Menace in Venice.

Any little street or alleyway in Venice is on the map. No matter how wide or how narrow...or how filled with water, it's on the map. The picture above, for instance, is one of the many little streets that you may miss if you keep thinking under North American terms: streets have to be big enough for cars to drive on them. But not in Venice!

We've also been brought up to think that these timy little alleyways are unsafe to go down...but in Venice, it's just any other way to get from A to B. In Venice, we felt so safe walking around at night that we didn't think twice about going down there without any lights. The only problem was finding where we were on the map with the lack of light.

We took the train from Florence to Venice, and were amazed at how all of a sudden, there was so much water! On either side of the train tracks was water. There was a parking lot on the mainland, as Venice is a no-car zone.....which leads us back again to how safe Venice is and we've come full circle. End of blog post. No, just kidding.

You may be wondering, well then how do people get around?? Well they walk, of course! Venice really isn't that big, you just have to learn the fastest ways to get where you're going. It can take you 45 minutes if you go one way, or 15 minutes if you go the other way*. There are very few bridges that cross the Grand Canal and you may have to backtrack before you can actually cross over. That is why they have the Vaporetto! Vaporettos are essentially water buses. Not many locals use them, they are mainly for tourists, but they are cool nonetheless. For 6.50 Euros, you get one trip....and I thought the buses in Ottawa were expensive! However, for about 18 Euros, you have a day pass, so go for that.....and word of advice: give yourself plenty of time to get off the vaporetto (ie, by making your way through all the people to get to the exit). They can't just stop again farther up in the Canal to let you off. They have to go to the next stop and it may be on the other side of the Canal!


As Venice is a no-car zone, everything has to be on a boat. The buses, the taxis, the shuttles to the airport (unless you go to the actual bus station which is at the entrance to the city near the train station). The next picture is a shuttle to the airport.

Even the police and ambulances are on boats! And just like everywhere else, everyone has to move to the side to let them through as they have sirens and lights.

Ok, I've gotten sidetracked. We took the train from Florence to Venice. We took out our map and put on our huge packs. *It took us maybe 45 minutes to find the hotel (after a couple days it took about 15 minutes), but once we did, we were instantly happier as we could walk the narrow streets without 16 kg on each of our backs.

Up one street, over a small bridge, down another street, over another small bridge. The Grand Canal has lots of mini-canals that cut Venice up into little pieces. But going over the little bridges gives you these great views that are so typical of Venice.

The Gondoliers are waiting at almost every main intersection, but they are pricey! 80 Euros for a 45 minute ride...when you can just take a Vaporetto. Of course, it won't be as romantic, but just think of this. You save the money you would have spent on the gondola and have a nice romantic dinner!

Speaking of dinner, we had the most amazing mozarella balls!!! They were like little bites of heaven, and totally worth the rationed lactaid pills.

The morning of our only full day in Venice, I woke up with a sore throat. I knew I wasn't coming down with a cold. I knew I was coming down with Tonsilitis. I had the 'itis 3 times in 2008 so I knew really well how it felt. I started getting a fever too, but was determined not to let it ruin our trip, so I pumped myself full of Italian Echinacea and Vitamin C in the hopes that it would go away. But it only got worse...what a menace tonsilitis is. And with travelling, you are touching so many things that everyone else has touched, that the 'menace' was probably following us around since we arrived in Rome. Another word of advice? Carry around some hand-sanitizer.

So back to our only full day in Venice. We went to the market! The Rialto Bridge is one of the few bridges that cross the Grand Canal. It's so frequented that there are tons of little shops and a great market at which you can buy lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and seafood. We tried some fresh fruit, and only looked at the seafood. Strawberries are romantic, eels are not.

After our little snack, we gazed over the Rialto bridge at the continuous traffic on the water.

The Vaporettos were running, there were taxis all over the place, there were boats filled with goods, and then the gondolas were in the mix too. We were surprised that we didn't see any accidents, but people really know how to steer the boats in Venice!

After the Rialto Bridge, we took the Vaporetto to St. Mark's Square. We had learned from our experience in Rome and we dressed to see the Basilica. Once we got there, we made our way up the Campanile, and saw a bird's eye view of Venice.

Later that night, after a nap and even more Echinacea and Vitamin C, we took the Vaporetto back to St. Mark's Square. St. Mark's is the main tourist attraction in Venice and even at night it was filled with people. Each restaurant in the Square had a live band playing well known songs like Moon River and Que Sera Sera....it would have been really enjoyable had my fever not gotten worse. Totally recommended though, just leave the tonsilitis at home. On the way back, the city lights were lit up and we took a few pictures from the Vaporetto.

There are several little islands of the coast of Venice, even one which has the cemetery. The islands, from what we hear, have some great beaches and had we spent more time in the area, I would have insisted we spend a day on the beach. However, our time in Italy was over and we had to catch a plane to Prague. Perhaps we will go back some day, but as short as our time was, we got a feel of how people live there. So despite the menace, we really loved Venice (and perhaps the tonsilitis was a good thing otherwise I wouldn't have a good rhyme for Venice).

Next up? Prague!