2 Days in Venice

It's been over a month since I have been back from Italy and have finally found some time to write about my experience. Thought I should make it a place by place blog so here's about Venice. I set off with 2 of my friends for an 8 day trip to Italy and boy! were we organised. With all the accommodations, trains between cities and a few necessary entry tickets booked, we were as ready as we could be and were we glad! First stop Venice. Everything with the flight and the buses went smoothly. We even had a nice English gentleman tell a couple of men, trying to slip into the queue behind him and his wife but in front of us, that we were next. It was sweet to see how he couldn't stand by and watch someone do such a thing! Having never been to a city with no vehicles on the streets, Venice didn't fail to impress me. It did make me wonder what they'd do in case of an emergency. Apparently, they have water-ambulances. The Gondolas look very romantic especially with the Gondoliers singing as they row. We chose not to go for this as it would cost as much as 3 good dinners for each of us and well, it's only worth it if you go as a couple. After we dropped off our bags, we headed off to the St. Mark's Basilica. Thanks to pre-bookings, we didn't have to wait in, what looked like, an hour long queue. After that, we walked across to the Campanile tower. The 360 degree view from the top is impressive, so don't forget your cameras.

We spent a lot of time in Venice walking around and this is what you enjoy doing the most. You will see interesting balconies, little bridges connecting houses, thought provoking graffiti, a lot of gondolas passing under bridges, etc. For dinner on the first night, I tried the squid ink pasta and instantly loved it. I am craving for it at the moment, in fact. I also learnt the 'no-cheese-on-seafood-pasta' rule from the helpful waiter.

Venice, like all the other cities in Italy, has a lot of squares or what they call piazzas and we walked through a lot of them. After a while they all start looking alike and you will most definitely get lost. But you won't mind unless you have somewhere to be. It's best to just wander around and let yourself get lost as you can't get very lost, anyway. They have signs showing the nearest major attractions like the Rialto Bridge, San Marco(St. Mark's), and so on. If you know where these are, with respect to where you want to go, you can orient yourself quite easily. Rialto Bridge is great for shopping and looks great in pictures, what more can one ask for.

Visiting Islands in Venice- Murano, Burano and Torcello. On day 2, we thought we should take the water buses to the islands, Murano, Burano and Torcetto. You take a day ticket and you can ride the vaporetto(water-) buses all day long and they pass by all these islands. Murano is popular for it's glass. They have a lot of shops almost everything, glass. Burano is famous for it's lace and also for it's colourful houses. I wonder if they have a law to keep them from painting them with earthy tones. I am not complaining, they look wonderful. We visited a museum in Torcello and didn't get into the church as it said no shorts allowed. That's another thing we didn't consider on our visit to Italy. A lot of places, usually churches, have a rule against vests and shorts. So, it may be useful to carry a pair of leggings or a wraparound and a sleeved top to pull on when you enter. I mean leggings for girls, I am not encouraging cross-dressing, although I don't have a problem with it. To summarise, no shoulders, no knees.

Another interesting thing we learnt about Italy was that the tower of Pisa wasn't the only leaning tower. We noticed at least three in Venice and another one in Verona. They were not as spectacular as the one in Pisa but equally unsettling.

Day 3: Off to Verona