Venice – The Floating City

The evergreen romance, unsolicited charm, winding streets, great alleys, historic architecture, charismatic gondolas and historic canals – does it ring a bell already about the city. Yes, we are talking about the most exclusive city of Italy and rest of the Europe which is famous (rather infamous now) for most tourist in the world – VENICE.

We reached Venice via bus from Rome early morning and had to walk around 2km to St. Lucia terminal. Luckily the terminal had a clock room but the price for one luggage came around 20 Euros which was little on the higher side considering we had 4 luggage. Having no other option, we put our luggage in the clock room. We had already booked our day trip with Veltra which will cover major tourist attraction of Venice like Piazza San Marco, St. Mark’s Basilica, Murano island and Lido beach. We missed our first ferry due to not fully aware of the starting point as the St. Lucia station is quite big and be little confusing sometimes if it’s your first time there. Well, we made good use of this time by having breakfast at the KFC.

Quick Note

·         The stairs for the St. Lucia terminal is of glass and is extremely slippery. So please be very careful while walking on this bridge

·         In Venice, you can summon a water taxi by calling the Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia at 041 522 2303 (24 hours a day) or e-mailing info@motoscafivenezia.it. Also, please don’t forget to ask for fare quotation before booking so as to avoid any hustle later

·         You can also book a ferry for any station in Venice. This is the cheapest mode of transportation in Venice

St. Lucia Glass Bridge

Map: St. Lucia Terminal

Piazza San Marco

We started our ride around 0930 hours and our first stop was Piazza San Marco or St. Peter’s Square. This place is one of the hotspot for tourist as well as for Venetians as it boasts couple of most famous architecture in whole Venice; The Basilica, its bell towers, the Doges palace, the Obelisk and National Archaeological Museum.

You can also reach to this location by taking the water taxi from Piazzale Roma railway station line 1 or line2 which is a cheap way to travel across Venice.

Built in 1557, the place has stood its ground firm in the testimony of time. It was fully destroyed in 1807 by stepson of Napoleon. The Italo-Byzantine style Saint Mark’s Basilica was constructed in 1063 and was official cathedral of Venice around 19^th century. The Basilica has gleaming, golden Byzantine mosaics which is the epitome of Venetian architecture and aesthetic. Entry to the basilica is absolutely free except for some exclusive places like its museum, Pala d'Oro, the Bell Tower, and the Treasury.

Doge’s place at Piazza San Marco and the two famous columns

The mighty Obelisk

Saint Mark’s Basilica

After the historic excursion, we went to the famous leather bag and glass jewellry shopping spree around this place and got hand on some of the fantastic and authentic stuff. The lanes were very narrow with lots of interesting shops on both the side of the lanes. Interesting part was to cross the canals from one shopping lane to another. Well, Venice has its own charm.

Post that, we went to the iconic Rialto Bridge which is one of oldest bridge connecting San Marco and San Polo.

Also, no trip to Venice is complete without the famous Gondola ride. Though the price is on the higher side (~80 Euros for min 4 people), there is no stopping people to take this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Lastly, we went on to visit the Cafe Florian, oldest cafe in the whole Europe.

Quick Tips:

·         You have to be dressed appropriately for the cathedral

·         Photography is strictly prohibited inside the Basilica

                                                          Colorful Glass Jewellery

Crossing Canal in shopping lanes

Gondola Ride

 Rialto Bridge

  

Map: Piazza San Marco

Lido di Venezia

Venice Ludo is an island perfect for the tourists who want to escape from the chaos of the city and just want to relax for a bit amid the ocean and lagoon and is extraordinarily famous for Venice Film Festival. The place has lot to offer to the visitors of all sorts like Tempio Votivo war memorial, San Nicolò al Lido church, leisure walk along the streets of Lido and obviously the beach. You will find lot of good luxurious hotels and classy restaurants in this place.

You can also reach to this beautiful place by taking ACTV No. 1 vaporetto, Lines 5.1 and 5.2 and Line 6 which starts from Saint Lucia Terminal and takes us to Lido beach.

After relaxing little bit on the beach, we started for our next destination, Murano Island.

Murano Island

This was our last stop in our day tour of Venice. The Murano island is the epicenter of the Venice famous glass works that is shifted in this small distant island of Venice around 13^th century due to the fire hazard in the heart of Venice. Murano is actually a group of islands in itself consisting of 7 small islands and connected via small bridges over the river. The island gives a very soothing feeling with small canal running through the lanes, romantic sideways and beautiful Venetian glass art work.

Perfect way to start your trip on this island is by paying a visit to Museo del Vetro glass museum. Here you can see the centuries old Venetian glass work techniques and historic glass art work from Egyptian times. Along with the ancient work, the museum also has exquisite modern art collection as well.

The glass work is unparalleled in this part and I can bet that you will be mesmerized with the different combination of colors, shades, clarity and skill associated with it. You can get the art work in any design like false emeralds or rubies, necklace, or chandeliers, wind champs or any show-piece. I can guarantee that you can’t leave this place without digging a hole in your pocket as the price is quite high (of-course because of the skill) and pure rarity and exclusivity of this art. We ended up buying a full set of necklace of glass beads with 24 caret of gold inside (very few grams).

Along with the shopping, there are shops which show you the full journey of plain simple glass to the mesmerizing one of its own league artifact. There are people from generations who are into this business with skills unmatched. After covering shops, the beautiful canal walk and crossing the small bridges over canal, we finished our detour of Murano and headed back to Venice city.

                                                                 Unique Glass Tree

                                                            Breathtaking ceiling

                                                                  The exquisite Chandelier

Map: Murano Island

We reached back to the Saint Lucia terminal and then we took bus to the Venice Marco Polo International airport where we caught out flight to Paris and from there we had our return flight back to India.

Also Read: Paris- City of Love
                 BALI – A Trip to Heaven
                    Interlaken – Crown Jewel of Switzerland
                    Malta – Kingdom of Knights
                    ROME – The Eternal City
                    Vatican - The Holy City

The Vatican – The Holy City

            

Vatican is the smallest country in the world. We started our journey day trip from Rome to Vatican in morning by taking the metro from Termini to Ottaviano station which is closest to the Vatican museums. So, after walk of around 1.5 kms from the metro station, we reached to the epicenter of Christianity, the Holy Magnanimous St. Peters Basilica. Since we started early, there were not many people around and it took us barely 5 mins to complete the security check and enter the Basilica.

Quick Tips:

·         People generally start queuing up from 7:30am but you can still come around 9:00 am on weekdays to skip most of the crowd. Around noon, you can see a sea of crowd in thousands lining up in the security check queue

·         As this is one of its own church where each painting has its own history and story, I would recommend to either take guided tour, skip the line with audio or just download audio prior so that you won’t miss out the intriguing art, paintings and the historic events behind them

St. Peter’s Basilica

We started our trip by going to the dome of basilica, one of biggest in the world. We took the life which cost us ~10 Euros. Please be mindful of the fact that there will be another 150-200 steps after the lift which you have to climb on your own and as you are almost there, the steps become spiral in shape  where only one person can move at a time. Once you reach at the top, you do sense of accomplishment and can see the beautiful top view of the holy city.

After taking the deep breath and capturing the amazing view, we came down from the top and then went to see the church. Although I am not Christian, but I must admit that after looking at the carvings, paintings, arts and history behind each and every image, I was so curious and baffled by the grandeur of the place. It was moment of pure bliss!

We then went to Souvenir shop within the Basilica premises and bought couple of gifts for our loved ones.

After the tour, we went to grab a quick lunch at Panino Sistino. If you want to go for heavy lunch, maybe you can skip this place.

                                            View of St. Peters square from Top of Basilica

Map: St. Peter’s Square

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel or Papal Chapal, built in 1481, is one of the chapels of the Apostolic chapels in the Vatican city and is also the official residence of Pope. The main attraction of the place is the frescoes paintings by many Florentine Renaissance artists. These paintings depict the life of Christ, Moses, different Popes, etc. The most mesmerizing frescoes paintings by Michelangelo on the ceiling and wall behind the altar, collectively known as Sistine Ceiling depicting incidents from Old Testament and The Last Judgement. The other marvels of Sistine chapel include first reproduction of God with a muscular body very similar to Greek God Jupiter and creation of Adam by God.

The place is also the principal site for Papal ceremonies and is used by the Sacred College of Cardinals for their election of new Pope whenever they have vacancy.

You can book the tickets to Sistine Chapel, the guided tour and private tour as well.

Hours: 9:00 to 18:00

Entry Fee: 17 Euros

  

Vatican Museum

With around 6M visitors every day, Vatican Museums are one of main attraction of Vatican city. Built in 16^th century, Vatican has large number of museums have huge collections covering vast history, architecture and religion making it the one of the largest museum in the world.

Major attraction of the Museums are Roman replica of Greek originals, 15^th century map of Italy painted in fiasco, Vatican cars and  coaches, Christian antiques, Raphael rooms, etc. among many other gems.

The museum is the entry gate for Sistine chapel. So, if you are taking ticket for Sistine Chapel, then that ticket includes entry to Vatican Museums as well.

Hours: 9:00 to 18:00

Entry Fee: 17 Euros

Beautiful art at Vatican Museum

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                              BALI – A Trip to Heaven

                                                            Interlaken – Crown Jewel of Switzerland

                                      Malta – Kingdom of Knights

                                ROME – The Eternal City

                                  Venice – The Floating City

ROME – The Eternal City

                                                   

Rome – the Eternal city is the capital of Italy and is spectacularly beautiful. The city has a charismatic charm, rich heritage and enchanting atmosphere which make it one of the most famous, beautiful and visited cities in the world that attract millions of tourists every year. The city has a marvelous blend of history and culture and to add to the taste of this blend, they have mouth-watering food items, vibrant streets; and of course let’s not forget: Italian Wine. The city has it all; ranging from thousands of years old Churches to grand Ruins, mammoth monuments, lavish Palaces and ever exuberant fountains, the city never stops to amaze you.

We reached Rome from Malta in Ryan Airlines, which is the cheapest flight you can get in whole European region, in the evening and after the immigration took the one day pass from the airport counter. You can go for three day pass or one week pass as well depends on your need and bandwidth. We had one unpleasant incident where one of my friend’s mobile was stolen along with our day pass when we left it unattended for 10 min. After looking around phonetically and lodging a complaint to the police station, we took the bus and headed to our Airbnb place in Rioni i Monti near Termini metro station hosted by Kenny. The place was sufficient for 2 couples and Kenny was very courteous enough with all our requests.

Pantheon

We started our trip with Pantheon by taking bus Line 170. Pantheon is the best preserved ancient Roman architecture in the entire world which has seen the testimony of time and gravity, still intact with full grandeur and beauty. Build in ~125 AC, Pantheon was a Roman temple initially and later became Catholic Church over the period of time which saved it from getting destroyed. The most beautiful part of this structure is its Dome in the centre with its famous hole in the top (called The Eye of Pantheon); this is largest unsupported dome in the world.

We were bowled away with the beauty of this 2000 years old structure. There were multiple spots on the front side of building depicting the time and age this monument had survived. The carvings and Dome in the center is truly a marvel on its own.

Entry time: 8:30 to 19:30

Entry Fee: Free

                                                                     Front of Pantheon

                                                          Largest unsupported Dome

                                                    360 degree view of Pantheon

Map: Pantheon 

Fontana di Trevi

From Pantheon, we started walking towards Fontana di Trevi or Trevi Fountain. This enormous 4^th century Roman Fountain was build to provide water to the Roman baths and to other fountains in the central Rome.

 We reached Trevi around noon and it was buzzing with a sea of people around taking photos and adore the beauty of this iconic fountain. There is a legend that if you throw a coin over the shoulder in this fountain, you will come back to Rome again. We followed the legend (still waiting to go back to Rome) along with all the people around. These coins are collected in the night and given to charity for betterment of society.

Quick tips:

Ø  Stealing coins from the fountain is a punishable offence

Ø  Taking any eatable items near the fountain is prohibited

                                                                       Fontana di Trevi

Map: Fontana di Trevi

Colosseum

Finally we reached one of the wonders of the world, the mighty Colosseum. Built in 80 AD, it is the largest oval shaped open amphitheatre in the world with 50 entrances where people would come for wild sports like Gladiator combat, human v/s animal fight, wild animal hunting and prisoner execution, exotic animal display etc. Below the Colosseum were numerous room where Gladiators and animals would be kept waiting for their chance to go for combat. Though it is broken down by lightning, earthquake and vandalism, it is still one of the most attractive place in Rome.

When we reached, what amazed us most was the design and architecture with absolute precision and foresightedness even at that time with less technology and resources. We could actually visualize the fighting scenes of gladiators and animals in the arena with around 50000 spectators cheering for them.

Quick Tip:

·         In the evening, once the lights of Colosseum are on, that is a sight to behold. Please try not to miss that part

·         We went to Rome in March first week and luckily for us, Rome was celebrating Cultural Week. Due to this, entry for all the churches and museums was free of cost. So, if you are planning for Rome, maybe you can also plan around the same time

Opening Time:  8:30 to 19:00

Price: 12 Euros

                                                               Inside arena

                                                      The Great Grand Colosseum

                                          The step-wise activities description of the events

Map: Colosseum

Roman Forum

Situated just ~400m from Colosseum, we went straight towards the ancient Roman city on the Pallentine hill called Roman Forum. The city is deserted and broken, but we could still sense how the roman city around 2000 years back looked like with some of the structures still holding their ground with full pride singing the glorious Roman empire days.

There is no separate entry fee for Roman form and Palentine hill. It is included in the ticket fee for Colosseum.

Quick Tip: 

The Colosseum is open till 19:00 but Roman Forum and Palentine hill closes at 17:00. So please plan accordingly.

After the long tiring day, we treated ourselves with the best of Italian food joints near Colosseum. Beautiful evening, Itlalin food and Colosseum at the backdrop, it was perfect setting for a delightful and scrumptious food including Pizza with cheese overload, Lasagne, baked potatoes, the very famous Italian sweet Tiramisu. We took a tram from Colosseum which dropped us near Termini metro station and reached our Airbnb place.

                                                    5 Cheese Mushroom Pizza

                                                         Cheese baked Chicken

After hogging on the super delicious dinner, we reached our hotel. Next day we started for our day trip to Vatican City.

Also Read: Paris- City of Love

                   BALI – A Trip to Heaven

                   Interlaken – Crown Jewel of Switzerland

                       Malta – Kingdom of Knights
                   Vatican - The Holy City
                   Venice – The Floating City

Malta - Kingdom of Knights

Malta (or officially known as Republic of Malta) is a southern European island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the 10th smallest country in the world. Malta is a small island, but it has its hands full of everything a tourist destination requires; Beautiful landscapes, fascinating treasures, breathtaking ancient sites, rocky caves full of marine life, charming cities and turquoise beaches. The Malta Islands (Malta, Gozo and Comino) have an intriguing heritage encircled by the indigo waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

We reached Malta around 8 o’clock from Switzerland due to delayed flight. Thankfully, our Airbnb host Franz himself came to pickup us from the airport (as there aren’t many cabs available and with luggage it would be really difficult to hop on bus with multiple stops). We stayed at San pawl il-Bahar. It was a residential area and it has quite of hustle bustle around but it is very far from the Malta airport. Please note that Malta is a very small country and sleeps quite early, hence it would be tricky to find any dinning places open after 10.00 PM. We directly went to a supermarket and to a burger joint and grabbed some burgers and fries.

Ø  Day1 à Next day morning, first thing to do is to get a day bus pass. You can opt from multiple rage of bus pass available with an option to top-up as well. We bought Tallinja card which has 12 single day journeys free for 15 euro. Malta has a very effective bus system which you should definitely use to travel to all the places across the country. Once we sorted our travel for the day, we went to Malta National Aquarium. The sea at the backdrop of the Aquarium was giving a perfect view to the place. The Aquarium is full of very rare and endangered species. So, if you have kids this would be a perfect place to start your trip, however youngsters who would like to be more adventurous, may give it a miss.

Note: No flashlights are allowed inside the aquarium, so your DSLR might not work here as it’s quite dark inside the aquarium.

                                                  Jelly Fish

                              Unique underwater experience

Map: Malta National Aquarium

After that, we took a long walk back to the bus stop next to our Airbnb. Although the walk was little long but it was worth every bit of it as we get to see local shops of Malta and beautiful city by walking side by side to the ocean.

                                                          A walk to remember

Then we took a bus to Mellieha Bay (also known as Għadira Bay) which is the longest and most popular sandy beach in the Maltese Islands which boast of pretty clean water; but we were at the not so beach friendly side of the beach with rocky terrain. But it’s a good place for fishing. Malta boast of many fishing hotspots across the country and you could also spend some quality time if interested. Since we were out of the fishing gears, we gave swimming in this beach a miss and headed towards the Noah’s ark. It is a big landscape with main attraction as dog sanctuary, unique sculpture and is good for archaeology enthusiasts.

                                                                    Mellieha Bay

Map: Mellieha Bay

From the Noah’s ark, we went towards the main attraction of Malta, Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon provides one of the most spectacular sights of the Maltese islands. It’s quite a shallow bay in between two islands with crystal clear azure water and is a great place for snorkelling and scuba diving and; has been hot spot for many Hollywood blockbuster movies.

To reach blue lagoon, we reached to Cirkewwa Ferry Terminal from where you can take ferry after every 20-30 mins depending on the season. There are various ferry companies which you can hire and travel around Comino and Gozzo islands. You can either travel in a ferry, or take a boat or even a seaplane. The to and fro bill of a ferry is around 10-12 Euro, again depending on the season. Also, the fare differs if you want to cover Blue Lagoon and Gozzo as well. The price is little higher if you want trip to both the islands. Please make sure you don’t miss the last return ferry either from Blue lagoon or Gozzo.

                         Blue Lagoon: You can see the difference in the colour of water

We dived in the water and it was freezing cold in February end, but it was worth every bit as this was indeed the best beach I’ve dived into. Due to the shallow water you can go little deep as well while swimming. The water is so clear here that if you take a look at satellite image of this place, you can see the sparkling light blue water around Blue lagoon. Only thing to beware of during swimming is the Jelly fish, they are in abundance and they can sting real badly. One drawback this place has is the changing room. There is only one changing room for the tourists and that too was in very bad condition.

Map: Blue Lagoon

From blue lagoon, we went straight to see the ancient capital of Malta- Mdina. Mdina is one of Europe's earliest and finest examples of an ancient walled city and extraordinary in its mix of medieval and baroque architecture. With only 300 families residing in this old city of Malta, it has become a ghost town now and only tourists are keeping it alive. Due to its peaceful and quiet narrow lanes, it has become pinnacle for any historic movie setup (ex. Gladiator, Troy, Game of Thrones etc). It also has many ancient architectures like St. Paul’s Cathedral and very famous Malta’s Knights museum (the history of how Malta was invaded by Arabs and how the Knights of Malta had took the city back is a tale of its own league). We were little late to the place as the museum was already closed. After moving around the town, we went ahead to dine at one of the restaurant inside the city - Fontanella Tea Garden. The food was delicious, especially the Bailey’s cheesecake, the staff was very courteous and the place had without a doubt the best city view in the night.

                              The streets of Mdina, Quiet and Peaceful

                                             St. Paul’s Cathedral

                                                                Bailey’s Cheesecake

                                                      Bird view of Malta at Night

Map: Mdina City

We took the bus around midnight (yes, very rare in any of the European cities) towards our Airbnb and called it a night.

Ø  Day 2 à Next morning, first thing we did is to top up our bus pass and started towards Valetta, the capital of Malta. It was uniquely built with state of the art architecture and the best way to explore Valetta is on foot. Valetta is an UNESCO world heritage site and boast of many architectural gems like St. John’s Co Cathedral, Upper barrakha garden, Triton fountain, Saluting battery as well as take the lift down the bastions to sea level. It’s a good place to get some souvenir from Malta or do some shopping if you want to.

After reaching Valetta, we first saw the Triton fountain situated in the middle of a very big open well constructed space and looks majestic with detailed statues and clear sky. It reminded me of ‘Fontaines de la Concorde’ fountain in Paris, France.

                                                                       Triton Fountain

Once you move further, we reached to Upper Barrakha Garden near Castille Place which is little steep for a walk. The garden is beautifully maintained and possesses unsurpassed views across the magnificent Grand Harbour over to the Three Cities and top view of the Saluting Battery. If you are in Valetta around noon, make sure you don’t miss this opportunity as shots will be fired from Canon’s at noon. You can watch it from the top or pay small donation 2 Euros and go inside as well. The garden is a spot to relax and have direct access to the lift to the shores below where you can take a boat ride or ferry across the bay to the three cities.

                                           View from the edge of Upper Barrakha Garden

                                                                 Saluting Battery

                                     The lift to the harbour from Upper Barrakha Garden

                                                                          Harbour

Map: Valetta City

Then we roamed around in the beautiful city of Valetta raving about the marvellous Baroque architectures and did some shopping as well.

We then went towards the bus stop of Valetta from where we took the bus for Airport and reached there in around 40-45 mins on course towards our next destination - Rome.

Also Read: Paris- City of Love

                 BALI – A Trip to Heaven    

                 Interlaken – Crown Jewel of Switzerland
                 ROME – The Eternal City
                 Vatican - The Holy City
                 Venice – The Floating City