Venice Day 2 – Thursday 11th April 2024

What a city! What a place! 

Venice is a city like nothing else we have ever experienced!  It is made up of about 120 islands, most of which are connected by about 450 bridges.  There are no cars in this area, and the roads are what we would refer to as alley ways or walk ways.

Everything happens using boats – from rubbish collection to moving house, from commuting to the fire brigade, from police to builders with wheel barrows on boats, you name it, it happens on the water!

We started off having breakfast here, and then set out to San Marco Square – we went to see Doge’s palace which was interesting with lots of gold everywhere.  How one can sleep with ceilings like this baffles me.  I prefer my good old white ceiling!  We walked through the prison section and across the bridge of sighs.  The bridge got its name as the prisoners knew when they crossed this bridge and looked out at the lagoon, it would be the last time they would see the lagoon as they were either never going to get out of prison alive or they were going to be executed.

Walking through Venice is a maze – if you imagine walking down narrow alleys with buildings of a few stories high on both sides of you – left, then right, over a bridge, then 2^nd left, then 3^rd right and so it goes, then you will get an idea of Venice.  William walks with his phone directing us from either Google Maps.

We went to see the Scala Contarini del Bovolo which is a spiral staircase.  Very interesting – all made of marble. We climbed up the steps and had some great views of Vencie from there.

From there we set off to find the narrowest street in Venice.  Oh my word – narrow it is.  William’s shoulders were too wide for some parts where there are external pipes!  A very different version of a road!

Having walked so much, we felt that we had earned an ice cream – sadly it was a very exciting ice cream, but anyhow!

We then walked down some “roads” that we hadn’t seen before – and found a supermarket.  We had found a Spar earlier – same logo as at home.  I bought a hoodie – and bartered with the guy and saved 5 Euro.  We headed back to our hotel to put our feet up and bought a Calzone Pizza (folded over pizza) for lunch.

After a short snooze for me, and a rest for Wiilliam, we headed off again as we had booked a Grand Canal Cruise.  This was so informative, and lovely to see everything from the water.  The Grand Canal is an inverted s shape.  There were only 7 of us on the cruise excluding the guide and skipper.  There are only 4 bridges along the Grand Canal, but for one day of the year they put a 5th bridge across as there is a festival thanking God for health – marking the end of an epidemic.

One cannot visit Venice without having a gondola ride!  There were 4 of us on the ride – a younger couple from France and ourselves.  It was lovely – the gondoliers no longer sing – we passed a few gondolas where there was a musician on board, which was quite festive.  It is quite an art maneuvering the gondolas in the narrow canals – particularly when there are 3 or sometimes 4 abreast!  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We then treated ourselves to a drink on San Marco’s square looking out across the lagoon and watching the people.  The weather was about 23 degrees with no wind.  It was lovely!

Having already walked about 20km today at this point we headed back to our hotel to rest our weary limbs and start getting organised for an early departure tomorrow.

The last thing we wanted to do in Venice was see Venice by night, as last night the weather was awful and there was nothing to see.  So, weary limbs and all, off we set again to see Venice by night.  Well, it did not disappoint us.  It was lovely to see San Marco’s square by night as well as the canals, and packed restaurants.  Amazing how many restaurants they are, and most were buzzing.  By this point, William’s blisters were eina, and I had no energy left so we wandered home very slowly, collecting a take away for supper on our way.

We ate, and William watched the scores of his Liverpool march – which did not make him too happy, and I did some work before crashing!

Venice is a beautiful, unique city!

Venice Day 1  – Wednesday 10th April

We left Florence in the pouring rain early this morning and arrived in a Grey Venice at 9.34.

We found our way to our hotel, and the lady offered us a room upgrade for a small fee which included breakfast,  which we accepted. She also said that we could check in immediately instead of leaving our luggage as we had planned to do. Our room has a view of a canal.

We had a small issue on the train as we should have activated our travel on the App. The fine for not having done this is 50Euro. Anyhow the lady showed William what to do, and didn’t fine us. We said Gracia a good few times!  The joke is that we traveled by train on Sunday, and had our tickets checked and nobody said anything!

Venice is a beautiful city – so different to anything we have ever seen.

We found our way to San Marks Square, and got tickets at 11.28 for the 11.30 boat trip to 3 islands Murano, Torchelli and Burano.  The next trip was 30 min later, so saved us waiting!

In Venice the public transport is on the waterways.

We even saw the ambulance – siren blaring – heading off on the water. We also saw the fire engine – but it was parked.

In the centre of Venice there are no cars. In the main canals there are beacons to direct the traffic. Apparently there are 70,000 beacons in the water.  They have different speed limits depending on where they are.

Anyhow, back to our boat trip…..the first stop was Murano, which is famous for its glass making. We watched a glass making and blowing demonstration- very similar to the one we saw at Ngwenya Glass in Swaziland. Very interesting. We then walked around the island on our own before returning to our boat. Our second stop was Torchelli. Sadly, the Grey weather was now drizzle and cold. We walked around the island- went into the Cathedral and a few shops and then returned to our bus.  We personally didn’t think that Torchello was great!

Our last stop was Burano – this island is known for its brightly coloured houses – the Bo-Kaap of Italy – and lace making by hand. Very pretty things – and very expensive!!!

By this stage it was raining and a cold wind was blowing.  The boat brought us back to the station which is close to where we are staying.

William was impressed with the bus drivers in Florence as they maneuver busses into tiny roads. Some routes have dinky busses as the big busses can’t fit.  The dinky busses are like the big busses – just squashed….ie shorter. He was also impressed with the skipper today who maneuvered this big boat down some canals.

We went out for a meal this evening- I had Spaghetti Carbonara and William had a Carbonara Pizza – his pizza came with an egg in the middle, as did a lot of the pizzas.

Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be better with no rain…..let’s hope!

We didn’t take too many pics today due to the weather.