Three days Venice - Part 1

Venice Panorama!

 Tea @ 3am

Venice....Here we come!
At last we were going on our trip!! 

We flew Emirates from Cochin to Venice via Dubai on June 8, 2017.

And the first view of Venice...was beautiful!

After finishing the formalities we look the 'Alilunga' to San Marco. This is a water Taxi. There are buses and taxis plying into Venice and they all drop you near the Railway station. From here you would have to take the boat anyway.

Alilunga was recommended by my guide - TripAdvisor. Romantic as you approach Venice by water and cheap - Euro 8 per person. 

Get out of the airport, take the lift down and follow the signs. Choose Alilunga. There are speedboats available, but they are expensive. Worth it if there are many more people. Alilunga chugs along at it's own pace stopping at different islands on the way. I was amazed to see Venice seems to have 'roads' on the water - designated places on the river (between 2 bamboo poles) where the boats can ply.

After getting down at San Marco we had to find our way to the hotel. Our luggage was considerably lighter than last year - 15 kg and 18 kg respectively. Mine was heavier by 3 kgs, but ,in my favor, it was holding my husband's 3 piece suit. 

How did I learn to pack light? Thanks to Rick Steve. 

Watch a Video or 2 on Youtube and it will help you too. Key words: Packing light, women, 

After getting down at San Marco, we were lost. A porter offered his services. But we decided to not avail his help.

Google Maps was our savior on our entire trip. But when it decided that we must not take the easy way and must climb over the many bridges (various stairs over the canals); it was most difficult with this 'light' luggage. Later we found out that the porter who had offered to take us to our hotel and carry our luggage (in an elongated wheelbarrow) had indeed pointed us in the right direction which had no canals to cross. Human vs google maps = 1:0

After we got into our room in Hotel Citta di Milano, we freshened up and found our (easy) way into the St.Mark's square.

Sun was blazing until 7 pm + and we did not sit on any of the tables placed in the square as they charge you for the same. Got hold of some drinks and some short eats and walked around taking in the views.

Venice is beautiful.

We were very hungry and after walking around aimlessly we found a restaurant - Farin where Mr. Islam from Bangladesh made us some tasty pizza.

And yes, he did handle ham.

We went back and slept by 8 pm Italian time. End of Day 1.

9 June 2017

By 5 am (8.30 IST) we were awake and getting ready. We were the first in the Breakfast area!

Varieties of bread with fillings, cheese, cereals and ham.

We walked back into the St.Mark's square and TripAdvisor was right! Venice before the ships dock and spill out all the tourists is calm and beautiful. Crowds are an eye sore! Very few people actually stay on the islands and with real estate in such demand; hotels charge high. Thus the package tours do only day-trips to Venice.

Look at the size of the liner! Imagine them dumping all those people into Venice for a 'day trip'!

Of course there were many 'petty traders' with handfuls of corn to feed the pigeons. This is illegal, but they do it anyway. And these pigeons sit on people and these get photographed. 

The calm and the quiet usually lasts till 9 am. 

There is a bell tower at St.Mark's square and we decided to climb it (there is a lift, ahem). We were the first in the queue and the view from up high was AMAZING!!

We had booked a walking tour of Venice. It was only at 11am and we had some more time. So went to Rialto Bridge and the market near by.

Rialto Bridge is one of the 4 bridges across the Grand Canal. There are many shops on top and the view of the Grand canal is very nice.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence (taken in July '16)

There is a fresh produce market very near the bridge.

The fish market was very attractive for my husband and I did not mind it too as there was no foul smell. So neat.... And it was nice to see all those sea gulls and cute dogs!

We saw a man with a 'wooden cycle' near the Rialto bridge. We had to pay him to take apicture of his cycle, which he himself made from scratch. His helmet and jacket (?) were also made with wood squares.

At 11 am our "Free Walking Tour of Venice" started. Our Guide was Mariah and she took us on a tour for 4 hours covering many interesting places with a break for lunch in between.

Venice was built after reinforcing wood in clay on the ocean floor. It is shaped like a fish and one of the most striking features of Venice is that the front facing the canal, look lovely and the backs of several houses are usually facing each other and look quite ..... decrepit.

(We each got the 'fish' map of Venice with recommendations of various places and hotels)

Venice is divided into 6 sections / districts and thus it has 'Sestier' instead of Quatrants. And there are many places / bridges with the same name! 

So the guide told us that when they say - "Meet me at the Baker's bridge"....they usually add things like - "where the flower market is" or "where that good restaurant is". This helps in easy recognition of the said bridge.

And we saw the 'House of Marco Polo'. This is what is said about the house and almost all Gondola boatsmen say this; BUT this is NOT the house of Marco Polo. This place used to house his house.

There is a ghost story associated with this place.

"Legend has it that, during his stay in China, the famous Venetian merchant Marco Polo was in love with one of the daughters of the Great Khan and, after marrying her, he brought her with him to Venice. The young girl was sweet and polite, but didn't feel comfortable in the lagoon city, and also became the victim of jealousy on the part of the Marco's sisters.

In 1298, when Marco Polo was captured in battle by the Genoese, the envious sisters in law told the oriental princess that her husband was dead; reeling from pain the girl set fire to her clothes and jumped from the windows of Marco Polo's house into the underlying canal.

The legend says that, sometimes, if at night you pass through the Milion courtyard (where Polo's houses stood) you can see a white figure floating in the air or hear a sweet song of Eastern origin.

There are no certain documents about this story (there is little information on Marco Polo's life), but a few years ago, during excavations in the foundations of the Malibran Theatre (built on Polo's old houses), human remains belonging to an Asian woman buried with objects of clear Chinese origins and a tiara with the imperial coat were found."

So she challenged us; one, to find this place. Two, to come here at midnight. The former is quite tough, given that it is very easy to get lost in Venice! If the first cannot be fulfilled, how will we be here at midnight to catch the ghost?

We passed by a bridge which was built during a revolution which was getting squashed. They built the railings of the bridge with V and E symbols -Viva Emanuele - symbolising "Long live Vittorio Emanuele".

Look at how narrow the streets are!

She showed us how fresh water for drinking was collected in the olden days. Small holes used to drain water from the ground level after rains and these used to pass through slanting tubes containing gravel and sand. This was collected in a well (cistern), placed at the center of the square.

She showed us the Masks shops and explained to us how this carnival was basically a way in which all strata of society could inter-mingle without causing frictions.

The most famous of these masks is the Doctor Mask....with a long nose. It was presumed that the plague spread through foul smell and they were not aware that Rats and lack of hygiene were the real reasons. So the doctors wore this mask and filled the long nose with good smelling things like roses and other flowers.

She talked about the Doge's - the elected representatives who 'ruled' over Venice and about the maritime history when Venice used to be the most important seaport and it's later fall before taking us to see Rialto Market.

On the way she pointed out a golden human head perched on top of a shop. Rialto bridge is ahead.

This shop used to sell - Theriac - a single medicine for all troubles!

Theriac contained opium, myrrh, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, castor, along with some forty other ingredients. Later mashed, roasted and aged viper's flesh was added to it. At one point it is said that the ingredient list got close to 70 and things like unicorn horn powders and angel hairs also were added to perfect it!!

This was a very lucrative business and many fake products got into the market. Venice streamlined making of Theriac and started issuing certificates to genuine makers. This shop (photographed) was said to be the best shop for Theriac. Since people in the olden days did not know to read and write, they placed this Golden Head as a proclaiming sign!!

The tour ended at the (old) world famous Prostitute square - Red Light District of Venice somewhere near Ponte de Le Tette (at Carampana?) . Venice used to be the hub of sex trade (at one time had 11,000 of them) and the houses in this location used to house many before the church took over! Now it is a respectful neighborhood.

This tour does not include St.Mark's square.

After the tour they gave us a beautiful map (shown above) and shared with us a flyer with recommendations of places to visit in various sestiers.

After the wonderful tour, we headed to the Accademia Bridge to cross the Grand canal and go to the other side. This would give us another wonderful view of Venice and it's St.Mark square.

(View from Accademia bridge. See the light blue dome on the right side of the canal. We are going there.)

This part of Venice is the venue of the Biennale. We saw a golden tower and the Peggy Guggenheim collection was placed here. Looked like an artist's hub. We did not go in to see the Peggy collection as my husband was 'not ready to pay for seeing a private collection'.

Once we reached the tip of the island...the view...

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

This church was built as an offering for the city's 'deliverance from the pestilence' after 1/3rd of the Venetian population was killed by the plague sometime in 1680. The blue on top of the dome is a color I have never seen before. Light light blue. When we went inside, mass started.

The way back had amazing views...

We were very hungry and there was a pizzeria on the way..

We made our way to the Golden Tower. Sat down with our leg into the canal and had our lunch(?).

(view of the Accademia bridge from near the 'golden tower')

(opposite side of the canal)

After filling(?) our stomach we got 'lost' in Venice and ended up thirsty at a bar with amazing waiter and owner!! Snack Bar Tiziano.

We had our drinks and were suitably entertained by the happy ways and antics of both! They played loud music and started teasing their female colleague and when 2 young girls stopped to dance; they served them free drinks!! Not to forget when a man was meeting his girlfriend at the nearby square; they tried to woo his dog into the hotel; so that they would have a drink there. All in good taste.

We don't know if we can find this place again without google maps...but we recommend it.

(Look at those eyes in the background! I took this photo and the young man shouted "REPEAT"! Thus the photo below!)

Now we wanted food. While walking we noticed a lady with a carry out pasta box. And we found..."Fresh Pasta To Go".

Yummy yum!! The way these boys (there were 2 more boys) danced synchronized was cute! Of course, my videography skills are poor when compared to my photography...so please excuse!

This marked the end of day 2 in Venice.

Read on about our third day in Venice when we went to see the insides of St.Mark's basilica and Doges Palace and also to see the most cheerful island in the whole world.

After Venice we visited Verona, Bologna, Parma, London, Alicante, a marriage in Elche and celebrated our anniversary in Barcelona.