18th April
Venice
We started at around 8.30 am from the hotel for our Venice
trip again. We reached the island by 9.45 am and visited a glass blowing place
(Venetian glass is very famous..especially the Murrano glass and it is not made
anywhere else…its only made in that island. Other than that, Venice is famous
for Lace, masquerade masks and well Gondola rides.. I remember seeing them in ‘The
Venetian’ in Las Vegas. I would be doing them here for real..yeah!!!!!) The
various things they do with the glass…good god. It was amazing, but very highly
prized for the efforts that go into it. He
made us a vase with a nice handle before our eyes. They also ship it. But as
usual I did not buy anything costly. After that we went for our Gondola rides.
To say that I wasn't expecting the Gondola ride is just an
understatement. I was super excited. I got grouped with the Srilankan family
because it holds 6 people. In our next batch, we had the player (I don’t know
the name of the instrument) and the singer. To take the Gondola ride we had to
go to a place beyond the San Marco’s square. It was quite hot but once we
started the ride, it got a little bit better because of the wind. The
instrument player started playing some tunes and after a few songs, the singer
joined in. We traveled through the Canal for some time and then into the small
inroads of the water. Suddenly its all quite and eerie. I tuned out everything
and was very quite, taking in the ride, the sights and the music. Especially in
the inroads, his voice boomed. It was so so nice. I was in my Venetian dream :) and all I wanted was
it to not end. The small inroads also
led us to the hotels that are there and we could see the taxi (water taxi) that
transported people to and from the hotel. I don’t know why I remembered ‘The
Tourist’ movie a lot at this time. It took around 30-45 mins for the whole
ride. There were so many songs that were sung. It was heavenly. I did wish that
I had been alone on a boat with the player and the singer all to myself so as
to get in the full experience, but I cant have my cake and eat it too can I ? We
can see the level marks of the water on the buildings and for the time being it
was a low tide and the level was definitely less. Seems like if there is a high
tide, there is a official warning system in place and they start putting out
wooden planks on the roads so that people can walk on them. And also the warning is much ahead in advance.
After the relaxed 40 min or so ride, we came back to the place where we
boarded.
After this we were on our own till the 2 pm where we can
join the others for the trip to the Venetian Lagoon, if we so prefer. But I
wanted to be here for some more time. So myself and a few others (including the
70 yr old guy and his wife) roamed around for our snack near the San Marco
square. I also found out how to get to Rialto Bridge. There are signs on the
roads (on the top) indicating the route. If it says ‘Per Rialto’ that means ‘To
Rialto’ and similarly for ‘Per San Marco’. I had a cappuccino and a bottled
water and sat in the shade of the Church for some time for the other two to
have their breakfast. For some reason I couldn't leave them alone until they
had their snacks. It was very nice talking to them. She is 60 yrs of age, the
same as my mother. May be its my
protective instincts kicking in , but whatever, I really enjoyed their company.
After half an hour of relaxation, we went on our ways. They were planning to
roam around till their 2 pm boat ride to the Lagoons and it was around 12.45 pm by then. I
went on my way to see the Rialto bridge.
I started following the signs and all was going through fine till some time. It
was nice to navigate these streets. It was interesting because some led to dead
end roads, some to the canals, some to the bridges, some to small squares, some
to buildings or churches. You never know where you would end up :) I crossed so many
small bridges seeing the gondola rides under them. But after some time I really
did not know where I was headed. Because I did not see the Rialto sign anymore.
I started seeing the Palazzo do Roma signs. I was wondering how to navigate. I sat down every once in a while to catch my
breath, it was quite hot, and then again resume on my search for Rialto. After
a few minutes of going here and there and back to where I was travelling, I
found myself on a place and to my utter astonishment it was the Rialto
Bridge…saw the sign Pointe de Rialto… good god, I was all over this place
except that I was on the other side. This was a very old bridge from the looks
of it and was heavily inhabited. There were so many restaurants, Gondola rides
there and so many shops which were much cheaper than the ones near San Marco. I
walked on the other side, which was a little bit quieter and had a few
restaurants near the lagoon. It was very calm and nice. Spent some time there,
got some magnets for my fridge and then after relaxing a bit there, started my
way back. On the way, went inside the alleys to find some place for eating.
Finally after some roaming about, found one caffe where I had my pizza. I also
found one of the couple from my group roaming about there. Then started my slow walk around
the place taking in the sights, the sounds and the lagoon. At around 2.30 pm I
was back in San Marco Square. I was so tired and my feet ache. It was almost
2-3 hrs of walking in Venice (Walking!!!). I could have gone to one end, take
the boat to the other. But that would mean spending more Euro’s, which was not
my idea of enjoying Venice. You could see the boats, the gondola’s sitting
there forever. I also saw a Cruise Liner going on its way. There were a couple
of Ambulance’s that were rushing to the main land, using the same sound as the
normal ambulances on land. Seems like in peak season, it gets really crowded in
the lagoon. But gratefully it was well maintained, except for the algae in the
water in many places. I relaxed and spent my time in the sun and then in the
shade from time to time taking my time to get back to the landing point by 5
pm. By 4 pm, it became really very very hot and if we go in the shade or in the
alleys it gets cold. It was really confusing, can never judge if we really want
the jacket or not . The policia or the carabineri (Italian police) were on
patrol everywhere keeping tabs. There were lot of Africans there who were
trying to sell handbags (Gucci copies of course) and some gypsies. We were
warned not to let them near by as they pick our pockets. San Marco was quite
crowded by students and groups who started arriving late. Just when I was
wondering why I don’t see an Indian group, I spotted them getting off the boat
by around 4.30 pm or so. We had a really long queue to go to the Church , the
tower etc.
Having my fill on Venice, we regrouped at 5 pm in the
landing point for the boat and it arrived just in time with the people who did
their lagoon cruise. I am happy that I did what I did in Venice. I got to see
as much as possible, roam around the streets (while I was doing that I
remembered Heath Ledger’s Casanova :), expecting to see him anytime… I love that guy) and now I need to go back. While
sitting on the boat, I thanked God for letting me see Venice, even though my
feet was killing me for walking so much. And it was good that we saw it at this
time, instead of summer. It would have been too hot. It not that in Venice you
have only water everywhere. Lot of the small islands are connected by bridges.
There were a few more which I saw and you can walk around by using the bridges.
As much as we fantasize about living in this small city, it is really painful
for people because they have to go to the main lands very often. I saw a lot of
people in their boats with kids going to main land to do shopping instead of
getting the things in Venice which would be very costly. But it definitely is a
good tourist place. Hope it survives the ecological problems (like the oil
wells that are there near by, the algae formation in the lagoon and other
pollution issues).
We came back to the hotel (after the 20 min boat ride and
30-40 min bus ride) at around 6.45 pm and uploaded some photos and went to
sleep a little earlier than the previous day to get some good rest. I saw my dream place and I am really glad about it.
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