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Published: December 15th 2010
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Days 72 & 73, Venice, 12th & 13th December
Today we were supposed to get up early for breakfast at 7:30am and then go explore Florence, but when the alarm went off, Jess just couldn’t wake up enough… All this walking and travelling is tiring business you know! So we slept in for a little, then got up packed our bags, downloaded an audio guide for Venice, had some brekky and were on our way. The audio guide was a revelation which would’ve been useful about 2 months ago. With our train pass, we get 20% off all audio guides off one website, and we could just download them onto Mischa’s mobile and listen from there. Very cool. The train was scheduled to leave at 10:30am so we had to be there ready to go by 10:10am, which meant leaving by 9:45am cause it takes a lot longer to walk places when you’re carrying 20kg on your back! We made in plenty of time… We have 1st class rail passes, which is soooo comfy, this trip we had two single side seats facing each other with a table, it was great.
Only a short trip, we arrived in Venezia St. Lucia
Station at 12:40pm, then had to find our hotel. When we had looked up the directions on Google maps this morning, it was 1 ½ pages of a Word document long, turning a corner every 30 – 50 metres… ahhh, totally thought we were going to get lost! Luckily, Mish looked over the booking information again and found directions from the station by Waterbus (public transport in Venice), it was soooo much easier, plus not much walking (thumbs up from Jess!). When we arrived it was just like the pictures. Beautiful, with lovely houses on the banks of the canals, gondolas floating past and blue skies. Jess was well impressed, and so the trip on the Waterbus went a lot quicker because of the scenery to look at (only 20mins anyways).
This afternoon we were on a mission; we had to get ski clothes for Austria!! Mish had researched on the net and found some helpful info on tripadvisor about a store called Decathalon for sporting goods. The hotel concierge helped us out with directions to get to the bus terminal and told us about a free bus to the Panorama Shopping Centre (across the road from Decathalon!). The major
part of Venice is on the main land, but the original part, now mainly just touristy, is over a long bridge (originally not connected at all to main land) in this lagoon. So to get to this shop we had to go back to the main land, approx. 25 mins. It all worked out fantastic, we just missed the free bus but the public one was only 1.20 Euros, we found great ski gear on special (we just had to fit it into our bags!!) and had fun shopping, Jess also got some new runners (as you can’t go everywhere in boots!). We were back on the bus and at the hotel by 5:30pm, Mission Complete. Note to all travellers in Italy, buy your tickets before you get on the bus, as on the bus it is more than double, 2.50 Euros!
As the sun sets around 4pm and it was a Sunday, most things were closing up, so we just chilled out in our room until 7:30pm when the restaurants open. Our concierge recommended a couple of places for dinner not too far away, so we checked them out and settled for a tavern, which was quite popular, and
therefore busy… We both had very decent meals, the service lacked slightly, we had to basically wave down a waiter to get anything. Mish had a yummy dessert, a meringue cake filled with ice cream and Jess had her compulsory Gelato!
Today, we were armed with our phone and audio guide as well as a map with the points of interest marked on it. After brekky we headed straight to Piazza San Marco, which is one of Venice’s most famous views. On the way we saw a good view of a far off church (Chiesa della Salute) that we wouldn’t want to walk to, so grabbed a few photos. Once at the San Marco Square (where there are a number of rules to follow…like no eating!!), we saw and heard about the Basilica di San Marco, the Palazzo Ducale, the Campanile (which we climbed for the beautiful panoramic views!), the Columns of St. Mark & St. Theodore and Torre dell’ Orologio (famous clock tower). We then followed an itinerary of Palazzos (palaces), Pontes (bridges) and Chiesas (churches). We pretty much visited most of the places on our audio guide (all 40), walking most places and getting the Waterbus up
and down the Grand Canal for better views (as most of them are right beside the Grand Canal). We also grabbed a few souveniers and pressies along the way, and by the time we reached the biggest church of Venice (Chiesa dei Frari), we had probably walked over 5km, exploring back streets of Venice, taking loads of photos on video camera still and having lots of fun. Jess even got a scar to take home from Venice, as we were walking down one alley (street) something fell from the sky and hit her on the head and then fell to the ground… It was a large piece brick/concrete/terracotta that had fallen from a structure above us between two buildings, just bad luck on Jess’ part. She teared up a little but continued on (later that night she found a blob of dried blood in her hair, it really must have hurt!). It is a beautiful city. When we reached Chiesa dei Frari, it was about 3pm, and as we were walking over the bridge, a lovely gondolier offered to take us round for $60 Euro for 40 mins (80 Euro was the best we’d found so far) through the back
canals. It was freezing cold, but we went with it as you have to don’t you!! We got to relax and refresh a bit, but Jess froze. By the time we finished, it was definitely time to thaw up in our hotel room, so it was a quick Waterbus ride back to the hotel. Once there though, we realised we were pretty hungry (no lunch), so we headed out a different way to find something open. We did, a nice café next to the sea which did a nice banana split for Jess and Mischa had a rolled pizza and hot chocolate. It was only 5pm, so nothing was really open, it was time for a nice hot bath and some relaxation until dinner.
Dinner became another mission; to get Jess a Carnival Mask, and then eat!! Not much is open other than restaurants, and even then, as it is winter, even some of them are closed after 5pm. We made our way to St Marks Square, expecting at least something there to be open. We lucked out, coming across a nice alley with a few shops and pizzerias on it, so we accomplished both missions in one swoop!!
The next morning was a very early start (up at 5am with a 2km walk to the train station!!), so we watched a bit of Grey’s Anatomy and Cougartown, and then it was time to count sheep!!
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Cheryl
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The sky is falling!
I so want to go there! When I read about Jess getting hit on the head with a falling brick I thought of the James Bond movie where a whole building was collapsed. Then again are you sure it wasn't a little boy left "Home Alone" throwing bricks from the top of the building? Lucky it was only 1 brick!