Venice Day 2

day 2 included a lot of walking.

other than the river taxi we took on day 1, the only other mode of transport is to walk along the paths between buildings. 

while crossing lots of bridges

on the second day, we never once stopped walking from when we stepped out of the hotel at 7:30am to 2pm when we went for the gondola ride.

thank God, the weather was so much better even though the forecast said it was likely to rain. so we enjoyed the walk, and got lost a couple of times while trying to stroll to our destination.

the whole place just feels very unreal. like a page out of a story book.
how can such a place exist where noone uses cars or buses, but take boats and ferries everyday

 

there are just so many bridges, and boats and rivers.
while i find them romantic and picturesque, i can't help but wonder how people can live here without being sick of all these.

she read somewhere that 1 of the things to do in Venice was to get lost, and we did. though not particularly intentionally.

maps were of no use, and we mainly relied on street signs. and these street signs can be hung, written, drawn on random parts of buildings or on the floor.

and they really leave you to explore the place, cos there are long stretches without any signs, so we just wandered along and went in circles a few times, deciding in the end to follow people we came across.

eventually, we found our way to Rialto, the "shopping district"

Rialto is the name of the first bridge built across the Grand Canal, which is the equivalent of Singapore River, except cleaner, and grander, and well, nicer.

the shelter with the yellow sign is their "bus stop".
and it can be towed away. should be fun waking up everyday to look for the bus stop.

goods are all ferried to the shops by boats etc. so it was interesting just standing there for a while watching them go about their most interesting lives half spent on boats.

we started the walk early, intending to explore the place, and a lot of shops were not yet opened or just opening.

which was just as well, cos my logic is that all the robbers, muggers, etc won't have woken up either, so we are safe.

after we gave up looking at maps and just followed any signs we came across, we took a turn and BAM, san marco was in front of us.

notice how the ground was dry in the photo above?

we didn't know this then, but san marco floods every 6 hours with the tide. so we were just walking around the empty square not even appreciating how lucky we are.

cos barely an hour later, the entire square was flooded and everyone had to walk on platforms.

btw, that's her "stop-taking-photos-and-blocking-the-people-behind-you" look

the good thing about reaching san marco early is that it is relatively empty

it was literally flooded (with people and water) just an hour or so later. which is when i gave up on taking photos until the gondola ride which came as part of the Groupon deal we got

even though the general consensus is that one should never go Venice without taking a gondola ride, it seems a bit.. silly to me.

we were in the gondola with another 2 random people, and sat quietly through the barely 20mins ride.

it is really more of a "been-there, done-that" thing, i suppose

our fellow passengers asked the gondolier if anyone had fallen off a gondola and drowned, which i thought was a bit morbid.

turns out there was, when the gondola capsized or something.
i sat very still after that.

the walking tour was so much better than the other tour we took on day 1. they issued us headsets so we can hear the guide who spoke into a mic.
went into the Basilica, which was amaaazzzingg..

not allowed to take photos, so got this off the net

how long it took them to put together all those mosaics depicting every single bible story.
the guide was right in saying that one lifetime would not be sufficient to study through every one of those mosaics.

learnt a lot about Venice.
for example, it is made up of a lot of islands, linked by bridges and each island has its own square, church and bell tower

we really thank God for the weather on the second day that saved the Venice trip cos we were so dreading having to go for the walking tour and gondola ride in the rain that greeted us the entire first day.

it turned out really fun, and i came up with this game that is like a mission in Running Man.

Mission is to get to our hotel. but the rule is, along the way, whenever we come across a shop selling gelato, we have to buy and eat it before we can progress.

gelato was delicious, so it was not so much a punishment as an excuse to eat more. =P
i think we had 6 scopes of different flavors by the end of the day.


after the gondola ride, we went back to the hotel to rest our very tired legs before coming out again for dinner and to walkabout.

didn't dare to bring my camera along

we were just following the lights and found this pasat malam, where i had a slice of pizza, and 2 more scopes of gelato.

she chose a weird lemon flavor that was like eating a frozen lemon smashed into tiny pieces.


then we flew off the next morning.

for anyone planning to visit, we would recommend the hotel we stayed in, Hotel Carlton Grand Canal.
convenient and comfortable.

just beside the only bus interchange in Venice so we took a bus to and from the airport and walked to the hotel. plus plenty of food places around cos it is opposite the train station.

oh yes! before i forget, there is a charge to use public toilets in Venice.
and that is.......... *insert drum roll*

€1.50 per visit!!!


so please pee in the hotels and/or restaurants. there are no toilets anywhere else.
don't be like me, stupid stupid wait till too urgent and had no choice but to pay the random.

other than that, Venice is a really fun place to visit!