Venice

Cathedrals, Cats, and Canals

Getting thoroughly lost and having a blast

VENEZIA

For our last European Adventure before we head home Louise and I are off to the City of Love!

22/01/2014: Day One

We started our adventure by spending the night in Stanstead airport as we had one of the first flights out the next morning.
I would not recommend sleeping in an airport. It is something I can now say I have done but I plan to never do so again. After a night of not a lot of sleep and a flight time only just longer getting from Auckland to Christchurch we were in Italy!

We caught the Aerobus from the airport to Tronchetto, the top of the Grand Canal. From there we caught the Water Bus down the Grand Canal to San Marco Square.

If you want to save money in Venice I highly recommend skipping the Canal Boat ride and just hopping on the Water Buses instead. They cost next to nothing and they will take you further along the canals in the same amount of time. Sit at the front of the boat and you get amazing views over the city.

We were staying at Hotel Residenza San Maurizio, which is a budget hotel/hostel a short walk from San Marco Square. We stayed in a private room but as we were the only ones on our floor we also had three bathrooms to ourselves as well. The hostel was great and the staff were super helpful, I highly recommend staying there.

After we were checked in we headed off to see the sites.

Day one included a visit to Basilica di San Marco, a walk around the Canals getting hoplessly lost, Ponte dell’Accademia, and the Rialto Bridge. The Basilica di San Marco was amazingly beautiful but unfortunately because we were in Venice in the middle of the off season they were completing repairs on the Basillica and we could not see all of the outside.

23/01/2014: Day Two

Day two and we spent most of our day getting lost in residential Venice.

This morning we found a supermarket and bought a lot of water. You cannot drink the tap water in Venice and our hostel did not have filtered water so we were extremely thirsty this morning. We drank about a litre of water each outside the supermarket before carrying our goods back to the hostel.

Today we visited the Museo della Musica, a small free museum of musical instruments not far from our hostel. It is a very cute museum, and after a lot of art through the rest of Europe, its something a little bit different.

We also visited the Dorsoduro area of Venice where we went to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, probably one of my favourite Cathedrals of all time. You also get a fabulous view back over to San Marco Square from the steps of the Basilica.

We finished off the day with a visit to Punta della Dogana, the old customs house where everyone entering Venice had to check in.

Our evening was spent eating sandwiches for dinner on the steps of the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. We were all alone and gazing out at San Marco Square. It was truly one of the most magical experiences I have had travelling.

24/01/2014: Day Three

Today our plan had been to catch the water bus out to Murano before we had to head back to the airport but fate had other plans for us with the public transport in Venice being on strike!

There were a few skeleton services running so we managed to make it out to Giudecca, the outer part of Venice.

We had a look at Redentore Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore before making our way back into the main part of the city.

No trip to Venice would be complete without a visit to the Bridge of Sighs or Ponte dei Sospiri so we went there next. The Bridge of Sighs was incredibly beautiful but also very crowded.

Our day ended with a bit of a challenge of how to get back to the airport. The Grand Canal Water Bus was not running so we had to get back to the bus stop at Tronchetto a different way.
After talking to the helpful people at the hostel, they said if we could get to Piazzale Roma we could take the people mover to Tronchetto where we could meet the bus.
After walking from San Marco Square to Piazzale Roma (which involved a lot of getting lost and doubling back on ourselves), we then couldnt find the people mover. This is because we were looking for a mini bus. As it turns out the people mover is a Mono Rail. We finally got to Tronchetto only to find out that the next bus wasn’t for two hours.
Luckily there was a cafe at Tronchetto and we had enough money for a few cups of tea while we wrote our postcards and waited for the bus. We finally got to the airport only for our flight to be oversubscribed and we had to be quick to get on the plane.

So that was our three days in Venice.

We had a great time and I cannot wait to go back one day. I would recommend going in January as it is quiet, and we had no problems with smell or crowds which is a common complaint of people who visit in the summer.