Venezia - City of Canals

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Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384

We left Verona after an early breakfast, wanting to get to Venice.

It was only a one hour and fifteen minute drive from Verona to our hotel in Venice. We are staying at the Hotel Aaron.

Venice was an early Roman settlement, however, it really began to form as a city in 569 A.D. Venice has remained as an powerful yet independent community for most of its history. Some key historic figures have come from Venice, including Marco Polo (explorer), Robert Wagner (composer) and Tintoretto (painter). Venice is built so close to sea level, that the city streets flood when a King Tide hits the area.

After arriving at the hotel at 11.30am, we checked into the hotel and then set out to catch the train into Venice. The train runs along a narrow spit of land linking the city of Venice to the mainland, and terminates at the Grand Canal.

We thought we might take a ferry to St Mark's Square, but with long lineups for tickets, we decided we could walk it just as quick. To say that Venice is a maze of narrow streets and canals is an understatement. We found our way though pretty easily through to St Marks Square, where our first priority was to head to the top of the Campanile (tower) located in the square. It was an amazing view from the top of the Campanile, being able to see all of Venice from above. Venice is in reality one large island, with the Grand Canal snaking it's way through the city, with small canals running every which way off the larger canals.

We then went for a walk around some of the streets. There are over 400 bridges in Venice that crisscross the canals. We found a shady street with a cool breeze blowing down it to have some lunch and sit for a while.

After lunch, we took a gondola ride around the canals, which was really interesting. Our Boatman was not only was a skilled oarsman, he sang a song about "Karina" and provided a commentary on some of the interesting buildings that we passed. The ride went for around forty minutes, and was the highlight of Kim's day.

After the gondola ride, we walked around for a while, ate some Merangue and slowly made our way back to the Grand Canal. There is a big festival on tonight in Venice, with canal traffic increasing by the minute as we were leaving the city. It is a bit like Paris traffic, except on water.

We really enjoyed our visit to Venice, a unique city in the world, having canals instead of streets. Definitely one of the most interesting places we have visited.

Tomorrow we leave Italy for Austria, a place I really looking forward to visiting. We will be staying high up in the Austrian Alps tomorrow night, so it could be a little cool.

Arrivaderci from Italy.

Jim and Kim

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Photos

St Mark's Church in St Mark's Square Venice
This is the church that houses the body of the Apostle Mark. A beautiful church with built out of different coloured marble, with intricate carvings.

The Campanile (tower)
This is the bell tower that is in St Mark's Square. Luckily we didn't have to climb this one though, it has a lift.

View of Venice from the Campanile
This is the view over Venice. The streets are so narrow, that you can't really see the canals that crisscross the city.

The Ponte Rialto
An ancient bridge that spans the Grand Canal. The bridge has shops on either side as you walk over it.

Gondola Ride
Kim's dream come true.

Comments

[Liz]

Now that's just lovely! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time!