The travels of Tim and Megan: Venice, Italy

Venice

Saturday

On Saturday 18 July we left London (very early) and headed to Venice for the start of a 10-day trip around Italy. Venice is an amazing and unique city. It lies just off the north-eastern coast of Italy in the centre of a shallow lagoon, sheltered from the open sea by a chain of sand banks. The historic centre of Venice is made up of more than 100 islands, criss-crossed by canals and connected by around 350 bridges. It sounds large, but the whole area (not counting offshore islands) covers only seven square kilometres, making it easy to walk around. Only a small part of the city stands on solid ground, the rest is built on billions of wooden piles driven into the floor of the lagoon.

The population of Venice is around 270,000, although it has declined in recent years as many Venetians, particularly the young, were forced out due to spiralling property prices, high rents, difficulties finding jobs and the city's crippling cost of maintaining old buildings. The economic life of the historic city centre is largely dependent on tourism, with 14 million visitors a year.

We took a bus from the airport in Treviso to the Piazzale Roma, the last stop for anything on wheels in Venice. From there we took a waterbus down the Grand Canal - the main waterway through Venice - to the Salute stop, right outside the Santa Maria della Salute Church. From there our hotel was just a short walk away, in the heart of the Dorsoduro region of Venice. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and set off to explore the floating city. It was a little grey and overcast for a few hours on Saturday, but still very warm. That was to be the worst of the weather we would experience in Italy, as the next nine days were nothing but stunning blue sky, sunshine and intense heat.

We found a nice little pizza shack in a narrow alley and grabbed a pizza to share - very nice. We sat on a small bridge over one of the tiny canals to eat it and watched a hyperactive but very nimble dog run back and forth along the edge of a boat, trying to catch water in its mouth that its owner was scooping out of the boat and tossing into the canal. Hours of fun. After lunch we wandered across the Accademia bridge to the centre of Venice and got some gelato - first of many - which was really good. The Accademia bridge crosses the Grand Canal and provides a great view down the canal towards the Santa Maria della Salute church.

We made our way to the Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), the heart of Venice. The piazza has long been the central landmark and gathering place of Venice. It originated in the 9th century as a small area in front of St Mark's Basilica and was expanded to its present size in 1177. While undoubtedly a vibrant and exciting spot thanks to the throngs of tourists, musicians, artists and hundreds of pigeons, we felt that the square itself was a little dull and dreary.

However, the Basilica di San Marco (St Mark's Basilica), situated at one end of the square, is rather more impressive, from the outside at least. Saint Mark's is the cathedral of Venice and the best known example of Byzantine architecture in the city. The first church on this site was built in 832 and was rebuilt twice, in 978 and 1063. The most recent re-build formed the basis of the present basilica. The basilica is very different to most of Italy's churches in that it has a very middle-eastern look to it. Apparently it was loosely modelled on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was embellished and enriched over the centuries with loot from the East and its appearance has provoked much debate amongst Italians.

We sat in the square for a while before wandering through the labyrinth of tiny streets in the San Marco region. The streets surrounding the square are really fun, containing the best selection of shops, restaurants and bars. Most of the shops were selling beautifully decorated face masks as worn during the Carnevale festival held in Venice February/March each year.

We found our way to the Rialto Bridge, probably the most famous bridge in Venice. Sure enough, it was absolutely packed with tourists, but still well worth a visit. The Rialto Bridge, named after the Rialto market on the east side of the bridge, is one of four bridges spanning the Grand Canal and it is also the oldest. It was originally constructed in 1181 and has been rebuilt several times since. The present stone bridge was completed in 1591. The bridge is almost 23 metres wide, with two walkways across the canal and a row of shops in between.

One of the best things about Venice is that you can just wander and not worry about where you are or which direction you are heading in. We had a map but found that we did not use it much - instead we just walked and walked, enjoying the beautiful old buildings and the gondolas in the canals as we went. In the late afternoon the cloud cleared away and it was quite hot and sunny for the rest of the day. We sat in the sun by the waterfront just down from the Piazza San Marco and had a Coke while we watched the tourists buzz about us. We looked in to getting a gondola ride down the canals, but at €100 for 30 minutes, we lost interest pretty fast. It had been a very early start and we were rather tired, so we retreated to our hotel for a rest.

While Megan had a quick nap Tim explored the Dorsudoro region around our hotel. The Santa Maria della Salute church was still open, so Tim had a quick wander through. It was a little unusual in that it was completely round and had several small alters around the outside edges and a massive empty space in the centre. There was a little cafe/bar not far from our hotel and Tim noticed that there was a band setting up outside the bar, so we returned there later in the evening to check it out.

By chance we had arrived in Venice on the day of the Festa del Redentore, an annual festival of thanksgiving for the end of the plague in 1576. It is held on the third weekend in July. Thousands of Venetians take to the water on boats, rafts and ferries to generally eat, drink and be merry. The climax is an amazing fireworks display at midnight over the lagoon. We had a few drinks and some dinner at the bar near our hotel and watched the band for a while. They were called Red Moonshine and looked like a rather nerdy collection of high school kids, but they were actually pretty good. As it got nearer to midnight, we followed the crowds down to the waterfront, which was absolutely packed (people had been sitting guarding spots since about 5pm, some even had big picnics!). The fireworks were fantastic, the best we had ever seen, and they went on non-stop for over half an hour. It was a brilliant end to a day in Venice.

Sunday

We started fairly slowly on Sunday morning after a big day Saturday. We got some pastries for breakfast on our way to catch a waterbus out to the island of Murano. Murano is just north of Venice and it took us about 10-15 minutes to get there. Murano was originally a fishing port and its inhabitants also produced salt there. In 1291, all of the glass workers of Venice were forced to move out to the island of Murano due to the risk of fires. The following century exports began and the island became famous initially for glass beads and mirrors. Today, glass making is the island's main industry.

We spent a couple of hours exploring Murano, not only the glassware shops, but also the interesting sculptures and artwork scattered about the island. Megan bought a really cool necklace in one of the glass shops. We were impressed with the quality of the glassware and the beautiful bright colours they had managed to mix in the glass. It was really hot on Sunday, so we had to keep finding shade and bottles of water everywhere we went. A short waterbus ride later, we were back in Venice and we grabbed some lunch at a cafe on the waterfront. The spaghetti carbonara was delicious!

After lunch we walked back to the Piazza San Marco, through a different region of Venice. It was very quiet, not many shops open and not many people around, but as we got closer to the piazza things got busier. We joined the line to go in to St Mark's Basilica, which turned out to be a very fast line. Of course there were ridiculous rules in place, such that the smallest of backpacks had to be checked in at the baggage office, which was conveniently situated two blocks away, while women's monstrous handbags almost twice the size of your regular backpack were allowed in. We became very familiar with ridiculous rules serving no obvious purpose during our visit to Italy and with the officious and pedantic enforcers of such rules. Another annoying feature of the basilica was that, while it was free to enter the church (as it is a sacred place and you cannot charge people to enter the House of God etc and so on), it was €2 each to go up to the alter to see the church's top attraction, it was €3 each to go down to the Treasury beneath the church and it was €4 each to climb the stairs to the rooftop terrace above the church to look down on the piazza. Ridiculous.

We declined to do any of these things and we were generally disappointed with the interior of the church. It was very dark inside and the church was very plain - it generally lacked the artwork, sculptures, stained-glass windows etc that many of the other famous churches of Europe have.

The piazza was once again very busy and lively. Close to the piazza is the Bridge of Sighs. The Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed bridge made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was built in 1602. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. The buildings either side of the Bridge of Sighs were covered with scaffolding when we were there, which meant that the view of the bridge was not quite as good as it might have been, but from what we could see it looked very pretty.

In the evening we had a drink by the waterfront along from the piazza and then dinner at a restaurant tucked away in a little square not far from there. On our walk home after dinner, we passed through the piazza, which was all lit up and we stopped to listen to a small orchestra play. It was a lovely still evening, perfect for walking alongside the canals.

Venice is a very expensive city and we found that some of the people we dealt with - hotel staff, restaurant staff, shop assistants - we unhelpful and rude. We experienced this from time to time throughout Italy, but is especially prevalent in Venice. However, overall we really enjoyed our time in Venice. It is a beautiful and completely unique city with a lot of charm and character.