It was Wednesday, 18th September 2013. We had breakfast in hotel and started towards Venize. Venice is written as Venize on all sign boards. It was about 4 to 5 hours drive from Pisa. The terrain was hilly and traffic very heavy. The traffic consisted mainly of heavy trucks. There were two lanes, but the lane width was very small. It could hardly hold two buses, but our bus driver managed to over take the trucks and it was so narrow, the two vehicles almost touched each other. One needs real skill to drive in Italy . The Bus took turns in impossible turning in impossible angle.
We reached the main land in Venice which is known as Mestre. The Bus crossed the Bridge and stopped in the parking lot. We walked down to take the water taxi to the Island (s) the famous Venice.
water taxi
The buildings on the side of the huge water body.
The Water was quite wide and very much unlike what I had imagined.with buildings , that too, huge ones on both sides, all solid Marble/Brick buildings many of them churches.
How I wish I was the one sitting on the bench and reading a nice book
Some more buildings on both side of the water.
We were dropped at the main island called the San Marco Island.
On the opposite shore was a small Island, on which stood a building which is the Art Gallery where the famous Venice Film Festival held every year.
Art Gallery. This figure was a temporary exhibit .
This is where we got down from the Water Taxi .
The Doge Palace
The Main island where we landed has the Doge Palace which used to be the Palace of the Head of State of Venice. It was huge.
There is St. Mark's Basilica which is on a place called St. Mark's Square. St. Mark's tomb is inside the Basilica and his body was smuggled out of Alexandria , where he had died and brought here.
Side building in St. Marks Square. This was Napoleon's Palace.
The other side building in the St. Marks Square.
The St. Mark's Square.
Our Group.
This place is a huge square and one side stands the Basilica. The other three sides have lovely buildings. When Napoleon occupied Venice , one of the three buildings was his Palace.
A Lane with Wooden Planks.
The Water Ways.(Canals)
Inside the Island there are lot of small lanes. Some of the lanes have wooden planks to walk on. Some of the lanes are just water ways the famous Canals of Venice. The island gets flooded quite often and water level increases due to high tide. This whole water body is kind of back waters. The water is quite dirty but not very!!(dirty) . There are lot of small bridges to cross these water ways.
We were taken to a glass blowing factory. There was demonstration and the artist handled the red hot glass with ease with his tools and he made a horse in a jiffy. The glass things displayed were quite expensive.
My dream of going in the boat which are called Gondolas came true. One Gondola can have six people and it was quite expensive. Alas the person who was rowing the boat in the narrow water did not burst into a song like they show in Hindi movie. I was later told you have to shell out more money if you want a boat in which the boat man sings.! (I am not sure if this is true).
A song from the boatman would have made this more memorable.
We are going very close to the walls that too broken ones.
The Balcony has some greens.but House needs some repairs??
On both sides of the water ways , 3/4 storied buildings were there. Some of them were shops. and some were houses where we could see clothes hanging to dry and some had lovely flower plants in the balcony. The boat man brought us near the large water body and then took a turn into another lane (water way ) and brought us back in a different route. There was traffic jam with lots of boats coming one behind the other. It was funny looking at people who were watching us from the Bridge.
It was an unique experience the twenty plus minutes ride, though the reality could not match my imagination of a Venice Gondola ride.
But it is worth the ride and one should not miss it.
The beautiful Masks
Lovely . could only take pictures with the wares.
Again only picture was taken nothing bought.
A Statue . we were waiting here to meet our group .
There were innumerable shops selling Masks, Souvenirs, Beads, Glass items and what not.
Masks seem to be the main souvenir in Venice and some of the masks were extraordinarily beautiful. I just bought one , but had to be very careful while packing as it is very delicate.
We had lunch in a local Italian restaurant and the food as usual was good the vegetable soup, etc.
We roamed about on our own for some time. All the places are extremely crowded and we could not cover the whole place. We did not have time to cross over to the other side of the big water body and stayed put in the San Marco Island.. I wish we had more time so that I could have explored the whole place and just could keep on walking crossing over the Bridges.
I was happy my dream of visiting Venice was fulfilled. It was evening and we had to return to main land by water taxi . The water taxis were crowded .
We returned to the mainland and took our Bus to the city to have dinner in a Chinese place. It was very crowded. We had to wait long for our turn.
Luckily I could get some rice and I had wisely brought some edible powder (puliogere powder) given by my friend Nalini who always gives me when I go to Bangalore. I could eat some boiled vegetable also but not as good as Italian vegetarian food.
We had to drive another one hour away from Venice to our place of stay. We stayed quite far from the main attractions as those places are expensive.
A Nice Divider outside the Hotel.
So we have come to almost the last lap of our tour and we are to start for Milan the next morning.
This road into Venice was very nice
On our way into Venice (to take the Water Taxi) from Mainland.We reached the main land in Venice which is known as Mestre. The Bus crossed the Bridge and stopped in the parking lot. We walked down to take the water taxi to the Island (s) the famous Venice.
water taxi
The buildings on the side of the huge water body.
The Water was quite wide and very much unlike what I had imagined.with buildings , that too, huge ones on both sides, all solid Marble/Brick buildings many of them churches.
How I wish I was the one sitting on the bench and reading a nice book
The Main island where we landed has the Doge Palace which used to be the Palace of the Head of State of Venice. It was huge.
Saint Mark Basilica
There is St. Mark's Basilica which is on a place called St. Mark's Square. St. Mark's tomb is inside the Basilica and his body was smuggled out of Alexandria , where he had died and brought here.
The St. Mark's Square.
Our Group.
This place is a huge square and one side stands the Basilica. The other three sides have lovely buildings. When Napoleon occupied Venice , one of the three buildings was his Palace.
A Small Lane.
A Lane with Wooden Planks.
The Water Ways.(Canals)
Inside the Island there are lot of small lanes. Some of the lanes have wooden planks to walk on. Some of the lanes are just water ways the famous Canals of Venice. The island gets flooded quite often and water level increases due to high tide. This whole water body is kind of back waters. The water is quite dirty but not very!!(dirty) . There are lot of small bridges to cross these water ways.
We were taken to a glass blowing factory. There was demonstration and the artist handled the red hot glass with ease with his tools and he made a horse in a jiffy. The glass things displayed were quite expensive.
My dream of going in the boat which are called Gondolas came true. One Gondola can have six people and it was quite expensive. Alas the person who was rowing the boat in the narrow water did not burst into a song like they show in Hindi movie. I was later told you have to shell out more money if you want a boat in which the boat man sings.! (I am not sure if this is true).
The Gondolas.
We are all ready to start.
A song from the boatman would have made this more memorable.
We are going very close to the walls that too broken ones.
Thanks to this lady who sat on the opposite side and took so many of our pictures.
The Balcony has some greens.but House needs some repairs??
Watch out for the traffic coming. Mirror on the Road... Canal
On both sides of the water ways , 3/4 storied buildings were there. Some of them were shops. and some were houses where we could see clothes hanging to dry and some had lovely flower plants in the balcony. The boat man brought us near the large water body and then took a turn into another lane (water way ) and brought us back in a different route. There was traffic jam with lots of boats coming one behind the other. It was funny looking at people who were watching us from the Bridge.
It was an unique experience the twenty plus minutes ride, though the reality could not match my imagination of a Venice Gondola ride.
But it is worth the ride and one should not miss it.
Lovely . could only take pictures with the wares.
Again only picture was taken nothing bought.
Another Church.
Dogi Palace.
The Winged Lion seen here is the symbol of Venice.
A Statue . we were waiting here to meet our group .
There were innumerable shops selling Masks, Souvenirs, Beads, Glass items and what not.
Masks seem to be the main souvenir in Venice and some of the masks were extraordinarily beautiful. I just bought one , but had to be very careful while packing as it is very delicate.
We had lunch in a local Italian restaurant and the food as usual was good the vegetable soup, etc.
We roamed about on our own for some time. All the places are extremely crowded and we could not cover the whole place. We did not have time to cross over to the other side of the big water body and stayed put in the San Marco Island.. I wish we had more time so that I could have explored the whole place and just could keep on walking crossing over the Bridges.
I was happy my dream of visiting Venice was fulfilled. It was evening and we had to return to main land by water taxi . The water taxis were crowded .
We returned to the mainland and took our Bus to the city to have dinner in a Chinese place. It was very crowded. We had to wait long for our turn.
Luckily I could get some rice and I had wisely brought some edible powder (puliogere powder) given by my friend Nalini who always gives me when I go to Bangalore. I could eat some boiled vegetable also but not as good as Italian vegetarian food.
We had to drive another one hour away from Venice to our place of stay. We stayed quite far from the main attractions as those places are expensive.
A Nice Divider outside the Hotel.
So we have come to almost the last lap of our tour and we are to start for Milan the next morning.
2 comments:
Photos give a good idea of your write ups. I have also seen Milan and Venice. But it was a short trip and not seen as much as you have done. I can remember demo of glass horses, buildings by the side of water, churches.Did not you see pisa leaning tower?
Pisa I have blogged separately.
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