Venice, Italy

And so for the last stop of my trip to Venice. Nearly as many canals as Birmingham apparently ;)  Certainly they are more obvious here, and a key part of the attraction of coming here.  However, because of the way the city has built up you are much more likely to see them when crossing over a bridge than you are to walk beside one, as a lot of the time buildings are at the canal's edge.  Whilst the main Grand Canal is the most famous, there are hundreds of smaller canals about meaning that going over bridges is a regular occurrence!

To get a sense of the city I first went up the tower in St Mark’s Square.  This took a bit of queuing, partly due to demand but partly as the only way up and down was one lift.  This meant that even at the top there was a big queue for the lift (indeed when I reached the top the queue went almost all the way round the viewing platform, with more people queuing than looking!)  Going up there did help to get a sense of Venice as an “island nation” – some of which were reachable by bridge and others only by boat.   

I had read somewhere that at St Mark's Cathedral had huge queues of many hours for a 10 minute visit.  Fortunately it wasn’t quite like that.  Whilst there was a queue to get in, it did move fairly quickly.  This is just as well as many people got caught out by the “no rucksacks” rule, which was strictly enforced (if you were male anyway, females seem to get away with a lot more!).  Inside it was very impressive, but a slightly odd set-up.  Whilst there was no charge to actually get into the cathedral, there were at least three separate areas that were charged for once you were inside (altar, treasury and museum/balcony).  The other limit was that the place you had to leave your rucksacks had a one hour limit on how long you could leave them there, so there wasn’t time to see everything even if you wanted to pay the money! 

With the main highlight being the cathedral itself you could easily just see that, but I decided to visit the museum whilst I was there.  From the museum you also get a view down onto the church, and also access to the balcony on the front which gives views over St Mark’s Square and the surrounding area.  There was also more to see in the museum than I expected, showing both artefacts and history of the development of the cathedral.

I had considered visiting the Palazzo Ducale next, but the only way in which you could visit it was with a combination ticket for other museums in St Mark's Square or across Venice.  It didn't look too bad in value (considering that Venice itself is more expensive than anywhere else I had been) but I didn't want to spend my whole time in St Mark's Square so I passed on it and went off walking.  I made my way through the side streets, visiting churches where I came across them.  There were two that I found with displays of old musical instruments in time which was interesting (I think they had something to do with each other and were partially there to sell tickets for concerts).  I also saw the offices of the Venice Biennale, which had a small display within it.  There are lots of other art galleries that you can visit in Venice, but the more modern ones that I went past were closed on a Tuesday (which is an unusual day to pick) so this was as close as I got!

The evening had threatened thunderstorms, but fortunately they did not come.  I therefore was able to take a water bus along the Grand Canal at sunset, which was a great thing to so.  having walked to the first stop on the route I had a seat right at the front which meant I got a good view of the buildings and bridges that we passed (actually there are relatively few bridges that cross the canal).  It certainly gave a different view of the city (and was a lot less expensive than a trip on a gondola).  I also seemed to be the expert on using the ticket machine, having to give guidance to two separate couples on them (despite using them for the first time myself).

The next morning I did some more walking around the city, seeing a market of fresh fish and fruit and more interesting side streets.

To leave Venice I had decided to take a water bus to the airport as (a) it was quicker and (b) how often do you get to take a boat to the airport???  However I had this fear at the back of my mind that the boat could be full, and they weren't that frequent (only one every half hour).  Therefore, I planned to take a slightly earlier one and, of the two stops (on different routes) that were closest to my hire (each about 10 minutes walk away) I decided to take the one in the direction of the bus station, just in case...

The fact I am writing this means that my fear came true.  Whilst the half dozen people waiting in front of me in the queue got on, I (and the people behind me) did not.  Even being a single person didn't help!  The boat crew didn't seem to care less!  I therefore had the choice of waiting half an hour, at what time the whole thing could happen again, or a brisk walk to the bus station where I thought I had time to catch the bus (which couldn't really take 75 minutes, could it??).  I decided to take what I thought was the certainly equivalent of the bus.  Turns out that rather than being a direct route to the airport it was a stopping bus that did go round the houses somewhat...  However in the end it took nowhere near 75 minutes, closer to 20 all told, and I arrived at the airport maybe slightly quicker than I would have done if I had gone by boat, including the impact of the walk!