28°C!! Lovely day for our first trip into Venice – the site is 700m from the vaporetto (water bus) stop & runs a free bus; unfortunately we missed it by 30 secs....cue a jog as the boat only goes every half hour. Our neighbours had said that your first view of Venice arriving from the sea is special, & how right they were. It took 35 mins to cross the lagoon (with a short stop at Lido to pick up more people) and the first thing that struck us was that the water is just FULL of boats, from large ferries to small gondolas and all sizes in between.

 
                      
We alighted near St Mark’s Square, the sort of centre of the city, and joined the crowds wandering along the promenade; masked Venetian ladies on stilts were posing for pictures with tourists – no way was I paying €30 to have my picture with one, so we just snapped someone else! There are bridges every 2 minutes to cross the small side canals, then the vista opens up into the piazza....FULL of people.

                  















As the weather was so good we spent quite a bit of the day cruising the Grand Canal on vaporetti with a day pass to see the city from the water; the Rialto Bridge was a little disappointing as it was covered in scaffolding and an advertising hoarding, but it was fascinating to watch the water traffic on the canals. Goods obviously have to be delivered by small boat, and we saw boats full of boxes of coke & beer/vegetables/household things,
Police speedboat complete with siren, an Ambulance boat and many tourists being punted along in gondolas. 

 


We cruised the length of the Grand Canal right out towards the airport, and saw many different areas of the city – it was sad to see some of the buildings that are crumbling into the sea, but also nice to look at the stately palazzos, hotels and magnificent churches. The canal has many stops along it, and the vaporetto is basically the local bus, so it wasn’t just full of tourists like us but people going to and from work and school – REAL Venice, in our opinion.

 

The boat made its way back along the Canales di Fusine and Della Giudecca to Isola di San Giorgio, where we got off to see the church. Our neighbours had recommended going up the tower there in preference to St Mark’s as it would be much quieter – the church was nearly empty of people, so we got a really good look at Tintoretto’s wonderful paintings, then went up the bell tower for a real birds’ eye 360° view over the Grand Canal, St Mark’s Square, the islands & the lagoon. Fabulous. 

 

We had lunch on S Giorgio, with a lovely view back to the Piazza di San Marco, (the famous St Mark’s Square), only marred when a HUGE cruise ship was towed in, completely dwarfing the ancient buildings – I thoroughly agree with those who say cruise ships should be banned from the canals. Lunch here cost half what it would have done across the water, and we got a great view to boot.

                            



We hopped back across to S Marco which was so crowded with tourists it was unbelievable (bit tongue in cheek, that phrase!), then wandered the back streets – I now see why people say its easy to get lost, but you always find water again & end up back at the Grand Canal. Gondolas were plying the side canals - I just managed to restrain myself from breaking into “Just one Cornetto” but did actually purchase a cone! 

 
                                        
We knew that the weather was not forecast to be very good tomorrow so we bought a museum pass to visit various places including the Doge’s Palace, then made our way back to the vaporetto to return to Punta Sabbioni– and managed to get the bus this time!

 

10 things I learned in Venice today:

1. There are boats EVERYWHERE you look criss-crossing the canals– small ones, middle sized ones, big ones, huge ones, gondolas, service boats, Police boats, ambulance boats, vaporetti, car ferries, water taxis – the list is endless.

2. There are many more islands to Venice than I thought, from green garden ones to the very built-up.

3. Venice is connected to the mainland by a road bridge (though why anyone would want to take a car there, I really can’t imagine).

4. It really is crumbling into the sea – evidence is all over & is very sad to see

5. There are wonderful buildings everywhere.

6. Gondoliers don’t sing – you’d never hear them above the roar of boat engines – but they do wear stripy shirts & wear boater hats.

7. Venetian shops are full of tat, eg. an apron with a photo of Michaelangelo’s “David” on – (the naked Greek bloke.....)

8. Public toilets are few and far between & cost €1.50 a go (I didn’t)

9. Its very costly to sit outside at a main cafe - €4 each to sit down, expensive drinks + a “music charge” of up to €8 if an orchestra is playing....we resisted.

10. Italians REALLY don’t queue – the scrum for seats on the vaporetto had to be experienced to be believed. Good job I’ve got sharp elbows
:)