Europe: Days 27 to 31
The last stop on my 4 week tour de Europe, was Venice, Italy. As my flight home is out of Nice, when trying to decide where to conclude my trip, I figured I would choose somewhere close/convenient to Nice. Venice is not far, just one country over and about a 1 hour flight, so I figured 'no problem, short flight back to Nice. Too easy.' Of course I didn't bother to actually check flights online, which is why I am now bored out of my mind 4 hours into an 8 hour train trip through Northern Italy. Turns out, there are only direct flights certain days of the week, and none of those days worked. All other options were 6 or 7 hours anyway, and 3 times as expensive as the train.....so here I am.
That's not to say Venice wasn't worth the hassle. It absolutely was. I had 4 full days there, and it was excellent. Having been to Venice once before (with my family when I was 15) and knowing that it's not a big place, I was a little concerned about the ability to fill 4 days. But that turned out to be unfounded - there was plenty to do.
While there I met up with one of my friends who I met in India, who is from Sweden. It was nice to have company for the 4 days, as I think Venice is better seen with someone. Of course, I would have had a nice time on my own as well I'm sure, but it was nice to have a friend to enjoy the excellent (excellent) food and wine with.
I arrived very early on Tuesday, so had some time to kill before my accommodation was ready. I had heard Venice was expensive, and the accommodation costs were no exception. It was insanely pricey, especially for what you get. AirBnB ended up being the best option, as for the same price as a shitty hotel room in a bad location, we were able to get a little apartment in San Polo, just a few minutes from the Rialto bridge. While the location was excellent (I don't think I could have picked a better spot if I had researched for days), there were a few down falls. The big one being a lack of internet, which was surprising given the amount we were paying and that it's 2014.... I'm always surprised when hotels don't have internet, as it's a very important travel tool in today's world. I don't really travel with travel books anymore. I research before I go and then use trip advisor and the internet to plan my days while there. Anyway, this proved to be a common trend in Venice, and I found that finding internet there was harder than in India! We rectified this by buying a SIM card and using our phones as a hotspot, but that wasn't cheap either.
The other interesting part was the landlord - Dimitri. The apartment had 3 or 4 private suites, with a central kitchen that he prepared breakfast in. He also lived in a suite downstairs. Over the 4 days, we got to learn a bit about Dimitri (and his lifestyle) and found him to be quite an interesting fellow. To say he has an easy job, would be putting it lightly. His typical day is waking up and preparing breakfast for the 2-6 guests he has at any given time. He then goes out to do some shopping, which may involve a stop for a glass of wine at a local osteria (more on this later) followed by a stressful afternoon of watching TV and smoking pot. His evening is taken up by an osteria crawl through the neighbourhood with his mates, followed by dinner at a local restaurant. To be fair, he does have some stress In his life. For example, the keys we were given to the front door didn't work well, and we had quite a lot of difficulty getting in one night. So Dimitri had to come let us in, and had to spend about 10 minutes figuring out how to fix the key and lock. So that was a tough day for him.
Anyway, Venice itself is such a cool city. It kind of has a Disneyland type property to it, in that it's filled with tourists and doesn't quite seem like a real place. Of course, not only is it authentic, but it is also 1000 years old and has an incredibly rich history. No buildings are new - I would say the city layout and streets are 95% identical to how they were 500 years ago in 1500. For the most part, we spent the first day exploring; getting lost in the narrow streets and familiarising ourselves with our neighbourhood. We went to Saint Marks Square, which houses the city's biggest tourist attractions, however as it was very busy, we decided to just do St Marks Basilica and save the other sights for later. The church was beautiful inside - golden ceilings, walls, etc. but I'm not a huge church fan, so we didn't spend an excessive amount of time inside.
Wednesday was my favourite day in Venice - we did a Ciccheti and wine tour from 11:30-2:30 (over lunch). My aunt was in Venice last year and recommended it and it was excellent. We started by meeting in a square in Cannaregio which gave us the chance to scope out our company for the day. Immediately I was curious about two large 50 something year old American men, and figured they might provide some entertainment. All together, we were 12 people, with more than half being American. Our guide was a born and raised Venetian, and she was excellent. We started with a short walking tour around some back streets in Venice, where she gave us some tips on where to eat, how to avoid crowds as well as some history on Venice and why it was built in the way it was. We then took the commuter gondola across the grand canal to start the food and wine portion of the tour. We were quite happy that this part of the tour all took place in our neighbourhood - just minutes from our apartment, which meant we went back to all the excellent places everyday. Anyway, we stopped at 5 osteria, all of which were delicious. An osteria is a little Venetian wine bar which serves a variety of wine (each have their own specialities) along with an assortment of tapas ('ciccheti'). Generally you stand at each bar, or in the little street outside. On the tour we had 5 or 6 glasses of wine, and a dessert wine, along with maybe 10 ciccheti. These included a cheese, tomato sauce and anchovies stuffed donut like pastry, arrenchini balls, a fried eggplant sandwich (where the fried eggplant was the bread and tomatoes and cheese were the fillings), baguette with cod in olive oil, baguette with goats cheese and sundried tomatoes, stuffed and fried zucchini flowers, fried potatoes with cheese, and numerous others I lost track of. Needless to say, we were all drunk and full at the end. A group of us went down to the grand canal after and had another couple drinks (Bellinis and prosecco, of course).
The group turned out to be quite fun. My favourite were the two American men (from Portland, Maine) I mentioned earlier, who turned out to be a gay couple on their 18th anniversary trip. They were quite an odd pair, with one being quite put together and organised and the other being a bit of a slob. The organised one kept having to keep tabs on the other, who disappeared a few times and came back with odd things like fresh shucked oysters (from the fish market) and penis shaped pasta (which the organised one had to carry). He was also carrying a large bag, which turned out to be masks for a 'fabulous' party they go to every year in New York (I think). This years theme is masquerade, so they are all set. They were describing some of their previous costumes and it sounds like they go all out. Anyway, they were quite entertaining. There was also 3 Americans from Boston - a girl my age, her aunt and her step mom (her dad doesn't travel). The aunt was saying this was her first trip in years, as she has been very afraid to fly and travel after 9/11. I think the rest of us found that a bit strange, as the two Australian ladies with us looked quite surprised and made a friendly comment about that being quite a while ago now. I didn't think people were still using that excuse. It's been 13 years. Anyway, it was an excellent day.
The tour was also good in that it helped us see where to eat cheap. Sure, the accommodation in Venice was not cheap, but each of the ciccheti were priced at about €1-1.50. Similarly, the wine was just €1.50 per glass (!!), which makes for some pretty cheap evenings. Even meals were not too pricey, and we found you could have an excellent meal with a bottle of wine for €20 per person. Wine was insanely cheap. €7-8 for a 1/2 litre of house wine at most restaurants, or €8-9 at any little corner shop for a bottle. There was also a BYO place around the corner from us which sold €2.80 litres of wine if you brought your own bottle. It wasn't the greatest, and we didn't drink it excessively, but it was fine for a glass in the apartment in the evenings. Obviously prosecco is from Venice, so we had a lot of that.
On Thursday we did a day trip to Murano and Burano, which are two islands off the north coast of Venice about a 20 minute and 50 minute boat ride from the city (respectively). Murano is famous for its glass blowing, so I was quite looking forward to that and while I did enjoy Murano, I found Burano to be the highlight. Murano was mainly just glass shops. There must have been thousands on the little island all selling very similar things. We were joking, when we came to an empty square, that there is obviously some sort of problem with the land, as no glass shops have been built on it. Burano, however was lovely. It's a small island where all the houses are painted bright colours. We got lost in the side streets and came across so many wonderful pink, purple, turquoise and red houses. The whole island would be a photographers dream. I really enjoyed it.
On Friday, I got up and did a few of the touristy things in Venice. First, I went to the Doge's palace, which I have been to before, but didn't remember much of it. I really enjoyed it. The rooms were so spectacular, and I found the history of the palace and the court system in Venice in the 1500 and 1600s to be very interesting. The palace was set up so that the main meeting halls (for the senate, grand council, etc) were close to the Doge's private apartments. Then, the court rooms, where a select counsel heard certain cases was there as well, and connected to those rooms was the bridge of sighs, which lead the prisoners to the jail (across the small canal) after their trial. As part of the museum, you go across the bridge of sighs (and sigh as you glimpse Venice through the windows on the bridge) before exploring the jail. There was a 'secret passageways tour' which you can do which takes you into a bunch of hidden rooms and passages throughout the palace, but you need to book that well in advance (it was sold out for the rest of May for example), and I just wasn't organised enough to book it back in April. Anyway, the palace was still good.
I then had to wait in a huge queue to go up the main square tower. It was worth the wait, as the view is spectacular. I got so lucky with the weather in Venice, which I think was well deserved after the horror that was Prague. Every day was sunny and warm (21-23 degrees), with the only slightly overcast day, being the one we were in the drinking tour anyway
My train didn't leave until 1:20 on Saturday, so I had some time in the morning before I left. I decided to go see the Peggy Guggenheim collection. For 30 years she lived in the most beautiful house on the grand canal, which is filled with her private collection of art. She (and her beloved dogs) are buried on the property (she died in 1979) and the house is now a museum displaying her personal art. Obviously she is a Guggenheim, so it was impressive, but to think that her private collection had at least 4 Picassos, a room full of Jackson Pollock, a Kandinsky, and at least a few Salivador Dali's, made it well worth the trip. The house itself was beautiful as well, and there were some pictures on display of Peggy in the furnished house in the 60s, with all the art on the walls, which gave a nice perspective of how it looked when she lived there. Out back there is a fantastic deck with unreal views of the grand canal. It would be quite the place to have entertained... "come over, look at my Picassos, have a cocktail on the grand canal. It will be Devine."
And now that takes us back to the train. The first part of the journey was in quite a comfortable train, but now I'm in an older style train in a 6 person compartment with just me and a real weirdo. I mean weird weird. Hopefully he gets off soon. Anyway, I'm heading home tomorrow. It's been an excellent trip, and I'm sorry to have to go. But, I'm looking forward to getting back into routine, exercise, and hopefully losing some weight so my clothes fit again.
Thanks for reading. Ciao.
SH
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