Museum and San
Peter Basilics. In all that places there are lifts and access ramps.
Other places that i know there is a lift is Museum Venezzia/Elevator of Vitor
Emaluelle e Museo Capitolini, the
last one is hard to get since there is a really big and dangerous ramp, so I recommend
to take a cab to go there and ask the driver to leave you up there.
Place that I dont reccomend: Foro
romano and Palatino because they are not accessible, ora t least i dont think
is safe to go there because the floors
is all made of tiles and uneven.
5) Accommodation:
I recomend to stay in Lisbon around Rossio subway
station because that is the only one downtown that is accessible. Besides, you
can go to the airport using subway needing only one change of trains.
In Rome, I recommend to stay near Termini, since its
the train central station and has a subway station that accessibility Works. Also,
most of the touristic buses get off near termini.
Thats it folks, any doubts please comment that if i
know i’ll try to help.
See ya!
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