A new waterbus service reserved for Venetians only started plying up and down the Grand Canal on Monday, allowing residents to avoid bustling groups of tourists.
The number 3 'vaporetto' line, from the main station to St Mark's Square, has been introduced a week ahead of the Venice carnival, when thousands of tourists are expected to pour into the lagoon city.
One of the first passengers on the No.3 was Mayor Massimo Cacciari, who said the initiative would help eliminate the riotous stampedes of tourists and residents during rush hour on the Grand Canal.
There were a few protests earlier this month when it was announced that Venetians were to get their own waterbuses, run for them by crews sporting a distinctive blue rosette on their uniforms.
One local consumers' association compared the 'residents only' rule to the apartheid of ''1960s Alabama''.
Critics also said that launching an untested system just before Carnival, when the entire transport network was under maximum strain, was ''incomprehensible''.
But generally, residents seemed happy at the innovation, which will put an extra seven boats on Venice's main waterway.
Francesco Trevis, head of a St Mark's Square residents' association, said: ''For us workers and residents, not having to stand in queues with tourists for half an hour is certainly positive. They have time to waste. For us it means getting to work every day''.
