Venice: City of Canals

A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him – British Poet

On my trip to Italy, Venezia was definitely a must. No roads, no confusing metro, no hassle of trams. Just canals, bridges and beautiful alleys. Venezia or Venice sits in group of small islands which are separated by canals and linked by hundreds of bridges. So the best and rightful way to enjoy Venice is by foot.

Throughout history, the city held an imperative role in terms of commerce, military power and surely the art. Vivaldi was born here, he might as well composed the Four Seasons on a gondola on his way to work.

As the main honeymoon destination for newly wedded couple, you can expect a serene atmosphere in Venice. When the sun has set, there was not much to do other than enjoy a plate of Angel Hair with Pesto and glass of wine, then walking back to the Gothic hotel room with your loved one.

To complete my short visit in Venice, I bought the Vaporetto Pass that allowed me to ride the Vaporetto for 24 hours. Vapporetto is a public water taxi that serves as main transportation in Venice. You can also ride those private one, but I’m sure you’re going to pay much higher price. Vaporetto Pass is sold for EUR20. Buying this pass, you can go to small islands that are located around Venice, of which without the pass you have to pay for total price of EUR7.5/trip. Meaning that the price for Venice – Murano – Venice and Venice – Burano – Venice will cost you EUR30, not included the Vaporetto inside the Venice itself (St. Marks Square, Rialto Bridge, etc). It was worth it to buy the 24hours pass!

You can get the Vaporetto Pass in every ACTV Vaporetto Station. Don’t forget to always validate your Vaporetto Pass before entering the Vaporetto. You will find this validation machine and just tapped it there. Randomly, there will a spot-checking so should you haven’t validated the Pass you can be fined. Though during my trip there, I didn’t see any random checking. But, just be careful folks it’s better to avoid the fine rather than pay them.

I fully utilized the pass for going to the Island of Murano and Burano, plus inside the Venice itself to see Rialto Bridge and go to St. Marks Square. Murano is famous for its glass-made stuffs. Too bad that I didn’t see the process of the glass-making in there, though the scenery and nuance were really calming. There were cafes along the canals, bakery shops, made-of-glass souvenirs shops and a lot of gelateria. (PS: the best Gelato I’ve ever tasted was in Rome, will share it on separate post)

40min ride from Venice by Vaporetto will take you to the Island of Burano, small island filled with hundreds of bright colorful fishermen’s houses. If you ever have visited the Kampung Warna Warni on Jodipan Malang, Burano is exactly like that. Though I believe it works the other way around

Fun fact: should you want to repaint the color of your house, you need to send an official notice to government and they will reply the specific color you can have. So all the colorful houses in Burano is basically the result of government’s choice. Thank God, Italian government has wonderful taste

On the second day, I went for the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square. Rialto Bridge is maybe the most famous bridge in Venice. It is the oldest of the four bridges connecting district of San Marco and San Polo. The bridge stands above the Grand Canal. It has this distinguish architecture design and there are lots of shops and restaurants on and around the bridge. You will get great selfie picture of Grand Canal from above the bridge.

St. Mark’s Square or Piazza San Marco is the central landmark of Venice. It is famous for its beautiful square filled with hundreds of Venetian pigeons. Around the square, you can find the Basilica, Doge’s Palace and the Bell Tower. By climbing to the top of Bell Tower you are going to have this beautiful panoramic view of Venice. It charges for EUR10. Yet again, too bad that I didn’t climbed the tower as I was in hurry to catch the train to Innsbruck.

In total, I spend two days and one night in Venice but there are lots of places that I haven’t visited yet. Should you come to Venice one day, the best way to enjoy it is by getting lost. Let the canals showed you places that’s not written in tour guidebook, let the beautiful alleys led you to old charming shops and let the singing voice of gondoliers mused you into the heart of Venezia.

Arrivederci!

-R