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