Date of Visit: 2-3 September 2011
Venice, the floating city. It was a city we learnt about in secondary school social studies, i think "the rise and fall of venice". It is certainly an interesting city, why would anyone want to build a city on an island full of rivers/water? Doesn't make any sense. But they were powerful during their heydays. Could we be like them in future?
As Venice's population is made up of 80% tourist, i think, most of the stuff there are rather expensive. So we tried to skimp a little here and there. And we managed to do just that. On the first day, we stumbled upon this butcher shop that happened to sell lasagna. It cost Eur15 per kilo, yes they weigh it, and we bought half a kg for the 2 of us. The shop owner don't speak english but we managed to do it somehow. Cheap deal. Dinner was the same, 3 giant slices of pizzas at eur2.50 each and 2 bottles of wine at eur6 :) all the italian food, yum yum yum
Venice, the floating city. It was a city we learnt about in secondary school social studies, i think "the rise and fall of venice". It is certainly an interesting city, why would anyone want to build a city on an island full of rivers/water? Doesn't make any sense. But they were powerful during their heydays. Could we be like them in future?
Anyway, we were lucky to get this accommodation, Le Guglie BnB. It costed us EUR200 for 2 nights, and I think it's definitely worth it. We had the biggest room, with 2 levels. It can definitely fit more than 2 person, I think it can fit 5 without any problems. There's a single bed on the 1st lvl and a king size bed on 2nd lvl. We even had a balcony on the 2nd lvl, but the weather was too hot for us to use it.
Venice was everything we saw from TV and books, just rows and rows of canals and buildings built onto any land available. On the main island of Venice, there are no cars on the road, just plenty of boats. You get water buses, water taxis, gondolas, and private boats rushing all about in the water. The easiest way to get around is to take the Vaporette, or waterbus. There are water bus stops all around the city. It's expensive to take them though, Eur6.50 per trip, but we got a 36hours pass for unlimited rides. It cost Eur23, so that's about 4 rides worth. We definitely made full use of it as we rode the vaporette everywhere.
(Vaporette and the vaporette stop)
The main tourist attraction is the San Marco Square. This houses the Duccal Palace and the Campile and other museums. There are freaking lots of pigeons there, and the ang moh's keep feeding them. The pigeons are so fat and bold, they are not afraid of people anymore. The merely stroll away when I tried to chase them away, they didn't even bother to fly!!! I don't know why the angmoh's aren't afraid of them crapping on them. They even allow them to stand on their shoulders and head. Zzz...
When they say Venice is sinking, they really mean it. When it's high tide, the St. Mark's Basilica begins to flood and the water level on the banks become so high that it starts to over flow. So may I suggest to people who want to visit this place, don't wait too long, or it might not be here anymore. Rising sea level + sinking island + broke country(so no money to fix the problem) = no more venice.
We couldn't have chosen a better time to visit Venice. It was during the art biennale and film festival. There are art exhibitions all over the island, free for all to view. There's a giant glass bail of hay, a giant glass crystal, a mural made of egg shells, glass birds. Venice is famed for their glass making, therefore all the glass arts.
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We wanted to catch a world premier of a movie at the film festival. But we were too late as all the tickets were sold out. Sadded...
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We wanted to catch a world premier of a movie at the film festival. But we were too late as all the tickets were sold out. Sadded...
As Venice's population is made up of 80% tourist, i think, most of the stuff there are rather expensive. So we tried to skimp a little here and there. And we managed to do just that. On the first day, we stumbled upon this butcher shop that happened to sell lasagna. It cost Eur15 per kilo, yes they weigh it, and we bought half a kg for the 2 of us. The shop owner don't speak english but we managed to do it somehow. Cheap deal. Dinner was the same, 3 giant slices of pizzas at eur2.50 each and 2 bottles of wine at eur6 :) all the italian food, yum yum yum
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