Venice a.k.a Venezia.
Venice is the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my whole life. It is a city surrounded by water, with rivers crossing all around. The city is also home to the Grand Canal. There are no cars or buses or any other vehicles. The main means of transport are boats and gondolas and your feet.
We arrived in Venice at the Santa Lucia station the night before and checked into a cheap but nice hotel called Hotel Airone. As we were tired, we didn’t bother walking around Venice at night and directly went to sleep. Venice is a place where nightlife is close to non-existent so sleeping early is in fact not a bad thing.
Anyway, the next day, after we have washed up, we stepped out of the hotel and was welcomed by a beautiful view.
In front of our hotel
The view in front of hotel
2nd building from left is train station
There were no skyscrapers, no cars zooming to and fro. The air was fresh and the view was stunning. The city felt peaceful and calm. It somehow just magically lifts all of your stress off you.
After idling for a little while and checking out the gift shops beside the hotel, we started walking around the city.
Gift shop beside hotel (note the Venetian masks)
Route for the day (in red)
One of the first few tourist attractions that we visited was a bridge called Ponte della Constituzione, which is one of the only four bridges in Venice which is built over the Grand Canal.
On top of the Ponte della Constituzione
I didn’t manage to find a good view of the bridge from any other places because the bridge is near the city borders where you see cars and buses and all other ugliness. Also, please don’t mind my expression in the picture. It was really sunny and I don’t have shades because…… ah let’s leave that for next time.
After crossing the bridge to the other side, we continued to walk and passed by St. Lucia station again. On the little street beside the station, I bought my first gelato in Italy. 3 scoops cost me 2.50 euros and it tasted superb. Lucky for me, at the end of the day, after surveying every gelaterie we came across, we realized that 2.50 euros is actually the cheapest you can get for 3 scoops.
Choco crunch, Stracciatella e Pistacchio
As we proceeded further, it was time for lunch and in the spirit of a traveler with a tight budget (kiamsiap lar), I bought a slice of pizza for 2.50 euros. It tasted good. Now I understood why my French lecturer told me that Pizza Hut doesn’t have authentic pizza. Then again, I don’t blame them because…… ah let’s leave that for another time too.
Proscuito
Eating pizza on the streets of Venice
Walking around Venice involves walking up and down big and small bridges very frequently. To me, it seemed as though I crossed one bridge every 5 minutes on average.
Close to the store where I bought my pizza, we crossed a bridge beside which we saw the first gondola of our trip. Gondolas are traditional Venetian rowing boats.
Gondolas
The gondolas are usually very nicely decorated and they look quite comfortable to sit in. However, gondoliers charge typically about 80 euros per ride in the gondolas, which is about RM400, which is a lot! Due to the insanely expensive prices, we decided not to give it a try. Moreover, I can’t swim. Well, I used to be able to but then I hated swimming and……… ah, next time.
One thing to note about the gondolas is that they are usually rowed on only one side. That makes me curious as to how the gondoliers keep the gondolas going in a straight direction.
Gondola (left), Awesomeness (middle), gondoliers (right), rich people (behind)
Feeling like poor people, we left the scene and continued our walk. There wasn’t anything very interesting to see for a while so I decided to take a picture with one of the street stalls along the way.
Random stall
In Italy, stalls like these are actually everywhere and they sell mostly food or souvenirs or err…… cheeky stuff (It’s in the picture, look at the boxers).
Next on were bridges, bridges and bridges………
and bridge with gondolas and……
And finally something a little interesting appeared – gondola rides across the Grand Canal for 0.50 euros per ride. These gondolas ferry people from one side of the Grand Canal to the other side and charge them a minimum fee to let them have a brief feel of how it’s like to be on a gondola.
Gondola rides across Grand Canal
Everyone in the group were interested in riding the gondola as it was really cheap…… except for me, partly because I couldn’t swim and also partly because I felt that with so many people riding the gondola all at once, I didn’t feel that it was worth it (kiamsiap-ness working up).
After a little discussing/arguing, the wet blanket (nothing dirty, please) won. So we continued on our walk along the same side of the Grand Canal.
Somewhere along our route, we came across a heart shaped mini pothole (whatever that is) on the floor which takes the shape of a heart. It wasn’t anything special actually but given the fact that we’re in Venice which was exceptionally romantic, it looked interesting to us so we err………
took a picture (lame)
Pfft, lameness. I can’t believe I dedicated a paragraph to a ‘pothole’ that I can’t find the right noun for.
Anyway, moving on, we reached the beautiful Ponte di Rialto, another one of the four bridges which passes over the Grand Canal. This bridge, unlike the other small bridges as well as the Ponte dell Constituzione, is a huge huge bridge with two rows of shops separating three walkways.
View from one end of the bridge
View of the Grand Canal from the bridge
The middle walkway with shops on side (one closed)
View of Grand Canal from other side of bridge
View of bridge from slightly further away (eyes barely open due to extreme sunlight)
We basically crossed the bridge and came back as the next destination, Piazza San Marco, was on the side of the Grand Canal which we originally were on.
One interesting thing that I noted at this point of our route was that prices of food were increasing. 3 scoops of gelato near the Ponte di Rialto cost a stunning 4.50 euros. If you didn’t read properly a while ago, let me remind you that I bought 3 scoops of gelato for 2.50 euros earlier in the day. 2.00 euros of difference! WTF?!
Anyway, after we were done snapping away with our cameras, we proceeded to the Piazza San Marco.
Along the way, I snapped some photos of some shops (because I knew I’d be blogging about this and I didn’t want sudden jumps in space, ya know wat i mean?)
Golden shiny masks which I think cost a bomb
Nice shoes which cost a bomb (138 euros)
Wee! We are on a bridge (not a shop, paiseh)
On hindsight, ‘Wee!’ followed by ‘We’ sounds humorously wrong.
ANYWAY, we reached Piazza San Marco after a while of walking and camwhoring and snapping away random shots (2988 pics at end of trip, wadahiel?!). Much to our dismay, St. Mark’s Basilica was also under repair/restoration (like Arco della Pace). However, it wasn’t THAT bad because the restoration was only carried out on one side of the basilica which was kind of symmetrical on both sides (oh noes, engineering blood working up).
Two of my mates in front of St. Mark’s Basilica (note the part under restoration, DAMN)
Because the sun was too bright and my eyes look like they’re closed when they’re actually open under such intense illumination, I……
borrowed my friend’s shades
We took a short stroll around the Piazza and then entered the Basilica. No photo taking was allowed in the Piazza so I didn’t take any……
At the exit of the Basilica (bad angle makes me fat (I refuse to accept reality))
After we were done with the Basilica, I walked around the Piazza some more and took a few other pictures.
Staring at bastards beside ME who walk into other people’s pictures and stands there and talk while acting like they don’t know that the yentaokia beside them is trying to take a photo for remembrance.
Senget picture of me in front of Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (senget on purpose because my friend likes senget pics)
The Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, known as Doge’s Palace in English, is located right beside another famous bridge in Venezia. And no you did not guess it right; this bridge does not pass over the Grand Canal. Just because it’s famous doesn’t mean it passes over the Grand Canal. =D
The bridge, called the Ponte dei Sospiri, is known as the Bridge of Sighs in English. It connects the Palazzo Ducale’s interrogation rooms to the old prisons beside it.
Full of anticipation, we went ahead to take a look at it, only to find a scene which is rather different from what is seen on the guidebook that we had as well as the pictures of Venice that can be seen on postcards.
This was what we saw
Die die must take photo
Bvlgari
Basically the building walls beside the bridge were all covered in Bvlgari’s advertisement posters. It looked kinda interesting but I would’ve preferred the original look of the bridge and its surroundings. Then again, a small change is refreshing, although it’s not exactly wanted.
I wonder why the Italian government allowed such advertising to be done in close proximity to famous tourist attractions…… I shall leave that for next time.
Moving on, just next to the Piazza is basically the sea with a small island located far away.
Friend and I with San Giorgio Maggiore behind
At this point, my camera’s battery was almost dead and I forgot to bring my backup battery. One of the more significant things that we passed by after Piazza San Marco was the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute. However it wasn’t possible to take a good photo of it as the buildings opposite of the Basilica on the other side of the Grand Canal were all occupied by restaurants which did not allow random tourist entry. Hence, the photos I took of it were taken from the side.
Picture taken from side at Gondola ferry jetty
Picture taken from side on top of Ponte dell’Academia
One of the clearer shots of the Basilica can be taken from the Ponte dell’Academia, which is one of the four bridges which pass over the Grand Canal. However, unlike the other few that I’ve been to, the Ponte dell’Academia isn’t pretty. It’s all woody and kinda discoloured, as can be seen from the picture.
Crossing over the river, we arrived at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. Entry to the Accademia costed 6.50 euros but we didn’t enter because we (well, at least I was) were thinking of saving some money for Rome, where we planned to visit some sites which required payment for entry.
That was the worst decision that we all made for the whole trip to Italy. The reason being that Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man was kept in the Accademia. It was something that we could have avoided missing with monetary means, unlike the Last Supper which required advanced booking. Our ridiculousness is further amplified by the fact that we only realized this when we were visiting the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence (same gallery name, different cities). Ah… the stupidity.
Ok enough ranting. Basically at this point my camera was out of power, what happened next was that we visited the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, one of the largest churches in Venice. We opted not to go into the church as we were rather tired of churches (Paris is full of churches too). On hindsight, it wasn’t that bad a decision as the churches that we saw in Rome were far grander and prettier than this church in terms of the interior design (saw pics of the interior of the Frari online).
p/s: I’ll upload photos for this part after I get them from my friend
By the time we reached the Frari, the sky was beginning to darken and we decided to head back. On the way home, the guys started to get hungry and began searching for restaurants along the way. While checking prices at a certain restaurant, the chinese shop owner (female) came out and greeted us. After a while of talking, we chose to go ahead with eating at the restaurant.
Looking back, it wasn’t exactly a wise choice on our part because it was an Italian restaurant operated by a Chinese (who coincidentally is Foochow). Italian food by Chinese woman. Hmm…… doesn’t sound very authentic, yeah?
The dinner was mediocre and it cost me about 7.00 euros. I wasn’t exactly pleased with the food but mine wasn’t the worst out of the different food that each of us ordered so I guess I’m still relatively luckier. Moreover, the lady boss was really nice and friendly and she even served all of us tea for no extra charge. There was also no cover charge so yeah, I held no grudge against the restaurant.
When dinner was done, it was already dark so we headed back to the hotel. Walking around Venice at night gave me a rather creepy feeling as the buildings are old and there’re very little lighting around the city. To make things worse, after seeing all the Venetian masks during the day, I had an image of men and women wearing dark coloured robes and masks walking around the city at night, as though they were a cult.
In about 10 minutes, we reached our hotel fairly easily and safely. After a whole day of walking, we were all dead tired. I washed up a bit and played cards with my friend until both of us were sleepy enough. Then we retired to bed. It was a wonderful day for all of us and we all fell asleep believing that the following day would be an equally memorable.
And, that night…………….
In the amazingly beautiful city of Venice…………
I snored aloud. Peace out.
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