Venice - First stop in roadtrip through Italy

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After the four hour drive from Innsbruck, our first glimpse of Venice was marred with apprehension and anxiety, as we missed the exit to get to our parking space in San Giuliano, and ended up driving directly across the causeway to Venice. Luckily there was no toll here, and we were able to turn around and go straight back after first catching a sneak glimpse of what we were to experience over the next two days.

Further frustration arose after we parked in San Giuliano on the edge of the mainland. It started to rain as we stepped out of the car and we soon realised we had been suckered in by the dodgy Italians. ‘Save on parking’. Yes, we sure did save on the parking at just 5 euro/day, but when you add on 14 euro/person for the 30 minute boat trip to Venice, it ended up costing more than if we had just parked in the main parking garage on the island (where we had been just 30 minutes earlier). Nevertheless, we got a fun boat trip, the sun came out and most importantly, we were arriving just in time for lunch.

Here we encountered a problem we had time and time again in Italy (no, we never learnt) – a very strict timeframe regarding when you are allowed to eat lunch. By now it was around 2:30 and the first 4 restaurants we entered, although full with people, were closed and wouldn’t serve us. With a desperate starvation bearing down on us, we almost made the dreadful decision to eat in one of the over-priced touristy pizzerias near the main square. But fortunately we persevered a little longer and were rewarded with an fantastic little restaurant which served us an amazing seafood risotto with some local wine (chilled in a peculiar fridge disguised as an old cabinet).

The wine set the tone for the rest of the day as we wandered the canals, speaking perfect Italian – ‘Va bene!’ and sampling the local tipple, prosecco. We discovered the very tasty aperol spritz (Prosecco + Aperol + Soda), served with an olive?! And many more of these followed as we ventured around the city, hopping between nifty little bars. We saw the grand canal via the ‘Vaporetto’ (water bus), rather than pay for a pricey gondola ride (80 euro for 40 min!), and ended in a bar near the Pescheria (fish market), with live music, a view of the grand canal and outstanding cicchetti (like an Italian tapa), although they were probably a little too sophisticated and refined for our needs by this stage. A few proseccos later and it was time to go home. Armed with our dubious google map print out but an outstanding sense of direction, we staggered down many alleyways and over a lot of bridges to get home without (too much) trouble.

The next day after waking and checking out of the hotel (surprisingly clear headed), we went to see the tourist sights on foot. San Marco Square is pretty impressive, but also incredibly crowded and touristy. We avoided paying 6euro for an espresso, and the 30 minute queue to go inside San Marco cathedral, but did go up the bell tower to get an amazing 360° view of Venice. After this we followed a magical mystery walking tour of Venice, seeing a great deal more canals, alleyways, gondolas and bridges before catching the boat back to the car on the mainland.

I loved Venice itself, especially once we got away from the crowded streets around Piazza San Marco and the Puente del Rialto. A city on water is something you can’t find anywhere else in the world and the Venetians have a rich and interesting history (but don't ask me about it - I forgot everything already). The best thing for me was that even though it is a popular tourist destination today, for some residents’ life still carries on as normal. We saw woman doing washing, kids riding tricycles, teenagers going to school (and smoking in their lunch break). It is expensive, but I would love to go back some day.

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Photos

Héctor being silly
like always