Day 6 - Venice 23/12

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I never knew Venice flooded! I mean its kind of obvious now thinking about it, but I really never expected it to be flooded when we went there!

We were blessed enough to enter Venice the morning of its highest tide of 1.4m! Luckily high tide was at 4am, so by 9am, it wasn't so bad! That being said, I was totally freaked out! I mean, hearing about all these tides, we had to walk across this fairly low jetty to get to our boat in the first place, and we had been told the next high tide would be at 4pm. Um .... does that mean this jetty will be under???? I dont think our tour guide knew what I was talking about.

Arriving in Venice, the first thing I noticed was the water level was almost the same as the section we were climbing onto! Oh man! I just had visions of the whole place sinking into oblivion. The fact it was totally freezing, and with so much water everywhere, freezing meant, freezing! Our first stop was another sales pitch but this time at a glass blowing factory! Walking there, when we got near St Marks Square, the fun began. If you weren't wearing gum boots - um like anyone would seriously take gum boots! You had to walk along these tiny little kindy tables which made a path across and around the square. We had been warned, do not stop or the police will push you on your way! I had to stop to take some photos along the way, but I was down near the front so had a bit of breathing space, apparently some near the back were pushed on their way.

The glass blowing factory was interesting I guess. I mean since alot of the shops dont open til maybe 10am or 10:30am, it filled in some time. Now one thing to note, was Venice we had loads of time! We didn't need to meet til around 3:30 or 4pm in the afternoon, so if you didn't choose any of the excursions you had a delicious amount of time to wander the beautiful city. Yes, I did fall in love with this town 😊

At 11am, those people that chose to do the Gondola Serenade went off! I had to laugh hearing about their adventure afterwards. I felt sorry for them actually, apart from the fact that if you bartered with the boat people you could work the price down to 50 euro per couple anyway, there were six people to a boat (so not really romantic). One of the boats had the drivers mobile ring, and he spent the majority of the trip chatting away on the phone, and alot of the trip was spent going down the grand canal, which isn't really that romantic! Its the little side canals that are the beautiful ride! I guess I should mention the other trip offered on the day, which was the Venetian Lagoon, I heard it was a reasonable trip, showing a slightly different side of Venice, with its coloured buildings. However that being said, I was so grateful we just had the day wandering Venice. We had relatives meet up with us for a couple of hours, but they then left at 2pm, which gave us more time to wander. I really could keep wandering. You will not get bored in Venice. The amount of mask stalls and shops everywhere are amazing. Each store offers slightly differing masks, and its a mind blowing task if you want to purchase any! Seriously getting a mask was the only thing I had pre-decided I wanted to buy. In the end I gave up even considering it, there was way too much choice, and I didn't want to get the wrong one!

I guess it was a good thing, we had relatives drop in. That way we got to see the Renalto. I guess I hadn't really researched some of the places too well, and didn't really know what on earth it was, til I saw it. Mind you, seeing it, I hadn't expected there to be stalls on it. We bought a slice of pizza for lunch in a nearby shop! Wow do they dish out huge peices! Dare I say, any weight I had lost up til now, is in danger of coming back on!

For the rest of the day, we kind of make little circles always starting from St Marks Square heading out for a bit, then making a circle back to the square via a different road. It was probably the best way to see parts of Venice without getting lost which a few people ended up doing. All the little bridges were so pretty! (I can see I'm going to have to come up with some more descriptive words).

Oh skipping right back, around 11am there was a mist that covered Venice. It made the lighting just breath taking. By 12-1pm, the sun was out and it warmed up considerably. It was also around 12 that all the water had receeded fully. Being there with it flooded was definitely an interesting experience and the next high tide, wasn't so bad. I didn't even notice it. The other funny thing, or at least it was funny for me, cos I dont have to deal with it, is the shops! Walking around in the morning seeing all the store owners draining their shops of the water, and pushing it out into the streets! Who would want to do that each day?????

Another thing to note, is in the square the big bell tower you can catch a lift to the top. From the top you can see the whole island, just to add a different perspective. Was totally freezing up the top so we didn't stay long, but was glad we had the chance to see it. Cost 8 euros each from memory. One other thing is that some of the souvenirs are actually cheaper just as you get off the island heading back to the bus, if you are doing this tour. You wont get too much of a chance to buy anything, but the necklace sets and everything else can be quite a bit cheaper. Also look around at various shops being buying things, as simple things like the wine stoppers can be anywhere from 3 euro up to 6 euro for the same item. Its usually in the back streets that you can find some at the better prices.

Tea was included that night. I guess in the hotel, the front lobby staff were really nice, the ones in the dinning room were a bit abrupt though. From all the places we went to, it just stood out that these were not the friendliest by a distance. Its also a perfect night to try to get in some extra sleep, with there not being anything you can really do at night back at the hotel anyway.

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Photos

the jetty
this was where we had to get onto our boat to cross to the island. I was so sure we were going to be stuck and not able to get off the boat in high tide! I worried for nothing

Venice
this was the site we arrived to. Ok, so the water doesn't look real high in this section, but note all the rubbish that has washed up with the tide going out! Was just so dirty looking

the flood
our first look of the flooded part, and I seriously wanted to run back to the boat. I was such a sook. I calmed down a bit later, was still in shock I guess that it floods there!

towards the clock tower
it was just through the clock tower that we had the glass blowing demonstration

glass blowing
we had a master whip up this horse in about a minute. was amazing to watch. Also with the colour changing, as it was red when he was working the glass

mist
this is the mist that came down around 11am. was an amazing site to see for what it did to the surroundings

lights
I did love these! Classed them as my squirrels of venice (in NY I went crazy with photographing squirrels).

mists and lights
to think people photo shop to get their images looking like this! all natural :)

from the tower
looking down to st marks square

pizza
check out the size of these things!!!!

black market
these guys were funny. they would follow you for ages trying to sell to you the rip off bags! Venice and Pisa were probably the two destinations that you had the most of them