Visiting the city on water

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This weekend I went to Venice, the city on water. It was really cool. We left pretty early and took an 8:30 am train to Bologna and then to Venice which saved us about 15 euro. The ride was pretty easy and took about 3 hours. Including the stop in Bologna. I couldn't believe how much it cost to use the bathroom there. It was .80 euro and you absolutely had to pay to use it because they had these moving glass doors that opened after you paid by putting your money into a coin slot. I do miss free bathrooms in America.

When we pulled into the Venezia station, it was just like any other station and when we walked out of the station, we just saw the Grand Canal. It was great. Walking around, there really aren't too many main streets. I kind of thought there would be more water, but at the same time, all the very touristy and built up areas were all on the bigger chunks of land. Places near where my hostel was had many more little water canals running though the area. and they were definitely prettier and had more of a "romantic" Venice feeling.

After checking into the hostel, we were starving and asked the man at the front desk where we could get something good and cheap. He led us a few blocks away to a pizzeria around the corner from a theater and tucked away in an alley way. It was delicious. It was definitely the best fluffier pizza I have had here. It was definitely fresh and it just reminded me of home. I ate my pizza on a set of steps leading into the water and Ashley, Molly, and I were amazed with how incredibly brave the birds here were. They were literally standing right next to us ready to pick up any crumbs that fell.

When we were done eating, we went to an information point where we could pick up some passes then headed to San Marco. That was pretty much the biggest piazza in Venice. It was really funny to see everything on water. Things like their "metro system" was a bunch of boats and even had subway-like signs telling you which way it was going and all the stops on the way. There were tons of little shops with Murano glass and elaborate face masks. They were all so pretty but it easily became overwhelming.

I think we really picked the best time to go traveling here. The weather was beautiful, constantly in the 70s and very warm in the sun. So we did a lot of walking around. We didn't head into any of the museums or churches, but I suppose I'll have to go back some day and take a look at those becuase I really wished I was able to but that's just the artist in me speaking out loud. Anyway, walking through the streets of Venice was especially nice at the time we went because there were not nearly as many tourists as there usually are in the summer time. That's such a high tourist season for them, I heard it takes forever to get from one place to another just because the streets are packed.

Eventually we had dinner at this little restaurant that was more of a local place away from the main part of Venice. It was on the island off of the southern part of Venice and down a street or two. I split a pork antipasta with Ashley and then I had a pasta dish with clams and mussels. It was pretty good, not amazing, but satisfying enough. It just felt really nice to sit down and have a casual meal in a quiet place.

Naturally, dinner was followed by gelato... I still think the best gelato is definitely found in Florence so far. Anyway, we wanted to wander our way to a more local area and went to San Margharita where there was a piazza and a ton of bars and restaurants. We had a few glasses of prosecco and then headed back to the hostel. It's so weird navigating through the canals of Venice. There are so many little streets and dead ends and none of the streets are parallel so you completely lose your send of direction. Plus there are many streets with no signs to tell you what street you're actually on. There are tons that just point you in the direction of a main area ("Per San Marco") and there are tons of bridges and everything really does start looking the same. We made it back though, no worries.

Saturday morning, we woke up and got a somewhat early start by walking though the ghetto. That was pretty sad. It was kind of bizarre thinking about the history of the area during the time it was actually used as a ghetto. There were a bunch of hasidic jews living there and there were some shops that had hebrew all over the windows. The most touching part was this group of sculptures on the wall that still had barbed wire on the top and you'll see the pictures but it was just erie to think about. When we were over there, I also saw something else that doesn't have any connection to the ghetto, but it was kind of funny. I saw these two little girls playing with a ball and all of a sudden the ball fell into the water and they couldn't go ahead and get it, and some guy who was driving his boat somewhere stopped and got the ball, drove it closer to the shore and threw it back to the little girls. It was like when a little kid's ball ends up in the street and an adult needs to go and bring it back for them. I just thought that was interesting. While I'm on that whole thing, I also got a kick out of a group of younger Venetians pumping up the volume in their speedboat. It's just the same as when someone plays music really loud in their cars, I just got a laugh at that. There were also ambulances and police boats. It was also really funny hot I saw another one reading "servizio postale" on it. I guess they also deliver their mail via boat. Makes sense.

In the afternoon, we took the boat system to a different part of Venice, called Murano. That part is the section of Italy that is famous for their glass. They make the most exquisite colored glass for light fixtures, chandeliers, sculptures, random little things like fish bowls and fish inside beer mugs (that stood only an inch high), bowls, vases, plates, jewelry of all sorts, it was all so beautiful. Too bad I couldn't take many pictures of it all, there were tons of signs that said you couldn't (they probably want people to buy all the postcards). After a 40 min boat ride back to San Marco, we stumbled upon another pizzeria where we were planning on going the first day and that was cool. We ordered pizza by weight and it was good, but I really liked it from the first place better. We also walked around this amazing market. I got some jewelry and a few gifts but otherwise, it was just fun to walk around and try to speak a little Italian. Before going back pick up our bags from our hostel, we wandered the streets looking all over for the cheapest place to go to the bathroom and everywhere you went, it was 1 euro to use it. That's so crazy! They actually have WC cards and I figured it was for those who often use the bathroom when you're there. It's probably worth it too. When it was about 4, we got back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then went to catch the train back to Florence.

Back in Florence, we ended up going out at around midnight. We went to Angie's Pub that had an incredible "soho" feel to it and then just walked around the block to a few other bars and got a feeling for some Florentine night life. We were one of the few there and that was a really nice feeling. Often during the day, you find a lot of people that just speak English to you because they just know you're American.

So basically, the night consisted of some sangria, a lemon drop, and something on fire. We made friends with the Philipino bartender, named Dexter, and then found the secret bakery. <3 secret bakery. It was really cool, you have to be all quiet like because it's an illegal operation and there are a few of them who make all of the baked goods in Florence and they send it to all of the cafe's and shops but they were nice, hot, and fresh coming straight from the oven to my belly!

Finished up the night walking back to the apartment with Ashley and got ready for bed and passed out, goodnight.

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Photos

On the way to venice...
.80 euro for the bathroom in Bologna

water straight to the door
but they're no longer in use

plastic bottled wine
they sell wine in plastic bottles because the open container policy doesn't say anything about alcohol in plastic bottles (so that's okay to carry around)

clock tower
somehow we would always end up back in the little piazza with this clock tower