Europe Trip- Day 4 , Venice

Day 4: 20 April 2005

We woke up to be greeted by a gloomy and overcast sky which threatened lots of rain. In fact it had rained the previous night as well. Not at all the kind of weather one would want while on tour. Nevertheless, we got into the shuttle bus from the campsite to the City. We brought a city map and also a day long pass which enables us to take as many trips as we want on the city’s water taxis. We got into a taxi from the Ferrovia taxi stop which is the one opposite to the railway station. Since we were not much aware of any famous landmarks in Venice, we asked a cop, and he suggested we start from St.Marco.

Sitting in the boat, one couldn’t help but get amazed again at the sight of the canals and the city built around it. Much like we have major roads and small lanes branching out of it, here you have the Canal Grande and smaller canals flowing out of them. Apart from the water taxis which are the public transport, there are private boats, gondolas and also company boats. I saw a DHL boat cruising around delivering cargo.

St Marco was 15 minutes away and was very crowded. By this time it had started to rain as well. But rain or shine, it has no effect on tourists and there were a lot many of them there. We came across a large group of Indians, who were finding it difficult to listen to their guide while at the same time dodge the rain and not get wet. We learnt that they were from Australia, all of them, and had come on a tour to Italy.

St Marco has the huge Doge’s palace, a church and also a tall tower atop which you have a viewing platform which would give a panoramic view of the city.

Doges, we learnt were the rulers of Venice for many centuries. The palace was pretty huge, it had a museum, a prison, the living rooms, and many other rooms and galleries. After having seen the Louvre, this museum did not interest us much. Also this museum had more of artifacts like pillars and sculptures rather than eye catching paintings.

We entertained hopes of getting into a gondola and going for a ride, but the cost was prohibitive. Somewhere around 50 euros for a trip, that was not affordable at all. We had to be satisfied with the water taxis.

We also had perhaps one of the funniest moments of the tour as we were waiting in the Q to get into the palace. The rain was beating down heavily and none of us had any umbrellas or raincoats. Sid and Kamal decided that the only resort was to pray to the lord. So there, under a steady drizzle, standing in a Q surrounded by many and with many more walking past, they both decided to sing a bhajan pleading to God to let sunshine in.
Heads turned, people stopped and stared while the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing. The Bhajan went on for some time. But believe me you, as we walked out of the palace after couple of hours, the rain was gone and it didn’t trouble us for the rest of the day.

Most of the buildings in Venice look pretty old, especially the ones by the canals and the city is also full of tourists all year round. Hence most of the industrial establishments and offices have moved out to the nearby town of Mestre which is linked to Venice by a highway and a rail line. Mestre is the station we touched last before entering Venice on the train from Milan. Another primarily residential location is the island of Lido, which was where we went next.

Lido is about 20 minutes from St.Marco and to reach there the boat comes out of the canals and enters the Adriatic Sea and travels in the direction opposite to the main body of the Venetian islands. We got down and immediately we were struck by the stark difference between Venice and Lido. The island was modern with beautiful houses, tree lined streets, well maintained roads, hotels and shops. The streets had Porsches, Audis and the like parked on them. This was a world away from the hustle and bustle of Venice. This I guessed was the home for the rich and famous. We learnt that the annual Venice film festival was held in Lido.

The sun had started shining by the time we reached Lido. We had lunch in one of the restaurants there and then walked to the Lido beach. It was sparse, almost empty. The gloomy weather in the morning would have put off everybody. But am sure in summer this beach would rock. We strolled around for sometime, and had perhaps the best ice cream of the tour in one of the shops in Lido. After that we took a taxi back to Venice.
We also wanted to check out another island, where as per Ruchika a famous glass factory is situated, but we were told that it would have closed down by 5 pm and hence we dropped the idea. Instead we went for a longish boat ride, a circular ride starting from Ferrovia, through all the stops and coming back to Ferrovia. We covered the outer islands, the port and the cruise dock where a couple of giant cruise ships were berthed.

We took the last shuttle bus back to the campsite. We still had a few instant food packets with us, so instead of checking out the restaurant we cooked food in our cabin.

Take away the canals and maybe Venice has got nothing much to offer. True it has churches and museums, but the uniqueness is in the canals and how the city is built around it. Venice is definitely a must see…