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"