Flight
I found a €30
round flight to Venice, my friend told me. Naturally the first thing I did
after was go to the Easyjet website and look for a flight from the nearest
airport from where I live now, the Euroairport at Basel. I found a €50 round
flight, quite the bargain also. I couldn’t think of a reason not to go, so we
both booked our flights. Oh the heaven of low-cost companies!
Accomodation
After our bargain
flights we were confident we could we could make our Venetian trip a supercheap
one. Next: plan accommodation. We went through the usual websites, Booking.com,
Trivago.fr etc… but the truth was daunting, no room under €100 a night. What
are we supposed to do now? I suggested sleeping on the canals which I believe Samuel
considered for a split of a second. And may I add that the €100 rooms were
located in the shadiest buildings and with no private toilet. So after a giving
up my ideal Venetian canal hotel we decided that we would be located in the
next town, Mestre. It’s a short bus ride that costs €1.5 and will get you to
the Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia, the main train station in 15 minutes. From
there you can wander through the streets, canals and cute bridges. The buses
run all day until midnight and then they run hourly. We paid €25 a night for a
private room with shared bathroom and stayed at the Il Glicine. A house owned
by an Italian couple who speak almost no English but are super nice, it was the
best decision we could’ve made in terms of accommodation.
The rest
When you’re
in Venice everything is an “attraction”. Yeah there’s the Rialto Bridge and the
St. Mark Square… but the beauty of the city is everywhere. Every little
street, the gorgeous buildings and obviously, hei! that’s why we went, the innumerous
canals! I can’t get enough of them. They all look the same, but they are all so
different. With small boats “parked”, flowers on the windows, the occasional
gondola passing by. Yep we feel like we are in heaven, another world, almost
like the city itself was made as amusement for travelers. You are never bored,
you can just go discover the streets and get frustrated when you think that you’ve
found a shorter way to St. Marcus Square but after all it was just another dead
end street that ends in a canal.
I’d done
some research about Venice and discovered the Murano and Burano islands. As we
only had two days in Venice we couldn’t visit both. So we decided to visit Murano
which is a 30min boat ride from the train station. On the 13th century the
glass manufacturers moved to Murano for the reason that Venice was made mostly
by wooden buildings and there was a fire hazard. Years went by and the glass of
Murano became known worldwide. Now it’s a little agglomeration of tiny islands,
colorful streets and innumerous glass factories you can visit. We spent the
morning in Murano and decided to have lunch there as the restaurants are
cheaper than in Venice. We had a three
course meal with entrée, salad, plate and a glass of wine all for €13.
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| Murano |
During our
stay we visited the mandatory St. Mark Square and Basilica, the Torre dell’Orologio,
the Doge’s Palace… and I finally catered to my seafood urges and ate nothing
but fish and seafood, with some gelato in between! I am happy. Really happy.
You go to Italy and you can be sure of two things. The first one you’re going
to spend a lot of money on food. Restaurants are expensive and most of them add
an extra “seating charge” and a fee of 10 to 15% to the bill so be sure to ask
before you seat, exactly what you’re going to pay, so you don’t have any unpleasant
surprises. Second, you’re going to eat well, between pizza, pastas, gelato and
for me in this trip, seafood and fish, you’re going to feed not only your
humanly needs but you will feed your soul. It’s the stuff happiness is made
from.
We wanted to take a ride on a gondola but they
asked around €80. On our last day we discovered some “gondolas taxi” that allow
to cross the Grand Canal for €2, but unfortunately we got there too late so
didn’t have the chance to do it. Too bad, it seems like I have an excuse to
return to Venice in the future. J
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| St, Mark Basilica at St.Mark Square |
