This is Venice!

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Our train ride to Venice included a change over in Milan. The ride to Milan was mostly by the sea, which gave us some great views of the coast and all the towns that line it. Then the train turned East-ward and the terrain changed into more lush, hilly areas.

We arrived in Venice around 5pm in the evening. The station is small, but once you step out, you're immediately hit by the undeniable fact that... "This is Venice!" (inside joke), as the Grand Canal is there to greet you. We took the vaporetto to our Hotel, which is a water bus that cruises along the Grand Canal. This is a great intro to the city as you pass by all the prominent buildings lining the canal and then under the Rialto bridge. One striking thing is that the architecture of many of the buildings has a certain Turkish flair... nothing like what we had seen in other parts of Italy.

We got off at our stop and dragged our bags through a tight corridor that lead us to a small piazza. We eventually found our way to the hotel, which was not far, but we did have to cross a step bridge to get there. Can you imagine living here with no other transportation than boats, and on foot?....and carrying around all of your shopping by foot through narrow streets, over bridges and pushing past tons of tourists on a daily basis? No wonder the sinking city is rapidly loosing it's locals to other more convenient and affordable locations!

We checked into Hotel do Pozzi which is in a great location... in a small corridor off of one of the main high end shopping areas near St. Mark's Square. The hotel itself is ok at best.. the breakfast and the patio are plus points, but the rooms are not up to par. They are updating the rooms, which is much needed, but if you get stuck in the older rooms (like we did), then it's no fun. Not to mention that we had to change a room 2-3 times the first night we got there, but I'll spare you the details.

After freshening up, we walked over to St. Mark's Square which was quite empty by that time (around 7pm). We noticed that during the day the entire city is jam packed with tourists, and then by 5pm the place starts to feel deserted. Most of the crowd is made up of day trippers, who return to their hotels outside of Venice in the evenings. I'm glad we ended up staying there, because Venice at night is peaceful and charming. During the day, it's a mad house!

We strolled around and listened to the dueling orchestras play classical music at the 3 restaurants on the square. They seem to play all day, as they're there early morning and don't stop until past midnight. It makes the atmosphere on the square lively and energetic all day. We then walked to the canal side by Doge's Palace. The water level was really high that evening and it was very choppy. I don't know how gondoliers maintain balance and navigate in such conditions, but we did see some that were still giving rides. Most were docked though, except in the smaller canals where the water is more calm.

Dinner that night was at a small restaurant on one of the side streets off the canal. The food was good and mom for the first time found some spicy penne pasta to satisfy her craving! Usually the food was much too bland for her taste, so she pulled out some Indian chili masala and spiced up her meals on her own 😊 We got a good laugh out of it the first time she did it, but it became the norm, and truth be told, it was a great idea!

The next day we hit up all the major spots like St. Mark's Basilica, Rialto Bridge and the Doge's Palace. The Basilica is very ornate, as one would expect, and has Byzantine style architecture. I really liked the golden mosaics found on the facade and all through out the inside of the church. What I didn't like is that there are areas in the church that you have to pay to get into... we ended up paying 2 Euros/pp to see the Pala d'Oro, which is a work of art, made up of all sorts of valuables like gold, gems and pearls. It's beautiful, but don't see why it's not viewable by everyone... it's at the altar, but faces the back, so you must pay to go back there and see it 😊 Very clever.

Next we went to the crowded Rialto Bridge. The market vendors line up the inner side of the bridge while tourists line up on the outer sides to view all the "street traffic" on the Grand Canal. It's hard to get a picture on the bridge since there are just too many people. The markets were fun to walk through, mostly selling little trinkets and lots of glass ware, which they claim come from the near by glass meccas... Murano and Burano. Most of the affordable pieces are not originals, but still worth buying if you want to take some glass home.

We ate a quick lunch at a near by food stand... hot dogs and pizzas. The challenging thing was to eat it without getting pigeon poop all over it... luckily we found some covered spots to eat at. After lunch we went to Doge's Palace....this is where past rulers of Venice once lived. It was huge and interesting, but not worth the high price of admission, in my opinion. I did like the view of the "Bridge of Sighs", so named since prisoners who were sentenced to the dungeons of the palace would cross over the bridge and look out onto the Grand Canal one last time and sigh as they headed into the darkness of the prisons.

After a much needed gelato break, we headed for our last spot of the evening... Museo Correr (art museum), which provided free entry with our Doge Palace tickets. Since we were there close to closing time, we didn't spend too much time there, but it was enough. Exhausted from all the walking, we went back to the hotel to rest.

That evening we walked in the opposite direction of St. Mark's to areas we hadn't ventured to yet. We strolled across the Academia bridge by the museum, and into small piazzas and walkways. We were looking out for places to eat and kept pushing on as we didn't find the perfect one. Time slipped by and we soon found out that some of the places we had scoped out were starting to close. So, we frantically traced our steps back and ended up finding an open place that we settled for. Our last dinner in Venice was lackluster and the waiters were strange and a bit rude. Oh well, we couldn't be picky by this point... we were surprised to find places close up so early, but I guess it's because most of the tourists are long gone by then.

After dinner we strolled around some more and went to the Rialto Bridge to see it lit up at night. We stopped off for a final gelato treat, then back to St. Mark's square to see the orchestras battling it out for customers one last time. Thus ended our last night in Italy...

The next morning we had breakfast, and got our stuff ready to check out. The private water taxi we had booked to take us to the airport had arrived and one of the hotel staff guided us to the taxi near by. So glad we hired the taxi vs. using the vaporetto... we had the boat to ourselves and was a great way to see Venice for the final time. We passed through small canals into the larger Grand Canal... waved good by to St. Mark's and Doge's palace, then dove back into smaller narrow canals before we ended up on the other side of Venice, on the main water way heading towards the mainland, where the airport is located.

And that was it... poof, just like that our Italian holiday was over! We had a great time, and I for one, would love to go back and visit other parts of Italy that we didn't get a chance to see. But that will have to wait...

As the plane took off, back to London, we wished Italy "arrivederci" ... until we meet again!

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Photos

on the road again...
Heading to Venice

pretty glass lamps
so many stores sell locally made glassware

narrow passageways
these guys maneuver through them like pros