Day 27 – A day trip to Venice

 

What we saw when we emerged from the station

 It was a very early start for us.  We had a 7:30am train to Venice to catch.  Two hours after leaving Verona we arrived at Venezi Mestre and along with a large number of other people and as we emerged from the station we saw the Grand Canal below us.  There were people everywhere.  As we descended the steps and some nice young people checked that we had paid the entry fee  to Venice of 5€.

We chose to go wandering and on the first wander we found ourselves going around in a circle.  That was in part because there are so many nooks and crannies and I had no clue as to where were going I just wanted to see as much as I could.  Of course there are no cars or other vehicles on the island.  It was wonderful to see the little canals and interesting bridges over the canals.  Occasionally, we found ourselves in a little street all by ourselves. 

Docking station for gondolas

Traffic issues

We had lunch at a little café we found along the way.  The food was ok but not great.  It filled a gap. 

We had been told that we should go to St Mark’s Square despite its reputation for being very crowded.  There were no signs pointing the way.  We could have taken a gondala but while that would have been nice, the cost of 90€ was deemed too much.  Instead we used Maps to guide us there.  GPS does not work that well in confined spaces and occasionally we made wrong turns.  The advantage of that is we would come across something interesting and photo worthy.

St Mark’s Square or piazza is a massive space.  I’ve seen pictures of it during the summer and it looks like the crowds are overwhelming.  Fortuntely for us while busy it was not overwhelming.  Perhaps it being Sunday and the weather forecast having been less favourable had deterred people.  The buildings are beautiful and worth seeing. 


St Mark's Square after the rain



Parrt of the Doges Palace

St Marks square

The Doge's Palace

Bev wanted to have an Aperol spritz there and we chose a restaurant playing some nice soft jazz and ordered the drink.  It was lovely being there watching the people. Then the rain came for a moment sending people scurrying for shelter and for a few moments the piazza was almost free of people.  It was only a brief shower. 

Let there be easy classical music

Gondoliers gathering place

When the bill came it was a bit of shock.  Not only did we have to pay for the entertainment on a per head basis but the drinks were three times as much as we have normally paid.  It might have even been more.  We had been told that things were expensive there but we did not anticipate that level of ripoff.  If they could have charged us for sitting at table I suspect they would have done that.  The experience was great despite the shock.

Our soft jazz group

It was time after that to start making our way back to the station.  On the way we discovered a place where we could get some prepared food.  We decided to do that as it was going to be  early evening before we got back to our apartment.  It was a good choice. 

Then just as we were crossing the bridge over the Grand Canal a porter who was transporting a pile of suitcases over the bridge started yelling in Italian pointing behind me.  The only words I understood were "pretty lady", or I think it was.  I took no notice and then Graham said to me that Bev was racing up the steps behind us.  It turned out that Bev had been pick-pocketed.  According to Bev initially the porter had pointed at her and then behind her. She realised her phone had gone.  When she got to the top people started pointing at a man who was looking very non-de-script with a hoodie covering his head and part of his face.  Faced with the fierce-some Bev he meekly handed over her phone.  When she got back to us she was very shaky as it was not only her phone he had taken but in the attached wallet she had cash and her credit cards.  She was very fortunate.  There has been some re-visiting of the episode in her head.  It  is possible she had left the zip on her bag open thereby making it easy for a skilled pickpocket to retrieve her phone without her noticing.  Not only that it was a classic case of being in crowd of people all jostling as we went to the station or in the other direction. We agreed she was very lucky.  

I have now seen Venice.  It is beautiful even on an overcast day.  It would be nice to be there when there are just the locals going about their business.  I had never planned to visit but we were in the vicinity so I thought it would be worth making a day trip.  I would have liked to go to one of the outer islands where there are less people but in the time that we were there we did not have time.   





A copy I suspect of painting of the above bridge in medieval times








A less crowded Grand Canal

 

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