Venice 2

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Thursday, 30 October, 2008

Pat went off and had breakfast.

We were up at a reasonable time and when Pat returned from breakfast we loaded the car. We then paid our bill and set off about ten o'clock. We guessed theHotel was run by a family and they were very personal in their customer care. The chef asking us what we wanted for dinner was charming.

The plan for today was to drive to Venice and if we made good time, to try and see something of the city, before going to the accommodation.

The motorway was kind to us and although there was an almost continuous stream of lorries, the traffic got a little lighter once we had got away from Verona.

The drive was about one hundred kilometers and took about an hour and a half. Getting into Venice itself took a little while as there was a demonstration going on and the causeway was reduced lanes of traffic.

As we arrived in the vicinity of Venice, we passed the Fincantieri shipyard and could see a ship being built.

We eventually arrived at Venice and parked on floor 10 of the Piazzale Roma. Unusual for us not to park underground. Because of the height, we were actually afforded some lovely views of Venice. We could see two cruise ships.

We had decided that we would try and do the Doges Palace today, as we hadn't time the last time we were here. We would have lots of time tomorrow, to do the touristy ambling. There was a Tourist information office in the car park and we bought our city plan, €2.50. They don't give them away here.

I asked the receptionist if she could tell me about the demonstration and she advised us that the government were trying to change the way that Higher education was funded in Italy, and that people would have to pay in future and the young people were objecting.

We crossed over the brand new grand canal bridge, because it wasn't here the last time we were and then went back over, to go the way we wanted.

We wiggled and waggled our way through the Venice streets and found a restaurant in sunny street to sit down and have some lunch as it was about twelve thirty by now. Pork chop and Roast Chicken, both with chips. Simple but adequate fare.

Eventually we found our way to St. Marks square, which was thronging with people, The Doges palace queue was nothing to speak of, and we went straight in.

The Doges palace is a magnificent building and we bought the audio guide to tell us all about it. It did take several hours to do the tour and the rooms in the place are something special. The main room is about the size of a football pitch with no columns holding up the roof, and is on quite a scale.

On the tour you even go through the jail cells for example, of course the bridge of sighs, so you really see the building from top to bottom. Again, I would thoroughly recommend.

We came out of the palace and wandered around the square for a while. We saw the cafe's where you have to pay for the orchestra as part of your bill when you order something. We sat there last time, because it had to be done, but not this time.

Time was marching on a we meandered our way back to the parking. We bought some cakes at one shop to increase our sugar level and coffee Italian style at another, to top our caffeine level.

Got back to the car about four thirtyish. Parking at the Piazzale Roma was €24.00, not cheap, but of course, nothing about Venice is.

With the help of the Satnav we then found our way to the Novotel. It took a while because of heavy traffic and roadworks. I did make some fair leaps across lanes of traffic occasionally, but not a single beep.

The Novotel didn't have our booking, but had accommodation for the two nights that we wanted. It is definitely a four star hotel and could by no means be described as a quaint little hotel. We are on the eighth floor, but a Gin & Tonic for Pat, and a bath for me, go a long way towards being described as the little luxuries in life and make you feel better about paying a higher price than we have been.

Venice is a unique and beautiful city. I earlier described it to Pat as a very big shop. It does have a major tourist pull and certainly caters to it, but I don't think you could describe it as tacky, some of the shops do sell some quite lovely things. Any other place in the world that describes itself as “Little Venice” simply pales into insignificance against the real thing. We did notice that the tide was in, and some of the canals seemed to have water up to nearly brimming over.

I know that in St. Mark's square it has what look like trestle tables, that they put out in lines for people to walk on above the water when it floods. I remember also reading that they were thinking of surrounding the entire city with a barrier, in order to prevent problems with the height of the water in the future, but that was going to cost an incredible amount of money.

The weather was bright clear blue sky for most of the day, it had the feeling of rain later in the day, but didn't actually do it.

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Photos

Verona
Pat on Juliet's balcony