Exploring Venice

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Today’s List

• Grand Cannal
• Ponte Rialto
• San Marco Square
• Murano

Today, I’m very delightful to have a change to visit one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Venice or Venezia (Italian). From Florence to Venice will take time about 2 hours 19 minutes by Eurostar Italia (ES) train. Again, please pay attention to your destination since there are 2 stations here, Mestre and S. Lucia. Mestre is located in land while S. Lucia is located in island, where most of the tourist will head to.

Stazione Santa Lucia and Ferrovia Pier

There are no main road that enable a car to pass in Venice. So, most Venetians now travel by motorised waterbuses (vaporetti) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands. The vaporetti ticket could be purchased at S. Lucia, in Tourist Information locket.

Vaporetto pass charge:

• One way ticket : €6.50
• 12 hours pass: €14
• 24 hours pass: €16
• 48 hours pass: €26
• 72 hours pass: €31

The pass is a small paper that need to be validated to a yellow color machine located inside each piers or stops. Vaporetto works like bus, each boat will have different route number for each destination. Map and direction could be easily read in each stops.

We stay in Dolomiti Hotel, located very close to the train station so you would only need to walk. It’s not too expensive but comfortable enough to stay in.

Riding into the gondola would be everyone's dream when visiting Venice but we need to bury this dream since we need to pay for €80/50 min or equal to the price of 1 day stay in Dolomiti.

After clearing the check in procedure, we head to Ferrovia, the closest stop from hotel. Everyone pay a good respect too timing since they also have a LCD screen showing ETA for vaporetto.

The first destination is the Rialto Bridge. It is the oldest bridge across the canal and probably the most famous in the city. What makes it so special? Because of its special architectural design. If you have enough to spend, you may try to have the meals in the restaurant facing the bridge.

Next, would be Piazza San Marco. It takes longer time since lot of stops and there is not a possibility of speeding due to the traffic. (Haha.. traffic in water? Only in Venice). Piazza San Marco (often known in English as St Mark's Square), is the principal square of Venice, Italy. As the central landmark and gathering place for Venice, Piazza San Marco is extremely popular with tourists, photographers, and Venetian pigeons. The friendly pigeons would voluntary hop into your hands when you offer food to them. The Piazza is dominated by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile, which stands apart from it.

We queue quite a while when entering Basilica, take picture for a while and going down again, nothing too special inside. We could also entering the top of Bell Tower and have the panoramic view of Venice from here. Don’t be worry since you don’t have to climb to the tower, a lift will take you upstairs by paying less than €10.

Murano Glass

Next, will be Murano, a region that lies about a mile north of Venice and is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking. It’s time to shop here. Please plan your itinerary carefully since there are not too many vaporetto operates at this hour. Shops are closing early also you may want to leave before 7pm.

Taking care of your appetite matter, you may want to consider Brek Ristorante that is not too far from St. Lucia station. Price per portion is variable but still acceptable, a portion of Spagheti mix with Lasagna will cost you €6 only.

Unless you want to try your luck at Casino di Venezia, there will be not much to do in Venice at night time. For us, we just got back to hotel to take a sleep.. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Next: Exploring Paris