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Published: July 24th 2012
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Day #15 - Riva Del Garda to Venice, Italy (Yep, Venice....how jealous are you 😊 I am jealous of you for having me to be so jealous of 😊 😊
Words are not enough, at least the words that I know to describe this city. I will say that there is some frustration that starts out when you get to this city. First, there are no cars in Venice, and yes before you say anything, I do know that Venice is built on canals, I just assumed there were roads here as well, but there are not. The GPS started working again miraculously so we did get to Venice outskirts, where they do allow cars, without any trouble. The GPS however, does want to try and navigate the canals for you, which I do not recommend in a car.
I certainly don't want to come across as someone who is complaining, because I am not, but this is by far the most expensive city imaginable. First you must park your car outside the city because as mentioned, cars do not swim well. This costs $40/day. Second they ask you to leave your keys and leave doors unlocked, that is
odd with a complete stranger. I sure hope my car is there in two days. You need to be a savvy traveler to not be taken for all your money here in Venice. The nice attendant at the parking garage asked me if I needed a water taxi. Since I had no idea where I was and I just wanted to see the city I said sure........ Bad move #1. The water taxi was great. It was a 10 minute ride on the canals in a boat. When we got to the docked he informed me that it was $70. Really, ten minutes $70. I just paid $80 to have my car parked for 2 days. Holy crap. Of course I paid and of course I know that I am a sucker. If I had not been on the 9th floor of a parking garage and not be approached by the super nice parking attendant who was going to walk me right to where I needed to be (I tipped him 10 Euros for that service), I would have walked outside the garage and found a tourist booth, where I would have found out very easily that for 2 Euros
I could have taken a water transit bus to my hotel. Wow, whatever the city is amazing.
Our hotel is on the grand canal in Venice..... The Grand Canal !!!!!!!!! My windows are open now and I can here the gondolas on the water. My window is right on the canal, it is so amazing. I am sitting on my bed and looking out over the grand canal as I type. I just can not believe I am here. On my trip to Spain I met a lot of people who were from all over the world and I asked many people the following question "What is your favourite city in the world" There were numerous answers but four cities came up more often than not... Paris, Barcelona, Prague and Venice. I have made it my goal to see these cities, as well as others mentioned as quickly as I could. I was in Paris in December, I was in Barcelona in January, and now I am in Venice. In December I thought Paris was the most beautiful city I had ever seen. In January, I thought Barcelona was the most beautiful city, now in July I have no
question in my mind that my favourite, and by far the most beautiful city in the world is Venice. We will have to see about Prague when I get there.
Sydney and I made the 2 hour drive this afternoon to Venice after some shopping in Riva del Garda. We finally made it to the Hotel at about 3:30. We waited almost an hour in line to park our car. Since about 3:30 we have seen so much of the city. We have a city map with about 130 points of interest that really are all within walking distance. We saw about 25 of those tonight and had a fabulous meal. Much of the day was spent planning Sydney's 13th birthday which is tomorrow. I gave her an option of going to a play or the opera. She was torn but decided on going to the play. It is a play about Casanova the famous Italian lover. We will be going to that tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be getting up early and getting new outfits so that we don't stick out like the dirty unwashed Canadians that we are. Actually we fit right in here because I don't think
there are many Italians in Venice, mostly British and Americans, but we want to look nice for our night out. We will also spend some time touring the city. I am so glad I decided to do 2 nights here in Venice, we are going to need it.
Dinner tonight was also amazing. I had prosciuto wrapped melon, and a prosciuto and 5 cheese crape. Sydney had gnocchi to start, much of my melon, and sea bass as the entrée. It was divine. To finish the night off we took an evening gondola ride from St Marco Square to our hotel. It was a 30 minute ride through the beautiful canals of Venice with an informative tour of the city. We saw Marco Polo's house, we saw Casanova's house, and we learned a lot of history of Venice, which was an independent state for over 1000 years until Napoleon took it over in 1796. The gondola ride was magical and Sydney was amazed. A gondola ride at night I think is so much better than it would have been during the day, actually it was dusk so there was still a small amount of light left. Be prepared to
pay for the gondola ride, it is not cheap, but a must do when you are in Venice. I believe with conversion to Canadian you are looking at about $150 Canadian, unless we are just suckers and they charge us more. 😊 Either way it was well worth it and well worth the money, especially to see Sydney so happy.
Even though we are still her for another couple of days it is easy to give my assessment of Venice. 10/10 - This is a must visit in everyone's lifetime. It will take your breath away.
Syd - 10/10 - Definitely take the gondola ride, and definitely take it at night.
More from Venice, the most beautiful city in the world, tomorrow. Right now I am going to look out on to the Grand Canal. 😊
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Evelyn
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We got ripped off royally on our first visit to Venice. We were inexperienced travellers and when we arrived in Venice we asked how to get to the island. We too were directed to a water taxi but this taxi took us directly to the island that dioes the glass blowing. We were ushered into the warehouse. After the demonstration, when they realized that we were not going to purchase anything they shoved us out the back door. We had no idea where we were, our taxi was no where in sight. We walked around for a bit and finally found a water bus. When we were on board the bus we realized we had no idea where we had parked our van. We rode the bus for about an hour before I noticed something familar about the area. We got off the bus, got into our motorhome and although it was now early evening, we left the city and headed away. It was another 12 years before I returned and actually discovered what a beautiful city Venice is. Enjoy your day and Syd, enjoy your birthday. I hope you realize how lucky you are to have a dad who treats you so royally.