Getting lost in Venice

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Venice - 5/9-8/9/07

We arrived in Venice by train from Interlaken late in the afternoon where we headed straight out to our campsite out of town. A free bus ride out, the camp ground was pretty awesome, it had a huge pool, gym, table tennis, restaurant, supermarket with cheap wine and beer and plenty of deck chairs to sun yourself on. Beats an overpriced hotel in Venice anyday! Our first pool in forever, I dived straight in. After a few drinks at the campsite, we met some cool travellers from Busabout including Kiwi Steve, who we met in Salzburg.

The next day we headed into Venice thanks to our camp ground who provide an hourly bus service. With good intentions of making our way from the bus station to St Marks Square on the other side of town, we failed miserably and got completely lost. What we did find on our travels through the streets of Venice was an Irish bar scheduled to show the Italy v All Black game. Paul got a map of the place and as we walked away, we wondered whether we would ever find it again.

After an hour of being completely lost, we discovered the Rialto Bridge and of course the Grand Canal which was very impressive and very busy. Lots and lots and lots and lots of tourists. Too many for my liking. We discovered the trusty 'yellow' signs which lead us to San Marco (St Marks Sq) through the narrow cobbled streets of Venice. Some cheeky locals or shop owners had turned some of the direction arrows around so tourists would head in the wrong direction! Cheeky sods!

We arrived in St Marks Sq to even more tourists. Tourists everywhere. So many, you would of thought it was a music concert or parade. The buildings were very impressive though, including the Cathedral and the gold mosaics on the facade. The most horrendous thing about St Marks Sq were the pigeons. Thousands of them and there were guys selling seeds for a 1 euro a pack to tourists to feed them. There were people everywhere with pigeons crawling all over them. Ewww!!! Rats with wings! I am glad Trafalgar Square got rid of the hords of pigeons. We wandered around and along the waterfront where we found the famous Bridge of Sighs. Venice to me is completely unreadable. Even if we wanted to go to a certain museum or attraction, I would have absolutely no idea how to get there. It is the one city I think you just have to stumble across things and take what you find! We wandered the streets of Venice and found it to be not as expensive as what people made it out to be. Not the cheapest, but if you get off the tourist trail, you could find food for a decent price. Only danger of going off the tourist trail is finding it again! After 7 hours of walking the streets like a homeless person, we headed back to the campsite.

The next day, we headed back in for another wander and a bit of shopping, it didn't take us too long this time to make it across town. We had mastered the yellow signs (bless them!). The queues to get into anything were horrendous but we decided to bear one and go into the Cathedral to see what all the fuss was about. The best part was it was free, but it was also worth the wait. If you thought the facade was impressive, the inside is amazing. The ceiling is decked in gold mosaics which reflects on the whole interior. Very cool. Of all the churches, cathedrals I've been to so far on this trip, this is one of the best.

When then went in search of the Irish bar we hoped to watch the rugby and Paul having the navigational skills of a homing pigeon got us there pretty much direct amazingly. The place packed out pretty quick, mainly Kiwis but a few locals too. The score was pretty healthy at half time, I headed off to do some much needed girl shopping!

After the rugby, we wandered for a little more round Venice, eating gelato and taking pictures of all the over priced gondola rides. I can't believe they charge 80-100 euro for a 30 min gondola ride. For that, i would expect to get champagne on board! We declined on many occasions and I took great pride in telling some of these rip off artists that there was a guy down the canal offering rides for only 20 euro! What stupid tourist back in the day decided to pay that much for a ride on a boat. Outrageous!!! Anyhoo, our wandering attracted many italians as Paul was wearing his All Black shirt, one local we met call Marco was married to a kiwi girl but living in Venice. He was telling us he worked in a 3 star hotel in Venice and the cheapest room they had was 250 euro per night!! I just about died. Its times like that, you are glad you are camping.

The next day was a lazy day at the campsite by the pool before we headed off to Florence on a late avo train. One bad thing I took from Venice, over 60 mozzie bites all over my legs. Thanks Venice, they not only look sexy, but they feel soooooo good!!!

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Comments

[JC]

God yill have to post a pic of the mossie bites at some stage - that's just gotta rate right there in the sexy stakes !!! :-)