Venice


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Well imagine that... another day-trip starts with another train ride. But then it's not every day you are heading to Venice for the first time. So yes we are a little bit excited in anticipation of seeing what I expect to be one of the most unique cities in the entire world! Ahh, Venice! And it doesn't disappoint. Immediately outside Venezia central station you are confronted with The Grand Canal - by far the biggest of the canals =, snaking its way right through the city. It carries the bulk of the water traffic. Speaking of traffic and transport, interestingly here is one of the maps of the 'transit network' near the wharf. Normally you would expect a map like this to be showing the underground subway, or perhaps a bus network - but not in Venice. This is showing the route numbers of the 'water buses' and each stop is a wharf. So yes, basically there are no roads in Venice - only canals, and footpaths with footbridges connecting all the hundreds of islands!
Walking through into the city in no particular direction (since we didn't care where we went so long as we were exploring something new) we couldn't help but notice a shocking stench! I remember Kelly's stories about how Venice stinks during the peak tourist season due to all the sewerage and the system being so over capacity that it literally pollutes the waterways. Well this smell was coming from sewer drain work. Oh my god you had to hold your breath it was so bad - and the poor buggers who were working under the footpath were wearing these white overalls to protect themselves from the shitty water (quite literally!) that was filling the trench where they worked. A foul job but I guess someone has to do it! Here is a nice view of a typical Venezian canal. I love the old timber boats - reminds me of the chase scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! Among the fascinating shops everywhere, I reckon one in 10 sell these masquerade masks and fancy costumes. Soon I would find out that Venice hosts an annual festival- Carnevale Di Venezia - famouse for two weeks of revelry where most people dress up (or disguise) in costume which includes all manner of fanciful masks and bright colours. Wouldn't mind going to it one day actually!
If you can escape the more touristy areas of the city, many of the back streets have just as lovely shopping and attractions. I loved these paintings of Venice - unlike the ones in the tourist walk outside St Marks Square (which were all cheap, yet expensive prints), these were actual real paintings, with the artist manning the shop personally. Would have loved to been able to afford one or two. All manner of shops sell all manner of interesting things - from food, wines, glassware and glass sculptures (very common and beautiful pieces in all of these shops!) and awesome fashion. This place had Salvador Dali inspired clocks and home wares. The closer you got to St Marks Square, the busier the narrow streets became. Bloody hell, another Maccas.
I loved the fact that the main entrance to this hotel had it's own Gondola wharf as the main entrance! Well this was a nice, not so busy part of town, so we stopped to find out where we were, and took a few photos. Of course I had to get one with my cap, to add to the collection you see - haven't missed a city so far! Such an interesting and fascinating city, imagine living here! I mean, this is quite literally somebody's front gate - has it's own footbridge crossing the canal below.
Michelle insisted I take this photo of the 'water ambulance' for Belinda (my ambo cousin) back home. So here it is! Good thing I know what they look like actually, might need a ride one day... After seeing the ambulance, we discover the 'ospital' next to it. Then we realise that we both need to go to the dunny after being on the road all day. Neither Michelle or I fancy forking out hard earned Eurocents for a public crapper, then Michelle comes up with a brilliant ploy. "I bet there's a free dunny in the 'ospital'... So we walk around Venice Hospital until we find the dunny - yes, free! We practice the names of the different wards on the map sign, to sharpen our poor Italian language skills. After our free dump in the 'ospital' crapper, there is room for lunch and Michelle is so hungry she's started constantly bugging me, so we find a good little pizza joint. Hmm pizza... again! This beer was called Sans Souci - couldn't NOT drink it, being named after a suburb in Sydney after all.
Ok so everybody gets lost in Venice. The thing is, I really didn't care where we ended up, but towards the end of the day, we wanted to check we hadn't missed anything major. I had in the back of my head plans to find the big courtyard where they filmed Indiana Jones climbing out of the catacombs, and the manhole cover near the cafe (haha love that scene), and the church with the big cross on the floor (X marks the spot!). We might have inadvertently passed it already on another island, so we don't backtrack, and I'll save that adventure for next time I come back here. Yes I'll definitely come back to Venice, when it's a little bit sunnier and definitely love to bring a nice girl here for some romance and an expensive gondola ride. Just who that girl is remains to be seen... Another cool photo of a canal, people hanging their washing out to dry, etc. Thought I'd check just how cold the water was - not really cold at all. THough you probably wouldn't go swimming in it, and most certainly wouldn't drink it I think! I was holding on for dear life here actually, the stairs were VERY slippery with moss. Michelle was just waiting for the moment when I would fall in fully clothed...
   
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Description: After visiting the beautiful city of Verona, we'd seen pretty much everything there was to see within a day, so Michelle convinced me that a random day-trip to Venice was in order! Venice was lovely - great shopping, plenty of canals and good food and photo opportunities. Despite crap drizzly weather, we both had a great day, until we ended up in a sticky gelato situation...
Location: Italy

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