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Published: November 18th 2012
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I LOVE Venice........ I could really just end this blog entry right there, but it will be a little unfair towards Venice, so I will try my best to paint a pretty word picture of this old romantic place with all it's mystique..
No..you can't drive your car to your hotel in Venice, not even to just quickly drop off your oversized suitcase and boot full of parcels, but you can however drive to Venice and leave your vehicle in a secure parking lot and then drag your bag over many bridges, steps and down many alleyways or alternatively pay a fee and let a bag carrier or bag taxi man cart your belongings to your hotel. Once you have checked in, unpacked your bags and recovered from that very Venicey experience you can enjoy the advantages of having a car free city.
How do these buildings stay afloat? The foundation of a building rests on closely spaced wooden piles (which have been there for centuries!) then the building made up either of brick or stone sit on top of these footings. The piles penetrate softer mud and clay until they reach a much harder layer of compressed clay.
Submerged by water, in oxygen-poor conditions, wood does not decay as rapidly as above water, it's petrified as a result of the constant flow of mineral rich water and eventually becomes a stone-like structure!
The very top thing to do on my list would be to stroll around and just get lost. Do get a free map from your hotel - just in case you get seriously lost! We wandered around, taking every opportunity to explore as many little alleyways and hidden shops as possible. Something very refreshing....there is hardly any signage, posters or advertising cluttering up their window displays. It's actually a brilliant move, firstly the roads/ alleyways are so narrow that you wont be able to see the shop until you are right in front of it, in which case you will be able to see what's in the shop and don't need a sign telling you what's in the shop, also the chance of return customers are very slim and most shops sell the same or very similar touristy souvenirs,so if you lost your shop - chances are you can find another. Cluttering up the window with cheap neon words and numbers draws attention away from their
quality leather handbags, porcelain masquerade masks and hand blown glass ornaments.
Canals canals canals..as you can see by our many pictures of the pale green turquoisey canals - we loved them! 1000 year old buildings edge the waterways creating winding little canals where people go about their daily routine, taking the kids to school, rubbish collectors doing their rounds, shop suppliers doing deliveries and Gondoliers taking tourists on romantic gondola rides. This is a photographer's paradise! The canals look specially pretty at night with street lights dancing on the ripples caused by little gondolas slowly drifting by... aaaaahhhhh ...love this place!
We stayed at the Papadopoli Hotel, a stunning Hotel...with the best breakfast and one of the smallest lifts I have ever had to face! It's a 4-man lift and believe it or not when the lift stops at a floor..and there are 4 people in it...2 more actually try to squeeze themselves in there! NO WAY!
We soon realised that there are different prices at restaurants.. a sit down price or a cheaper standing price.. So when we werent too exhausted or were short on time we had a quic cheap espresso at the
coffee shop counter, lol...it seemed a bit strange at first but then it started to really make sense, I think all coffee shops around the world should have this option especially when there is just no time to sit around and wait for slow service and in Venice there was NO time to waste..
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