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Published: December 23rd 2005
Cute Venice Shot
Now altogether say "Awwww!"Matt:
Ah Venice! For our latest European adventure, we took my brother to Italy’s sinking city before he headed back to Oz.
This was our first flight on Ryanair, the mega-mega discount airline. For those of you unfamiliar with the unlimited luxury of Ryanair’s cabin, picture 190 blue and fluorescent yellow battery hen cages and you’re halfway there! Ryanair doesn’t believe in seat pockets, you practically need to pay to speak to a flight attendant and check-in nine hours before scheduled departure time, but their flights are cheap - REAL cheap! And apparently from next year, if you agree to gamble your life savings at their on board casinos, the flights will be totally free!
Apart from their dislike of seat pockets, the other thing about Ryanair is that they only really get you half way to your destination. Because they are mega-mega discount, they tend to land at the more crappy airports which are usually a few hours outside of where you want to go (in London, most Ryanair flights leave from Luton or Stanstead Airports, which are around two hours outside of town). In our case, this meant landing at Treviso airport which was around an
hour by bus from Venice.
We eventually arrived at Venice bus station just after midnight. Now just in case you end up there, Venice’s main bus station doesn’t really look very Venetian. So when you arrive in the middle of a concrete jungle and your bus driver mutters something random in Italian and gets off, don’t just sit there dazed and confused like we and our fellow travellers did…
After a short ferry ride we arrived at the Rialto Bridge (ie. the one that kinda looks like a wedding cake) and began walking to our hotel. While I’m dispensing free travel advice, take note: Getting lost is Venice is very VERY easy! Now don’t get me wrong, the streets and canals are very cute… But after waiting in an airport lounge for a few hours, flying like some farmyard animal and arriving after midnight, they all begin to look the same! What’s more, the map to our hotel was not very helpful…
After an hour of searching (I’m sure we crossed the same frigging gorgeous bridge 12 times!), we arrived and collapsed at our hotel.
The next day after a breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate
Attack of the killer pigeons
They're possessed I tell ya! (Italian hot chocolate is the best!), we set out for San Marco Piazza. Venice is the kind of city I could quite easily walk around for days (except when searching for hotels at 1am). The first thing that strikes you is the lack of cars and bikes - Venice is probably one of the few remaining cities where the pedestrian rules supreme!
We arrived at San Marco which was covered in mist and had a really eerie feel about it. The square itself is just magic! It’s bordered on three sides by terraced shops with the Basilica of St Mark at the far end. The square is filled with pigeons which you can feed for just one Euro. Another word of advice - save your Euro! The pigeons are trained to attack any unsuspecting tourist that has been issued with a white paper bag of grain. My brother and I foolhardily fell into the trap and ended up in our own private Alfred Hitchcock movie (see the photo)… Luckily though, we lived to tell the tale!
After that, we headed for the Palazzo Ducale, the former seat of government in Venice and official residence of the Venitian doges
Rialto Bridge
(a.k.a the wedding cake) (which were the city’s rulers and is pronounced dough-ges, not ‘dogs’ as I kept getting corrected). The Palace was pretty amazing, filled with incredible art and amazing state rooms. It is connected to Venice’s dungeons via the Bridge of Sighs (apparently named so after the sadness of condemned prisoners who through its small grilled windows were able to see Venice for the last time before being executed). Nowadays the prison guards and soldiers have been replaced with an army of Italian guides in read coats who don’t really do much but scream ‘No Fotographie!!!’ at the first sign of a camera…
From the Palace we had lunch (pizza pasta and hot chocolate, what else?) in a café and headed to the water to Board a boat for a tour of the Venetian islands. Apart from Ed, Dom and I, the only other people on board were a family of five from Indonesia. The dad looked kinda like President Soeharto with a toupe, but they were really nice (the daughter even went to my uni!).
Our tour guide was a short stumpy woman with an unfortunate Donatella Versace face which was covered in half of Mac Cosmetics winter collection
Palazzo Ducale
We're manly men, we men in tights... - it was like being guided around by a minature Ru Paul!
Our first stop on the tour was Murano, the island famous for making Venetian glass. Upon our arrival, our group of eight were ushered into a small room and shown how to make a glass horse - which incidentally, didn’t look hard at all. We were then ushered into a store which sold everything from glass goldfish to glass gerbils. Suffice to say, guess what most of my family are getting for Christmas this year??? 😊
Next we cruised on to Torcello, which is the original island that was settled. Apparently the island used to support a community of 40,000, but they all seem to have been replaced by a collection of cats and crops… It did have a great leaning tower though (those Italians do a great leaning tower!)
Finally we went to Burano, which is mainly known for its lace. Apparently making lace for a living isn’t an appealing prospect for the next generation of Buranites (or is it Buranese?), and so the tradition is slowly dying out. The island itself is made up of a pretty amazing collection of ramshackle houses (each
of which is painted a different colour), and another leaning tower. After doing some souvenir shopping, we headed for a café for some more hot chocolate (notice the common theme?) before boarding our boat for the trip back to San Marco.
That night we headed down the Rialto for a romantic candlelit dinner for three(?)… I had the lobster! :-)
After dinner we went in search of a place to settle in for a few quiet drinks or get completely wasted, depending on where the mood took us… In true Venetian style, we found ourselves wandering for what seemed like hours over hundreds of bridges in search of either ‘Campo Santa Margarita’ (you need to say it with an Italian accent for effect) or ‘Piazzale Roma’, which we had on good word (from a drunk on the street) was the place to see and be seen! Along the way we met Katie, who was from Virginia and in search of the same place… Eventually, we found a cute little bar and the four of us settled in for the rest of the night…
Three hours and six bottles of wine later (which is more embarrassing when you
Torcello
Leaning tower no. 1 consider Dominic had the flu and wasn’t drinking!), and after lots of bitching about the American government and arguing whether Carrie should have ended up with Aiden instead of Big, we got kicked out of the bar and staggered out back towards our hotel… Can’t really remember much after that, other that getting dragged out of the door of a club by Ed (I wanted to dance, dagnammit!)… Somehow though, we managed to find our beds…
The next day (feeling a little fragile), we set out again for San Marco and went up the Campanile, which is the 100 metre high bell tower that adjoins the square. Apparently although the tower was built in the 12th Century, it totally collapsed in 1902 and had to be rebuilt. The views from the top are pretty amazing though - well worth the 30 second lift ride! :-)
Next, we took a ferry up the Grand Canal. Being totally unfriendly to cars and buses, the only real way to get around town (apart from walking, otherwise known as ‘getting lost’) is by Vaporetti or public water bus. There are of course gondolas, but these are all controlled by a couple of
Burano
Leaning tower no. 2 families who charge on average around 120 euro (A$200) for a 30-40 minute trip. And that’s without an accordion player or singer for entertainment! Ed and I went on one when were last here, and both agree that the Vaporetti (especially route No. 1 which travels straight up the Grand Canal) is definitely the way to go!
The rest of the day was spent sipping on hot chocolate, shopping, touring a few other sites (St Marks Basilica, Sant’ Alvise church - which featured in Indiana Jones, the Mercati (ie. Markets) di Rialto, Palazzo Contarini dal Bovolo - which has an amazing spiral staircase, and the Piazetta in San Marco), eating pizza and pasta, drinking more hot chocolate and well and truly getting lost.
Finally, after walking a few miles, catching a ferry, getting on a bus, catching a plane (ie. flying chicken coop), catching another bus, jumping on a train and walking another mile - we were home!
Dom heads back to Oz tomorrow. I’m pretty certain he’s had a pretty kewl time here - he’s already booked in to come back in August…
Anywho, hope everything is OK back home and no one has been
Burano
Ain't it cute! too terrorised by the crazed rioters in the Shire. Watching TV over here, you get the impression that the whole of Sydney is going up in flames… I’m guessing though that it’s not quite that bad…!
Thanks to everyone who have sent us cards and Christmas messages (and Tim Tams)! If I don’t get to speak to you before, I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and a great new year. Ed and I are headed to Paris and Edinburgh for Christmas and New Year, but will be sure to keep you all posted! Stay tuned!
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N & G
non-member comment
How do you keep gotng?
Hi Matt/Ed What a visit.enjoyed your discription of Ryanair.Guess we will get more reports when we meet Dom and Mum for Christmas lunch. Excellent picture from your Belfast trip of Dom putting his foot in it Mum said she wondered what the awful smell was in his room. Love N/G