Advertisement
Gondoleirs at work
The Santa Maria della Salute (with scaffolding-style beanie on) in the background If you ever take an overnight European train, get there early and grab the bunks, cos they've got that much more width to make tossing and turning comfortable, without having to fear falling off the edge. We only just made our night train, and so were regulated to sleeping across the seats. Still (I write this in Cairo, after being on several Egyptian trains) there are worse ways to go! We left Avignon for Nice, where we had a quick transfer to our train bound for Venice. Settling into our cabins, we got our only glimpses of the southern French coast - stunning in the dusk. We passed through Monte Carlo as well, which was exciting in a weird way, because I spent hours as a kid playing this F1 racing game on my PC (with the worst sound effects imaginable!) pushing my Ferrari around the Monte Carlo track, which was by far the hardest one. Ah, the memories!
Well, a few minutes into our trip we had crossed into Italy, one sleep later we were passing Verona, and a brush of the teeth and an emptying of the bladder later, we were pulling into Santa Lucia station in
Nice building
From the vaporetto... no idea what building it is... Venice. We walked out of the front doors of the station, and there it was right in front of us - the Grand Canal, the main waterway through the islandy part of Venice (there's a more normal Venice on the mainland - Venice Mestre). I'd seen bits of Venice before in movies, seen other people's photos, heard mixed reports about it, but standing there, watching the ferries and the occasional gondola go by, all of a sudden made me very excited to be there.
But first things first! Finding our place. Venice is expensive, and we had unsuccessfully ploughed through the hostel sites looking for a cheap hostel. No such luck... no Hotel Formule 1 around here. Then we hit upon a brilliant concept - campsites! So a brief diversion - these are the way to go for the cheapstakes in Italy. Any time I had read 'campsite' I had assumed it meant tents and dirty communal toilets, but the campsites here all have mobile homes with ensuites, which are basic, but very clean and comfortable. And only 30-40 Euros for a room for two per night. Brilliant! More money to spend on gelato, but we'll get to that.
A Venitian scene
View from the Grand Canal So we had instructions of how to make it to our campsite in our hand, which involved catching a bus, watching for landmarks, counting turns and roundabouts, walking about 2km, "and there you will find us!" (as if it was walking across the road). Our campsite was on the mainland (Mestre) and 15 minutes later, we jumped off the bus not at all sure we were anywhere close to where we were supposed to be. I summoned up my courage and spoke my first few Italian words to a native - "parle inglese?" and she parled enough inglese to be able to point us the right way.
Well, we made it to the site, put our stuff down and, very chuffed with the little gem we had found, hopped onto the shuttle bus (which takes you to the island for only 1.50 Euros - bargain!) to explore. We took the Lonely Planet's advice, and took the vaporetto (ferry) no.1 down the canal all the way from the start (next to the Piazalle Roma, the main bus area) down to Piazza San Marco. I had my head in the LP reading and identifying important buildings (more like playing "Where's
Wally" than actually being interested in the building itself) while Elle avidly took photos.
Another diversion on the point of photos. At some point on our trip, our camera suffered some sort of ill on the inside, and several smudges are visible when the zoom is all the way out, which become big flecks when the zoom is all the way in. We have dropped it a few times, but could this cause it? Anyway, we took it to a few guys in Venice who shrugged and told us to take it to Panasonic. Great. Well, we decided not to get too caught up about it. We have called the dirty mark and his friends Blob, and every time he appears on a photo we growl and make some lame joke about how he likes to be the centre of attention. Now, our shots are framed as much for the photo as to exclude Blob from the party. So, if you see Blob on our pics, we're sorry. But if you don't, attribute that to our savvy ability in photography!
Back to Venezia. The Grand Canal is a fine piece of work. It's surrounded by majestic buildings on
both sides, all the way down, and in the majority of places, the buildings rise straight out of the water. Being there in person made even more amazing the thought that a group of people actually get around town by boat, pull up (and in some cases, in) to their building and hop in. It's a blaze of colour. The water is a blue-green, the shades of the buildings are a Renaissance painter's palette, the black and gold-trimmed gondolas with their black and white stripe shirted gondoliers, thousands of tourists dressed to impress (not us...) have a look at the pictures! The entire two and a half days we were there, we were stopping every few minutes to photograph another bridge, building, window, canal, shop etc etc... imagine a place where everything is a photo, and that's what Venice is like.
We made it down to Piazza San Marco, hopped off the ferry and walked through the piazza, a massive square lined on 3 sides by colonnades and on one by the famous Basilica di San Marco... and inside those 4 sides are packed ridiculous amounts of two species - humans and pigeons. Walking through you seem to spend
as much energy dodging fellow tourists as you do flying pigeons. I understand May is the start of the high season in Italy - I can't imagine what the summer here is like! We spent a few minutes taking the grand scene in, before we got out of there in search of a cheap meal. We tucked into probably the worst pizza I have had this trip on a sidestreet, with two teenagers deciding to sit close to us, smoking and spitting lots. Oh well.
We decided to put the map away (in no other city have I seen so many people wielding maps - it really is one big maze here) and go for a wander, but not before vital nourishment in the form of gelato. Mmm... no place does gelato like Italy, and we decided it was only prudent that we should partake every day we were in this lovely country. We found a LP-recommended one, 1 Euro for a massive scoop. Just so you know, the Amoretto flavour was delicious.
We tried and succeeded in getting lost, walking up and down (and back again) tiny streets, some quiet and some bustling, over and under bridges
Carnival!
Masks for sale getting an idea of what people like to sell tourists here. The main things seem to be masks (for masquerade balls... amazing variety, including lots of animals, although Spiderman doesn't seem to be as popular here), art (plenty of it around), stationery (the Venetian-style papers and binding are beautiful), fake designer handbags (invariably sold by jolly African fellows), and these squidgy toys you can mould to different shapes (invariably sold by almost as jolly Indian fellows). Other items of interest - gondoleir style T-shirts (for budding gondola captains), boxer shorts (which initially looked very lewd, but then we realised they were printed with Michelangelo's David's naughty bits on them - still lewd, but in a Renaissance masterpiece kind of way.) Something for everyone.
After finding our bearings, we took a 'traghetto', which is another word for 'cheap gondola'. You pay 0.50 Euro to take a gondola from one side of the canal to the other. No roses or serenading, but you do get the guy with the stripey shirt. More wanderings tooks us around and through the fish and fruit and vegetable markets, over the fantastic Ponte di Rialto, to a famous church with a long name with Titian's
Ponte di Rialto
View from the Grand Canal Assumption over the altar, an overpriced but decent meal of pasta, and more wandering through backstreets in an attempt to head back to the main bus area, where our shuttle was picking us up from. I say attempt because we got lost, and the whole thing was very uncomfortable for me because my bladder seemed to be bursting at the seams. Public toilets (which you have to pay for anyway) were closed for the day, and in desperation I went into a restaurant and asked to use their bathroom. No, I'm sorry, the lady behind the counter replied. A few moments considering my dignity. Please, I'll buy a drink! Small conference with fellow shop owner. Oh, OK! Empty bladder, can of Fanta, and we continued our wandering, but found our way soon enough. Now there are signs all over Venice (literally, all over!) pointing to the Piazzale Roma (where we wanted to go), but instead of a simple straight arrow, they go for this weird curved arrow, so you don't know whether you're supposed to do a simple right, or go right then curve your way straight...
The next day we took a route off the tourist track through
an area of Venice called Dorsudoro, which led to a very nice surprise - the best coffee I have had this trip, and for Elle, the best hot chocolate she has ever had (big call... it was Lindt chocolate though) If you're going to Venice I'll point it out to you. What a joy! These people actually know how to texture their milk. Just for comparison, we went to a cafe in New York recommended for it's coffee, and out came half a cup of burnt coffee with a mountain of froth bubbling over the cup like an erupting volcano! (They even offered whipped cream with it! Outrage!) Back to Italy, they really do do coffee consistently better here. I have to say though, the coffee in Sydney is still better. Long live the flat white!
More wanders, cheapish food (half sandwich triangles called tramezzini, and panini), over a bridge and back to the Piazza di San Marco. The basilica di San Marco is incredible on the outside, but inside it's covered with the most amazing mosaics you'll ever see. It's also where St Mark is buried. Tip - if you drop your bag off at the building nearby,
they'll give you a tag and you can walk in past all the queues. Not so much luck on the bell tower, where we queued for a while, but the views from the top... well, you know how it is! We seem to be seeing a lot of the cities we visit from very high up. Very cool.
Now dinner... it's not the best idea to buy Italian food at a bar run by Chinese people, but we did, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. We weren't. The Chinese lady behind the bar was lovely, and they did soft drinks well enough, but the familiar "ding" of a microwave before the food came out shouted "reheated pre-made meal!" to me even before I saw the very ordinary seafood risotto. Ah well... we were sure we would find that authentic Italian meal, just maybe not in Venice. I consoled myself with a large chunk of tiramisu afterwards (at a different place).
The next day we said a sad goodbye to Camping Jolly (as it was called, and appropriately!) for a few more hours of wandering before catching our train to Florence. We were laden with our backpacks, so didn't want
St Mark's Square
From the bell tower to walk too much. We decided to make our way to the cafe for more good coffee and hot chocky, and took the same non-touristy back street route we did yesterday. We were walking along, and I was about to walk past a girl posing for a photo when Elle called out "Mel!" It was Melisa Bactol, a friend from Sydney. Now Elle and Mel had been good friends back in Sydney, and Mel had moved to Milan to study fashion design. They had talked about meeting up, but in the rush of Mel leaving, they didn't exchange email addresses. But here we were, a morning in a back street in Venice! God letting us know he's got things under control. We found out Mel was also in London the same Sunday we were there, and was also planning to be in Rome the same weekend. So 3 opportunities for a meeting!
Well, the coffee was good thanks! More tramezzini and panini, and we were off to Renaissance heartland - Florence!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0681s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Nina
non-member comment
loved this blog!
Hey guys! wow, Kev, you have a gift for writing...you are so entertaining! honestly, i usely just check out the photos, catch th jist of what you've been up to and wait for the next update, but I took the time to read this one...loved it! and fully a God coincidence for seeing Mel...beautiful surprise! well keep 'em coming. love and God bless yas from Brissy! xox