Mea Culpa on the World's most expensive public transports

A few months ago, I posted about the world's most expensive public transports: London...

I spent the long bank-holiday week-end in what used to be one of the most powerful and advanced civilizations of the world, and still remains a wonder of the world: Venice, Italy.

I thought London was expensive in terms of public transports... Indeed, I paid £44 for a mini-cab taking me to the airport, about 30-40min drive from my place. Thinking this was expensive will show you how little I was ready for what I were to experience in Venice!

From my understanding, Venice public transport prices, taxis, and gondolas have their prices fixed by either the local government or some sort of other governmental agency. And the results are impressive:

• Public transport tickets: 6.50€ minimum, if you were to travel only 1 stop. then it's increasing to 13€ and 15€ (I didn't understand how the rates were calculated). In London, it's £4.
• Taxis: 50€ minimum for a ride. Then it seems that the rates have to be multiples of 50€. They asked me 100€ to take me to the airport from my hotel, a 35min ride. In London, it's £2.30 and I paid £44 for a 40min ride, in a private mini-cab.
• Gondolas: 80€ for a 40min tour, 40€ for each additional 20min.

Now I think I've got it right: Venice is the most expensive public transport in the world.

In London, because there is no monopoly on public transportation, services such as mini-cabs and EasyBus have been competing with the regular public transports, trains, etc. to the benefits of the general public. I'm pretty sure EasyBoat would cost 2€ for what Alilaguna charges 6.50€ and up to 15€...

As a side note, since I would like to share more rip off stories with you, you can go to the mythical Caffè Florian on the San Marco piazza to enjoy some italian delicacies or coffee. But beware: an espresso costs 6€ and a cappuccino 8.50€.

You might think this is complete rip-off — I do too — but I still decided to give it a try. But I was quite surprised when they brought us the bill: 78€ for 4 cappuccinos and and espresso. Why? Because they have 2 musicians playing the Godfather's music, and they charge 6€ per head to "enjoy" that music. This makes brings the real price of an espresso to 12€ and a cappuccino to 14.50€.

I'm wondering what kind of profit margins they get.