Venezia - Water from above and water below!

Yesterday we spent the day in Venice. As per most of this week, the rain came down all day so we ventured out with our umbrellas, trendy rain ponchos and got wet alot!

The tide was very high and many of the footpaths were covered in water. This home owner might have trouble getting in his front door!

As we had little time in this wonderful city, I had to plan carefully when considering the itinerary for the day. We decided to see the small island of "Murano"where the most famous glass factories in the world reside and then in the afternoon we decided to see "Piazza San Marco" (St Mark's Square). While it was not underwater which is often the case at this time of year, the boards were out ready to raise the level of the ground if needed.

We decided to experience Venice's public transport system and bought day trip tickets (14EU each which works out to $28 each) for the three of us for the "Vaporetto". This is the name of the public transport boats. Picture below:

It was so strange to get on a boat and pull up at what are "bus stops or boat stops"along the Grand Canal and see people get on and off. A photo of a stop is shown below.

Inside, they look like most public transport vehicles, rows of seats and lots of people. They too get very crowded.

Once we arrived at Murano, we started to look for glass blowing demonstrations amongst the rows and rows of shops of Murano glass objects. This stuff is amazing. So amazing that I ended up shipping a box of lovely objects home for around $600 so I really did the budget some damage on this visit. I was worried to buy any of these things because they are so fragile but the option to send a box back by courier with insurance was appealing to me. The prices of these items are amazing. Of course I stuck to the more economical pieces but there were some objects like glass vases, light fittings that were priced at around 10,000EU which is $20,000 with current conversion rates. Murano glass is world famous as I am sure their prices also are! Trevor thought it was momentous enough to take a picture of the shop where I broke the bank!

Of course Michael acted up a bit in this store cause I was taking so long and Trevor had to take him outside which is when he had the idea to take this photo but also I think we was as worried as I was that Michael would break something in the store and we would have to re-mortgage our home to pay for it!! Ouch!

It is funny what you see in Venice, all the things which we have in our towns that are land based, are water based here.

Below is a street vegetable vendor except his truck is is boat, very interesting to watch the things that make daily life different to ours in this unique city.

We eventually found a glass blowing factory and were able to take a short video of the Master at work.

After this we headed to lunch in Murano where we ate at a small rustic restaurant.

We then took the Vaporetto back to Venice island to the main attraction "Piazza di San Marco"(St Mark's Square). Despite the continuing rain the crowds were relentless, like us they too had to make the most of their day in Venice.

The only advantage of the rain was that it kept the pigeons at bay. On a normal day there are thousands of pigeons that inhabit this square hoping for crumbs from tourists.

We got some great photos of the Basilica even with the poor weather.

Some other good shots below:
A cargo boat above.


A Venice DHL Express Courier below....





A police boat...









The inside of our water taxi. This boat could have taken up to 15 passengers for sure. And apparently 50EU is the price for a 5 minute taxi ride ($100 of our dollars with current exchange rate).

And for the Venice ambulance, see next post...

Venice - We arrive at last!

We arrived in Venice on the 30th of October by train from Florence. The two hour ride was good except Michael got sick all over us in the train so you can imagine the mess trying to clean up and not stink the place out! Let's just say we could not wait to get there so we could get the clothes washed and change.

Anyway, after leaving the train station we came outside onto the Grand Canal to be greeted by sunshine for the first time in days. So far so good.

We then noticed that to get to the landing we had a flight of stairs to go down with all our suitcases and bags. As Trevor said,"Not a good place for a staircase when you come off a train with luggage". We tried carefully to hold on to Michael (we could just see the headlines, Australian couple loses 4 year old son in the Grand Canal - LOL but not so funny when you think about it!) and get all the luggage down the stairs.

We then walked to what was a taxi stand to get ripped off for a 5 minute water taxi ride to our apartment for 50EU (that is $100), we are sure that cannot be the price even if Venice is extremely expensive. But at that point we did not care, we just had to get there.

Video: Grand Canal Taxi Ride and View from our Apartment

The apartment called "Ai Carmini Residence" was the best we have had. ADSL internet, big rooms, breakfast supplies, good shower, and lots of space. We intend to leave a good review for this one.

Photos below:

For lunch we took a walk to the closest Piazza to find a bunch of Al fresco eateries. We chose the best looking menu and took a load off. Trevor and Michael took the opportunity to try yet another pasta dish. Trevor is on a roll and wants to try the "Penne all'Arrabbiata" in each city to find the best.

Michael chose pasketi again (translation from 4 year old "spaghetti"). The photo below shows Michael very intent on eating a good lunch, after a few mouthfuls, he of course""had had enough" and left most of it on the plate. A similar story at each of our mealtimes.

Tomorrow we visit Murano, where they will demonstrate how they blow glass and St Mark's Square (assuming it is not under water as sometimes occurs at this time of year). Stay tuned!