Reaching Venice

Days 2 & 3 

How can I describe our first impressions of Venice? As a city it is unbelievable! Venice is the largest of several islands and is connected  to the mainland by a long causeway. As the train approaches the final station, Santa Lucia, the old city seems to grow out of the sea. Nothing can prepare a, visitor exiting the station, for the impact of this place. We have all seen pictures of canals and boats and gondolas and are aware of the unique architecture of Venice but the smell of the sea the incessant energy of the boat traffic moving up and down the Grand Canal, all this set against a backdrop of seventeenth century buildings and churches is quite incredible. The second impression that meets the new arrival is the surging crowds of tourists, groups of school children and the street sellers with their “genuine,” fake Gucci bags, hats and hundreds of sellers of Venetian masks.

Apart from taking a boat, the only way of getting from one side of the canal to another is over steep, marble bridges and they are certainly not designed for transporting suitcases. Our hotel was very conveniently positioned a few hundred metres down the other side of the Grand Canal. It was an older style hotel with brocaded walls and external wooden shutters but still full of character. Our room overlooked the back yard of a neighbouring convent and the sense of tranquility was in stark contrast to the business of the canals. Once we had sorted out our room we went exploring. One travel guide which I had read  suggested that every visitor should get lost in Venice in order to appreciate the many paths and canals. I don’t think the writer could have anticipated the degree to which we were able to get totally lost as we followed groups of people down the labyrinth of alley-ways and canals. We wandered a long way off the regular tourist trail and it took us so long to find our way back to our hotel that we were too tired to eat.

Japanese couple doing photos in St Marks at 7:30 am

Our second day in Venice was another glorious summer day. We decided to get up at 6 am and wander the streets before other tourists cramped our movements. Initially, we had the place almost to ourselves with a few locals walking their dogs and the street sweepers cleaning up from the previous day’s crowds. By the time we got to St Mark’s Square more people were on the move but we still enjoyed the vast space of St Mark’s Square and the extraordinary marbles and frescos on the basilica. It was too early to get into the cathedral but we were quite content to soak up the atmosphere and return to the hotel on one of the vaporettos which serve as transport on the Grand Canal. Gondolas are part of the traditional fabric of Venice but are generally far too expensive for the average tourist.

One of the many extraordinary marble churches in Venice

Most of the afternoon was occupied moving ourselves down to the Marittima, or port, to get ourselves on board for the next big step in our European adventure: cruising the Med!

Here is a short video clip which shows some of our Venice experience.(Sorry if you had trouble accessing the Milan video but it  should all work OK )
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVyNC-mJB5w&feature=youtu.be




On my next blog I will introduce you to life on the cruise ship.