Venice

The waning few days of our Italy trip felt slower. The group of us seemed to have our adventure batteries drained, and so, it feels like we did much less. Venice seemed to respond, by offering us less to do. The city seems less of itself, having too much tourist shopping, and too many tourists replacing the locals, and local life here. What remains is almost movie-set like, with only an old facade left behind.

Although I wish we had experienced the Murano tour and visiting Murano island, I feel like 2 days was sufficient to take in Venice’s unique charm.

Thursday - We trainhop our way to Venice

Surprisingly, our trains to venice took us backwards in our vacation, before we could go forward. Monterosso to Pisa, Pisa to Florence, and then Florence to Venice on a high speed train. The high speed trains though - chefs-kiss - amazing!

We reached Venice station, and were faced with the unique puzzle of how to get our Luggage to the Airbnb. It was too close to take a water taxi, or a water bus, but walking would involve navigating 3 separate bridges and hauling all the luggage amongst us. Luckily a entrepreneurial Indian porter convinced us that he both knew where we were going, and that he would be of good value to us, and loaded up all our luggage in a wheelbarrow type of luggage hauler, and hauled it all, at a pace that keps us jogging behind him to keep up.

The apartment host, who was rather chatty and wanted to plan our days for us, let us in to an absolutely lovely 4 bedroom apartment, that was large, cool and generally amazing (and less expensive than our most reviled Florence digs surprisingly).

After settling into the apartment, and taking a load off, hunger beckoned, and we set off to Frary’s for some middle eastern food. Half the group stopped to get some groceries, and the other half ploughed on to meet out dinner reservation, and so we had the experience of some human sign-posts where Mridhu stopped half way to help navigate us.

Dinner was Amazing, so much so, that we would return to Frary’s again 2 days later. A sunset walk back to the apartment was charming and relaxing.

Oh, and we spotted a Banksy in the wild (I think)

Friday - A walk to St Marks Square, and enjoying the city of Venice

With no real plan in mind, we set off to explore Venice. Our rough heading was the Rialto Bridge (one of 3 bridges across the Grand Canal), and St Marks Square.

Walking the winding streets of the city, and taking in the window shopping sights of all the tourist and local focused stores was quite entertaining and novel. We chanced across the Rialto fish market and then the shops ahead of the Rialto bridge and spend quite a while window shopping, partly to get out of the heat of the sun, which was rising rapidly.

We slowly made our way across the Rialto bridge.

The heat was getting to Sanju/Mridhu, so Suba and Family made the call to return back to the apartment. Purni, the boys and I carried on, and made our way St Marks square, stopping for a few sights along the way.

The heat was truly oppressive now, and we found ourself navigating solely by finding patches of shade to walk through, with the pressing throngs of tourists acting as additional obstacles. But we were determined to make it to the Grand Canal, and so we did.

The heat was getting to us too, so we returned back to the apartment after Lunch.

That evening, we decided to all enjoy a Gondola ride, since that was part of the Venitian experience. We found some nearby gondoliers, and enjoyed a pleasant ride, and a nice chat.

Continuing our theme of not eating Italian food, our dinner that evening was Asian Dumplings from Ravioleria Venezia - a tiny hole in the wall dumpling restaurant that had no seating. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed our dinner outside, on some benches in nearby Campo San Paolo. Food was scarfed, reminiscing was done, and an impromptu dance party was a fitting end to our lovely day in Venice.

After a walk back to the rooms, I felt like I could use a walk still to walk off Dinner, so I made a loop by the train station by myself.

Saturday - Water bus to explore more of Venice

On Saturday, we seemed to have a difference of minds on what to do for the day. Purni, the boys and I ended up by ourselves, and we decided to ride the water bus from “San Stae” all the way down to “Salute”

We strolled around this part of Venice, peeking into “Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute”, and stopping for some food at the “Corner Pub”. Taking the Ponte dell’Accademia back over the grand canal, and experiencing a winding walk and water bus ride back to the apartment, as the heat of the day kept rising.

That cool of the evening gave Suba, Mahesh, Purni and I a chance to take a Gondola ferry across from the Rialto Fish Market to “Feelin Venice”, a chance for more photos on the Rialto Bridge, before meeting Mridhu, Sanju, Aarav and Tejas at Frary’s for dinner again.

Sunday - Lazy rainy sunday, some strolling and an end to our Italian vacation

Venice surprised us with rainshowers on Sunday, the day of our departure, and this only contributed more to people not wanting to step outside. When the rain did subside, Purni and I went for a short stroll to say goodbye to venice.

After that, all that was left, was to check out and take a water taxi to the airport.

~ Fine