“Do lafzon ki hai dil ki kahani … ” An old Hindi movie song shot on a Gondola made Venice one of the dream destinations for most Indians.. And it did feel like a dream coming true when we booked our tickets to spend the 2010 New Year’s Eve at that very place … Combined with the fact that we were also going to visit Rome on the same trip, it was going to be a trip to remember for life, which it indeed turned out to be..
The Journey
The gang from left : Amit, Shipra, Sheenam, Aviral, Aditya and Eva
We were a group of 7 friends (Akhil, Shipra, Sheenam, Amit, Aviral, me and my wife Eva). Our RyanAir flight left from Stockholm at around 6:30 in the morning on 31st December 2010, and reached Milan Bergamo airport at around 8:30AM… (direct flights to Venice didn’t suit because of time.. ). From there, we took a bus to the Bergamo railway station, and then a train to Venice Stazione Ferroviaría station which a changeover at Traviglio.. By the time we reached Venice station, it was already around 2:30pm.
Reached Venice… :)
Outside the Stazione railway station…
As soon as we stepped out of the station, we realized the place was more beautiful than what we had imagined.. A city completely built over water… And to our surprise, all the buildings stood over wooden piles!!.. As wikipedia describes : Under water, in the absence of oxygen, wood does not decay. It is petrified as a result of the constant flow of mineral-rich water around and through it, so that it becomes a stone-like structure.. As i mentioned in our my earlier posts, presence of a water body adds a lot of beauty to a city… And Venice is just water with some land interspersed.. !!
We checked into our hotel (a pretty bad one at 100Eur per night per room, since it was the New Year’s eve..), freshened up and headed out for the streets.. All of us were pretty hungry, so picked up something to eat (delicious pizza slices at 1.5Eur each) and then went on to get a transportation pass (http://www.actv.it/). A 24 hour pass was for 18Euros and allowed unlimited travel on the water buses or ‘Vaporetti’ as it is called there…. (as i said, its all water… so buses/taxis are actually boats:) ).. ACTV staff was on strike that day so we had to get the pass from inside the railway station…
On way to the St. Mark’s Square
View from the water bus ‘Vaporetti’
We had heard about high tides in Venice that bring the complete city under water, and there was one predicted for that night… We saw some people selling plastic shoe covers but didn’t buy them, which we later realized was the biggest mistake of our trip.. From the Vaporetti station in front of the railway station, we took the bus number 1 to take us to St. Mark’s Square .. The place where one of the world’s most famous new year’s program is held each year..
The area around St. Marks boasts of the world’s biggest brands’ stores… Prada, Louis Vuitton… name any and you will find it there… It was still some time to go before the program start, so we roamed around the streets, shopped a lot of windows.. saw people in crazy attires doing crazy things… It was very .. very cold, and still females with skimpy skirts was more of a norm than exception…
The New Year’s Celebrations
Left to right: St. Mark’s Square, New year’s decorations, New year’s celebrations
We soon realized the mistake of not having a rain boot with us as the whole area started to fill with water…. People told us it will be water as high as up to knees, and they were not lying… The New Year’s program was a grand show with one of the biggest Italian bands playing, but we couldn’t enjoy it much as one, it was all in Italian, and secondly, St. Mark’s square was filled with water, so couldn’t step inside to dance.. :( … But still… the feel of the place was awesome.. After spending all my life watching the new year’s celebrations on television, watching one live, that too in Venice.. i had never even dreamt of it…
Local Sightseeing
Left to right : Drowned streets, Rialto bridge, St Mark’s Basilica (2 views), View from Basilica balcony, Bell tower
The next morning was not good either in terms of water on the streets… We tied big polythene bags on our shoes and stepped out, but realized they were not enough.. so had to buy rain boots … A couple of precious hours were wasted in this process.. but once we had the correct boots, there was no stopping us.. :)
Our first stop of the day was the famous Rialto Bridge, one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal. It is one of the architectural icons of Venice built using stone.. After clicking a lot of pictures we headed towards the St. Mark’s Basilica ..
St. Mark’s Basilica is the biggest church in Venice and a must visit. The entry to the church is free but there are three separate areas inside which attract a nominal fees each (4, 3, 2 Euros each if i remember correctly). The interiors of the church were beautiful and view from the church balcony overlooking the bell tower and St. Mark’s Square was amazing…
Our next stop was the bell tower, but we didn’t go up the tower but just admired its grandeur from below…
We would have loved to visit the famous Doge’s Palace, but unfortunately it was closed on the 1st of January. My wife keeps saying that we have to visit Venice once more just for the sake of Doge’s.. :)
Walking tour from one end of the Venice to another
Some views during our walking tour
Next up, we had a difficult choice to make.. from one of the blogs on internet (i think it was on tripadvisor) we had noted down a walking tour on the streets of Venice which Eva and myself were very keen on taking, while the other choice was THE GONDOLA ride…. we wanted to do both, but time wouldn’t permit us to… So at the end, while others went on for the Gondola, we started our on foot exploration of the beautiful city… And while we were sad that we missed the symbol of romance , the Gondola ride, the walking tour was a beautiful experience in itself… Given below is an excerpt of the blog which we followed..i can’t find the original source, else would have definitely linked to it.. :(
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Wander up Riva degli Schiavoni (along the waterfront) and admire the views, crowds of people and turn nose up at all the trinket stands (you can do better for souvenirs...skip these.) Go quite far down until crowd thins…
After a snack, get on vaporetto (water bus) at Arsenale or San Zaccaria (depends on how far down you are) and take Grand Canal cruise up to Rialto Bridge - get seat or stand at back for best views back down grand canal or get seat or stand at very front for best views of Rialto bridge.
Exit Rialto Bridge and wander across with the incredible hoards of tourists doing the same thing - good photo op from top of bridge and down canal - continue over bridge and through the mass of souvenir stalls and get to the outdoor markets - if you like seafood keep wandering a bit further up this main drag to the incredible outdoor fish market - quite a sight!
Turn back around and go back to the Ruga Rialto and turn right - wander this great street through the fantastic San Polo district, marvelling at how few people there seems to be here until the street narrows and it suddenly becomes insanely crowded for 30 yards - where did all these people come from?
After a refresher and resting your feet, continue up a bit futher to the Chiesa dei Frari and take a few moments to go in and revel at the stunning art and sculpture and tombs in this hidden church - Titian's Assumption at the main altar glows red and gold from across the room and there's a stunning Bellini triptych - see Canova's dark and morbid pyramid tomb across from Titian's opulent one.
Exit into the sunlight and go further up to Campo Santa Margherita - very active place with lots of bars and small pubs and shops. Alternatively, if your feet hurt, go to the nearby San Toma vaporetto stop from the Frari church and get on the vaporetto, exiting at the Accademia stop.
Either way, wander to the Dorsoduro area and find characteristic shops, etc. here also. If you enjoy fine art, you might check out the line at the Accademia - in the evenings it tends to be light so enter if you like. The sun should be setting soon after your departure.
Take the traghetto (a gondola used solely for the purpose of ferrying people directly from one side of the canal to the other) for 50 cents from Dorsoduro and back to San Marco. Enjoy the sunset - climb the campanile bell tower now for great views and the sunset, if you didn't do it earlier.
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Finally the cliché… Like all good things, our venice trip had to come to an end… We took the train to Venice Treviso airport to continue our journey towards Rome… :)
I am glad you spent such a great time in this wonderful place. Great choice!
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