Just Another Blog about Venice
- Alex Fagan
- Aug 3, 2016
- 4 min read
There's already too many blogs telling you how amazing Venice is and I don't wanna repeat them so ill just give you my personal experience.
I had high expectations of Venice, windy streets, beautiful canals speckled with gondolas and gondoliers in stripey shirts singing to you as you float through the romatic city. I expected to see beautifully dressed Italian women wandering the cobbled streets and loved up couples everywhere!
Guess what? It totally was everything I ever imagined. So much so that not only did the gondoliers have stripey shirts but cute sailor hats too and although it was venice, in summer, the streets didn't feel crowded at all. Venice is a car free city so the only form of transport is by boat ie. gondola, vaparetto or water taxi. This in itself was a novelty and the streets are laid out so badly that every stroll through the city is like a game of find your way out of the maze. The whole city is one big adventure and every time you get lost (which you will) you discover a tiny bakery or a historical church or a hidden spot to sit on the canal. the romanticism is hard to ignore in the city too especially at night time when the canal is lined with candle lit, expensive italian restaurants and the city lights combine with the stars to flicker off the canal's water.
We are budget backpackers so we do romance slightly different (better.) First you hit up Bigio, a tiny hole in the wall near San Toma that serve 5-6 traditional pasta dishes for 5 euro to take away. Then pop into the local grocery store and pick up an Italian bottle of vino, find a spot along the canal's edge (preferably away from Rialto) and enjoy a true romantic evening in Venice with the stars as your candle light and the singing gondoliers as your entertainment.
At this point youre probably thinking "wow they street drink a lot" and it's pretty true, but Venice, like most touristy European cities increase prices for summer and Itlians will tell you to avoid the traps. The locals prefer to take advantage of their piazza's to enjoy a summer night with their friends, you may even get lucky and have a busker play in the piazza (as long as its not the accordion which is the worst instrument ever!!) So when in Italy, do as the Italians do!
Getting around: Since no cars are allowed in Venice city, your only form of transport is gondola, water taxi or vaparetto. The canal is lined with signs offering a Gondola ride for 80 euro but you can split this betwen 6-8 people (however many the gondola holds.) You get the full Venetian experience with a velvet seat and a handsome Italian gondolier.Otherwise you can go with the most commonly used Vaparetto. I'd suggest buying a day pass or two day pass for the vaparetto if you want to explore everything venice has to offer. A vaparetto trip is 7 euro one way so its more realistic to get a day pass for 20 euro and use it as much as you like for 24 hours. This is exactly what we did and used it for a day trip to Burano and Murano islands.
Murano island is famous for Murano glass and Burano is famous for well..all their brightly coloured houses really, they are both totally worth a trip even just for the vaparetto ride. Murano was our first stop so we wandered around the little island which looked just like venice except every single store sold murano glass, some even had little workshops in them so you could see the souvenier you are about to buy being made in front of you. Or there is the option to take a tour through one of the bigger glass blowing factories where huge glass statues and ornaments are skillfully created. After picking up your murano glass souvenier, get back on the vaparetto to Burano island. I won't lie, it felt really strange to come to an island to take photos of peoples crazy coloured houses. The poor old Nona watching her favourite tv show in the blue house is probably sick of tourists posing outside her front window, but i did it anyway. After you fill your camera roll to capacity, stroll through the sleepy town along the water away from the main street and notice that all the men here are fishermen with their boats bobbing in the canals. and the women are lace makers who sell their handcrafted pieces in the shops along the main street. Torcello is an island we didnt get to experience but another fishing village full of venetian history and the famous Devil's Bridge.
We didn't do the "fancy Venice" we stayed in a student residental part of town, we embraced budget romantic dinners and we explored until we were lost, all in just 2 days and still Venice managed to suck us in. I fell in love with everything about Venice by breaking the guidebook rules of "Must do Venice" and cannot wait to see what she's like in Winter.
Until we meet again.
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