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Friday 21 May, Venice

Italy 2004 - part III

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-25 19:03:07

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The day starts warm and dry, against all expectations. After a quiet start we drive towards the nearby harbour to take the ferry to Venice. It is very busy on the boat and we can just get the last two seats, without any view. After 40 minutes we approach the watertown Venice and go outside on the upperdeck so we can at least take a picture from this distance.

We know that Venice is an important popular attraction, but it is only May so we aren't prepared for the ten thousands of people who walk around and block the streets. We are totally surprised by them when we get out near the famous San Marco square.

First we leave the busy quay and find some narrow alleys where there are less people and we see the first gondoliers. But soon we walk into the next masses of tourists and the town is probably more an open-air museum than a living city; but even in the mighty and prosperous past, Venice probably was a favourite tourist attraction.

We won't write a tour guide for Venice on this website, nor show the pictures that you find in any travel book. This city is one big monument, showing history everywhere with many famous buildings and places; historical and architectural information can be found in abundance in books and on the internet. We just let us go with the flow, walk through it and admire the many churches, palaces and, naturally, the canals. But there is much more mainland than we had expected, it is not only canals and houses standing in the water. Especially roaming through the narrow streets where there are less tourists is really great. And everywhere there are outdoor bars where we can sit and have a break.

We wander through the town, from San Marco square to the Rialto bridge (to the left the view from the bridge, to the right the bridge from the westbank). From there we take a vaporetta, a sort of city boat which replaces the local bus. Line 1 sails through the Canal Grande, which traverses between the ...

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