Romantic Venezia!

Venezia - another type of island living. We have been to islands, we have to lakes, we have been to rivers, but Venezia is another world. It's a conglomerate of 117 islands separated by canals and connected by bridges. All of the canals are very narrow with the exception of the Grand Canal that is wide and its Venezia's main street, about 2 miles long and 150' wide and about 15' deep. Its course is shaped like an S as it goes into the open ocean on both ends and the Guidecca canal (Map reads Venezia IT Pola, Venezia IT Rabac). This is the main canal used for the major transportation; water taxies, also named vaporettos, which are like buses with their stops, large cargo boats, private boats, etc., cross the canal regularly. The public vaporettos have several routes like in a bus or train system with different stops and destinations. Each ride one way is €7 and its good for an hour, but its hard to re-use as the frequency is not there to hop into another one, at least it wasn't during the winter season. I find this fare extremely expensive compared to all train fares to longer destinations at similar prize. The ride may last 15 minutes at the most depending on the desired stop. They don't ride very fast. We walked the island from south to northwest to go to the train station in about 20 minutes, and west to east from the south part to the other end in this maze island, guessing if we're going in the right direction, as the signs are very poor and it took us about 20 minutes. So walking is doable considering that there are many little bridges to cross which usually are elevated and we either had to go up and down steps or walked the ramps provided to ease the carting of luggage or the shopping bags used in Europe, which are like a big backpack on wheels. The question is...are we walking in the right direction? At the end it doesn't matter when there are no schedules...a new luxury in my view!

We arrived by train. The ride took about 2-1/2 hours from Florence on the fast train. We love the European rail system. We were able to take so many day trips at very reasonable prices on an average €6 one way on these super comfortable trains. After we arrived, from the ferrovia we needed to take vaporetto 4.1 to stop at Sacca Fisola which would take us to Guidecca where our apartment was located. On the map above, its the second island on the left separated by canals on both sides.

Our apartment building used to be a flour mill that employed more than 1500 people and it had a section to make pasta. The owner was a Swiss entrepreneur from a noble family named Giovanni Stucky who commissioned the construction of the building adhering to the island building codes at the end of the 1800s and he was in business until the irreversible closure in the mid of the 1900's due to a troubled labor dispute. Stucky took advantage of the Venetian Canal for fast water transport of grain. The building was an unusual building in size compared to the other buildings in the island. Towards the end of the 1900s the Hilton acquired the property and began renovations to have a hotel with 379 rooms, conference rooms for almost 200 people, pool, restaurants, etc. plus a residential apartment section. Some of the apartments are individually owned and most of them have water views. We were lucky to find this apartment through HomeAway and at very reasonable price. The building has a reception with a security guard plus security cameras all around. The Hilton provided free transportation from Guidecca Island to the main island every 30 minutes with two stops, one at Zatera which is practically across the canal and the second stop at San Marco. One amazing thing, that it's hard to believe is that the vaporettos take a two hour lunch from 12-2, which is insane. We may get stuck in Guidecca if we missed the noon ride before their lunch. I don't understand why Italians complain about their economy, but they only work 35 hours a week, take 2 hours lunch and many breaks, and their focus is not the customer. If we want to have dinner at 5 or 6pm, good luck...all restaurants were closed since 4pm and the choices were very limited and this is all over Italy, France, Spain and Portugal from experience. Closing the business on time is more important than serving the waiting customer, and we experienced it. While we were there was a conference held at the Hilton where many business people from all over the world were attending.  Nice venue for a business conference! We saw them rushing to get in the vaporetto at noon too.

Here is a picture of our building. It is the tall building with the green tower roof. It's separated by canals on both sides. The yellow boat is the Hilton vaporetto.

Below are the views from our apartment, from the bedroom, and from the kitchen/dining area.

              

Here are some pictures of the apartment:

                       

It could be a premium apartment, it's a nice size with real,wood floors, but it needs a little TLC.

We walked the north part of the Guidecca island to see what was there. It is mostly residential, a few restaurants, a bakery, a supermarket, a large boat yard, a couple of churches and a harbor on the south side to the open sea. It has veral canals and bridges as well. 

Venezia is a picture no matter where you go, the bridges, the canals, the colorful homes, the gondoliers, a lot of gelaterias, coffee shops, trattorias, bars and restaurants. I guess if you go once, you may not want to come back, but despite of their tourism and high prices, it's worth visiting for its uniqueness and beauty.

On the top left of the following pictures we see a view of the boat decks, below the entrance to the Grand Canal. I took these two pictures from the Campanile where you have a 360 degree view of the town. To the right is Piazza San Marco and below gondolas in front of San Marco Square.

                      

We didn't ride the gondola, first too cold, second too expensive, but got close to one for this picture.

                         

               

    

Ed at Piazza San Marco in from of the church. He arrived!!! We sure had beautiful weather every day during our five days here.

                             

The San Marco Cathedral is another magnificent church, just like any other Duomo in Italy. Full of art inside and outside. The entry is free.

Looking at San Marco Cathedral from the side.

Amazing....

                

The floors are more art work....

             

                           

We ate gelato almost every day in Venezia, we always ordered the two scoup cone for €3. It was more than enough. We learned how to select the best gelato; first look for the number of flavors offered, and see if the gelato was presented on big mounts or flat on the freezer window. Guess what? The big mounts are not the best because most likely is was more than a day old. Too many flavors, also more than a day old, nobody has the capacity to make so many flavors daily. Is pistachio offered? Is it green or beige? Another guess....beige is the correct color. If it's green it has some colorant, so avoid it. Who would have thought? Live and learn. The gelaterias with the big mound of gelato were the most expensives and the busiest. The prices were €4, €6, €8 and €10.  I guess presentation works when it comes to marketing. Again, the same experience in other cities we visited.  It was fun walking the streets eating gelato and looking at people.

No, no....

       

                       

San Marco Square is where all the artists gathered to offer their paintings, or do your caricature. They sure do beautiful work, some watercolor, some pencil b&w, some on canvas. We loved to walk this stretch and browse, we did it everyday during our stay. Better during the week days as the weekend was very crowded even in low season.

                     

The masks are considered a signature of Venezia's Carnevale and they are patterned after standard characters of the theater known as commedia dell'arte such as Harlequin, Columbina, Pulcinella and others. The translation of Carnevale is "goodbye to meat" during lent. Many shops make their own masks, but they have not escaped from the "made in China" trend seeing all over the world. This is a big celebration here and many people just come for the long week event which we heard is spectacular.

So many beautiful sites, this one below is one another one of my favorites just off the San Marco square.

Who doesn't enjoy this view? Taken from the Campanile.

We wandered everywhere and didn't care if we got lost in the maze. In one of our walks we ended up in a residential area and someone was moving....here is the moving van... sorry...moving boat!

I still wonder if living on the island residents are more conscious of their belongings and live with the essentials. I imagine moving will be very hard here. 

The Rialto bridge is the main bridge crossing the grand canal where all the action is. The views are unbelievable, morning, day or evening.

Gorgeous evening walking the town...

Talking to the Brits at Rialto bridge while we were sitting on one the pier enjoying the afternoon...

The famous selfie stick was for sale everywhere....no more asking a stranger to take your picture...she is taking her own...

Another view from the Rialto bridge...

This is by the train station...

Many say Venezia is not worth it. I disagree. It may be a little expensive, but like in all cities, you can find the prices you can afford or you want to spend. You find shops for tourists souvenirs like in any other town in the world. But you also find fancy shops like Gucci, Prada and more. In addition there are kiosks at the square and by the many piazzas selling scarfs, hats, mask, etc., starting at €5. The most expensive thing was the transportation but we walked, so it wasn't an expense for us. We only paid when we arrived and when we left. Not bad. We had a great time; 5 days of relaxing, ocean views, water living with boats and ferrys, and people watching, in a very romantic place.

The Florian cafe below is the oldest establishment in this island, it has been there since 1720, it has beautiful wood and black leather furniture, old paintings and fancy decorations. It's a plush elegant place. An expresso costs €6.50 and a capuchino €12. 

                            

Like most restaurants in Europe, Florian cafe has tables outdoors, the canapés (hard to see on this picture) hanging from the hallway columns become the setting for the musicians that entertain during lunch and dinner with classical music. 

Venezia is also big on opera and classical music. There is a Music Hall that sits 70 people only, the performers wear fancy customs from the era of the music, the attendees wear beautiful formal dresses, furs coats, fancy hats and elegant shoes and purses. I think many people travel for the event. The promoters on the street wear those customs too. 

Making it to Venezia at least once in a lifetime have created great memories for us!! Ciao Venezia!!! We will always remember our time here!!!