See Venice Before it sinks

Yeah! This is what my wife said when we had plans of visiting Venice.


We had planned for Rome for April and we were thinking of celebrating our 1st Wedding Anniversary in a special place where we could do nothing but just take rest. So, Venice it was decided. In short, in this blog, you will not read the rush of moving around to see places. It was nothing but jus taking rest in Venice.


We'd booked via Ryanair to Treviso Airport


It was another long weekend in Belgium when we planned for Venice. This time our plan was to stay in Venice for a couple of days and then back to Brussels to spend couple of days, so in that way we wont be stressed up. Paris, Frankfurt, Switzerland or Rome for that matter was very very hectic. Travel over the weekend and back to work with a night's rest or not even that.


Yeah! Given any city in the world, 1 or 2 days is not sufficient to finish sightseeing. But my wife and I have this rare record of rushing through things and we manage to cover atleast 60-70% of the city which we feel is good enough.


So Venice it was. We landed around 2100 hours and took the bus to reach the Venice Main Vaporetto Piazzale Roma. This is the gateway for visitors to enter Venice. From here, you are on Boats. ACTV is the transport operator in Venice with which you could buy a day pass to use their service.


We'd booked a room at a hotel in Lido island which is like 30 mins from P.le Roma by boat 51.


As I have mentioned in my Rome Blogs, my wife and I feel home when in Italy. The humidity was quite high that its sea side and Venice is mostly of buildings which are so close to each other with minimum trees. Only one part of the island where it hosts the University, the campus is very very green taking you into a totally different environment.


We were quite happy when we landed in Lido 'coz Lido is far more greener compared to Venice. Lido also has a free beach for all beach lovers.


Been in Europe for a yr or more now, we've got our expectations set that there will be very sparse or NIL population on streets during nights and weekends. But Rome and Venice were different. We even found restraurants open at midnight serving pizzas, pastas and gnoccis.


Next day, we set out sightseeing. I was prepared for the heat and thus dressed in a sleveless t-shirt and Bermuda.


We had this Cathedral to visit next to the palace. But the guard there did not like my dress and was denied entry. Then we decied no Churches or Cathedrals.


Main Spots of interest for us was the Rialto Bridge, San Polo, San Maria and honestly nothing else. Though Kusuma had made a note of some important places, we were very very reluctant to check out as we did not want to run around even here.


The 1st day as usual, very excited about being in Venice. we roamed around literally all the streets of Venice. We lost our way many many times. Finally we would end up at a Vaporetto and take a boat to get to a place we know. Again set out in the opposite direction. Roam around the streets, check the masks at different places, the ferrari shops etc.


We wanted to have an Indian lunch/dinner. We found Ganesh restaurant as usual on Kusuma's mobile. Looked out for it on GPS and when we finally got there, the restaurant was closed after business. So, decided we will come next day for lunch.


Pizzas and Pastas in wishlist. We satisfied our hunger in all Italian food and this time it was not even one Indian meal in the whole of the tour coz when we got to Ganesh restaurant the next day, it was their weekly holiday.


The 2nd day, we just wanted to lay lazy but not in the hotel. So, get to Rialto Bridge, get to parks, lay lazily there sitting or sleeping and just enjoy the summer and the environment there.
So, being in Venice was almost a dream come through. We were proper Europeans lazing around the city and we had all the time in the world for everything in Venice in nothing but just 2 days. Yes, we did not visit any of those so called "must visit" places in Venice, yet we had a very nice time and a better way to remember and savor our 1st wedding anniversary.

Ping me for the photos of Venice, coz my wife does not make it a public album on Picasa anymore :)

Cost:
Flight per person: You will envy the price. So you better check it out on Ryanair
2 nights Hotel for 2 people: 160€ (http://www.hotels.com/)
Food: As the saying goes, "Be a Roman when in Rome", eat Italian :)

Wish you all the best to "See Venice before it sinks"

Roman Colosseum

As promised, a separate blog for the Colosseum respecting its architecture and the importance attached with it.

Now, what is this Colosseum? This is a very very ancient amphitheatre which the Roman King Vespasian ad built to show how powerful a king he is.

Although, it was not completed when he was alive, his son completed it and let open the Colosseum for a 100 day game show.

Now, what were these games? Long back then in Rome, Gladiators fighting between themselves or with animals was very famous. You cannot imagine that it used to be a do or die fight and that the upper crust of the society used these games for their entertainment.

The king wanted to popularize these kind of games and hence, built this amphitheatre where the games can be hosted and the public can watch it.

This structure is really magnificent. You should watch the videos on youtube to understand how this was build. Back then, all the Romans knew were to build “Archs”. They used this technique to build many many magnificent structures. Its like you keep joining an arch and there, you build a tower, you build a Arena (Colosseum) and what not?

You can control the weight the arch can withstand in many ways. An extensive article about it is here.

You can imagine that the division in the society was very much existed that time. The arena audience area was divided by classes. For the Kingly class, the next, the next, the next and so on.

The Colosseum later lost its significance after a lot of series of fires and earthquakes e wodden upper levels and the structure that was built to protect the spectators from fire. A lot of rules who took over took some steps to rebuild parts of which was burnt/damaged. Later during the Medieval and Modern era, it was used as a quarry to supply raw materials like brick, marbles etc to the other buildings that were being built. However, in the later part of the Modern Era, the Vatican endorsed it as a sacred site where Christians were Martyred. The Colosseum is today one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, receiving millions of visitors annually.

The cross sections that have been taken to analyse the construction methods and the materials used for it and so on, is very interesting when you take the audio guide along with the tickets at the counter.

One thing that I learn during my European tour to several cities/countries, you can do a lot of good to yourself and the place you are visiting by briefly just reading about the place before you venture on it.

Rome - Day 2

So, up in the morning again by 6, all of us took turns to get ready and we were all set to leave to the Vatican for the Pope’s address. Meanwhile, had some breakfast and today, the breakfast was infact well delivered and it tasted better. Maybe we were in awe of the presentation of it compared to the previous morning.

The Hotel guy, presented each of us with Home Made Red Wine. He wished us for Easter and gave us each a bottle. We had travelled without any checked in Baggage as we prefer light luggage. So, we were in no way able to carry it back to Brussels. So, we returned it to him citing our difficulty. But he was not the one to leave us like that. He was adamant that we were in Rome for Easter and we should compulsorily taste the Rome’s famous Home made Wine. Upon so much of compulsion, we all decided to taste it and it was really good!!

Off out of the Hotel and towards the Metro. In no time we were there at the Other end. Getting to Vatican was kind of thrilling. The crowd was huuuuuuuuuge. The streets leading to the Vatican from the metro was full of people and literally, the vehicles were deviated to allow the crowd to get to Vatican.

Seeing the huge queue to get inside, we were for a min skeptical if to get in or witness it from the street side. Walking just around the area, we observed that the queue was to get to the closer mass area and there was one more entrance to get to kind of an arena which is a little far but none the less inside the Vatican. We got in and witnessed the Pope’s address and then decided to return so that we could go to Collosseum during the day and maybe even get inside the Colossum arena.

On the way back, we did some shopping in the Vatican market for some souvenirs. Vinod, Arun and I started to feel hungrier by now. We decided to have lunch near the Vatican and started hunting for a proper Italian Restaurant. Eventually, we did find one which we thought was “authentic” by the looks and we got in.

We had amazing Italian Food from Gnocchi to Pasta to Spaghetti and some authentic Italian style Roasted Vegetables and how can we forget to have the Italian Desserts and Italian Cakes?

It was quite a heavy lunch and we then we got to the Colosseum and around that area. Got into the Arena. I will respect the Colosseum architecture and promise to blog separately about it in a couple of days.

Then off, we were to the Termini station and it was jus 4 PM. Our flight back was scheduled by 8 in the night and we decided to have some Indian Food as well again before catching the train back to the Airport.

This was a mistake we did. We were still savouring the taste at Guru and the Authentic Italian food and gave in for the temptation for Indian food. We went around the Termini station and found an OK OKish Indian restaurant. I would not wanna give out the name here, but the food was horrible. None of us four liked the food. The kulcha, curries and the biryani were all horribly prepared.

After food, returned to the hotel to take the train back to the airport. The fun was just about to begin again before we could call it the end for Rome.
We were feeling home (India) as I mentioned earlier. So, we wanted to experience even the driving on the streets or Rome. Well renting a car to drive just from Termini to Airport is obviously heights of foolishness. We decided to take a taxi instead.

We did not tell the taxi driver anything, but he gave a ride as good as a taxi driver can give us in India amidst the traffic with his “skilful” driving.

The train usually takes 40 mins from Airport to Termini or back each way. But this taxi guy, took us to the airport all in all jus 30 mins. The driving was terrific. He seemed to have no sense of traffic rules and we loved someone driving a car in Europe for the first ever time.

Yeah! At the airport, waiting gets fun and more fun if you have Ferrari store to hang out and a Rome Cappuccino in your hand. This is the luxury of being in Italy which you cannot happen to experience anywhere. I got myself a small Ferrari 430 model.

Then, we got to the flight and back to Brussels and home by midnight 0000 hrs.

A very very eventful Rome/Pisa trip was very satisfying.

Flight: Brussels Airlines
Italian Train: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/ (click English at the top for English version)
Cost Per head: 400 Euros (Including food but not shopping)

Rome - Day 1

So far so long. Again the Rome experience delayed. Not to mention, the work is getting hectic coz the production release is nearing.

It was jus 2 weeks before that we had been on a Swiss trip and now, we were getting ready for the Rome trip. As usual tripadvisor is the best source for any planning. Kusuma in her free time investigated more about Rome to make our trip more fruitful. She proposed that we could either travel to Venice/Pisa on Saturday so that we also get to see one more city in Italy.

So, the itinerary was finalized. Our flight to Rome was on Friday evening from Brussels via Brussels Airlines this time. We reached Rome at around 10:40 PM and by the time we walked to the train station at the airport, it took some time. There was a huge queue in front of the Ticket Vending Machines and we missed the 11:00 PM train. Managed to get tickets before the next train at 11:36 PM.

The funniest thing that happened when we were in the queue to get the tickets from the Vending machine. The Vending Machine (atleast when I selected English) clearly mentioned that it does not accept CASH. Either Credit/Debit card. But there was this group of people who were trying to force the Vending machine to accept Euros.

Later, when we got the tickets using our card; they were so surprised and they looked at us like we’d just discovered something no one there knew!! How could people be so dumb? The vending Machines are very very user friendly. Again, ladies and gentleman; I selected ENGLISH. I know not of other languages messages on the Vending Machine. I understand only ONE international Language and that’s ENGLISH.

Given that it was Easter that weekend, Rome was packed to its limit; hence we’d booked a room for 4 people near termini. I repeat. It was ‘a room for four’. Yes, we wanted to stay near termini as it has great accessibility when you are entering Rome as a visitor and that too jus for 2 days/2 nights.

It was a very short sleep. Next day, we had to wake up at 4 AM to get ready to leave for Pisa. The Hotel guy had managed to give us some “breakfast” last night when we asked him. We just managed to gulp the over concentrated Orange Juice and a Croissant and leave for the station. The station was jus a couple of mins walk from the Hotel. Oh yes!! The name of the Hotel was Cherubini.

Kusuma and I left 15 mins (by 5:45AM) early to get to the vending machine to buy the tickets to Pisa for the 6:09 (not very sure about the minute) AM train. Arun and Vinod made it in no time and meanwhile, I was in another queue to buy cappuccino for us. We managed to get into the train jus a couple of before the scheduled departure. The cappuccino I must admit was truly amazing.

Ah! I had forgotten to tell you one important thing. By now, we were “Feeling Home at Rome”. Why? Rome is dirtier than India. Atleast the surroundings of the Termini Station. The trains here make almost the same sound “Tuk Tuk.. Tuk Tuk” as their counterpart back in India. The people more importantly are like India very Warm, Friendly and yes, they do understand and speak good English.

We met Vikram in the train. Who is he?? As usual, we 4 (Vinod, Arun, Kusuma and I) talk a lot doesn’t matter where we are. He heard us talking in Kannada and he came searching from the other end of the coach. He’s a Banglorean who works in Copenhagen and he alone knows how much he was yearning to talk to people in Kannada. We had a nice time talking and talking and talking and taking some pictures ofcourse. We never realized we were in the train for 4 hours.

We were on the streets of Pisa walking towards One of the many attractions in the City(err.. should I say World); The Leaning Tower of Pisa. By now, we were quite hungry and hit an Italian restaurant on the way. All we ate was just Pizza. Sluuurrpp.. It was very very delicious. My mouth starts watering just remembering the Pizza taste. It was full of cheese and the sauce was not much, the crust was very thin; as thin as that of our tandoori roti.

We got to the Tower after a heavy lunch. Shot some pics and roamed around; bought some souvenirs. Ate ice cream. Slept on the grass bed in front of the Tower. We were in Sun after a very long Winter. It was just amazing.

The walk back to the station was tiring as the mercury was at 27 degrees. It was worth the long train journey back to Rome. All of us dozed off to sleep after some coke and were glad to realize when we woke up that we all had a sound sleep and our pizzas had digested making way for another long walk in Rome and then planned an Indian Dinner at Guru.

Once back in Rome, we left our bags at the hotel and then walked all the way to the Colosseum. On the way, witnessed a ceremony at the Mother Mary church a little distance from the hotel. We were there at the colosseum finally after a long search and the shutterbug in me started capturing this Giant Arena in various angles.

All people said to me usually was “Have your passports handy while not in your native country”. When we were at the Colosseum, we realized why. The crowd was sparse and unknowingly we had entered the Colosseum from behind. We never had realized that there were Police who were also watching people. We were wondering why people were not in sight in this part and thinking that it might be well late and tourists were all gone. But after some time, a couple of Police officers walked up to us and started questioning. They demanded our Passports. Atleast I was frightened when he asked me to show my wallets and stuff. Known and heard of “Mugging” while in the US, I got apprehensive. Later once he was fine with our identification, he said that lot of drug-trafficking happen in Rome and he let go us off. We were walking towards the exit and then we realized that the whole crowd was at the front of the monument and that we had entered it from behind.

Then we walked all the way till Piaza Venezia, then to the Trevi Fountain. We had decided that we would have an Indian dinner and Kusuma had researched and decided that we would dine at “IL Guru”. It was an amaaaaaazing dinner. The spice and taste was just superb.

So, Rome, it was night and we took a walk back to the hotel as it was just a couple of kilometres. The walk back in the night was good with the Easter setting for the next morning.