Venice:
Ah… Venice. City of Culture, Beauty, Music… and way overpriced. I paid 20 bucks for some lame Pasta. And, bread rolls that were hard as rocks!
Oh… but beautiful Venice. They gotcha; you can’t disagree with a city built entirely on sandy sea and every corner is a Kodak moment. The gondoliers and their slender romantic boats. Many of them with musicians singing for your pleasure. For $120.00 you have 40 minutes of Venice like you have seen in the movies.
We have spent 30 hours here and have walked it from North to South, East to West. The amazing thing about Venice is that you can get lost in the city and find yourself again because it is small. A 20 minute walk any way and you hit water. Imagine you are on an Island with taxi and bus boats running every five minutes around the island. You are never more then a few quick moments away from any point.
For the hearty traveler like Stephen and I you can see everything there is to see in one long day (which we did). Most people take two to three days. In my opinion that is two long if you are wanting to see more of Italy in a short amount of time. There are other parts of the Italian wonderland that I would rather linger.
Venice has Italian “Mojo” going for it, no doubt, but the people that operate here know it. Therefore, you pay more for everything. How about five bucks for a litre of water. Everywhere else, including Rome it’s two dollars. Every meal is a least $40.00 dollars for two and that is with getting half of the food and options. The trinkets, souvenir's, and gifts are not bad, but the locals have a bit of an attitude. Ok… enough American whining. Now the good part.
As I type this I am in a beautiful “Compo” which is courtyard in Italian, listening to a woman play the most beautiful Cello. The weather is balmy with just a gentle breeze. The stones on the courtyard must be hundreds of years old with gentle waves running through them in height. Because Venice is built on a Sand/Mud base everything is always shifting. They say Venice is sinking back into the sea and a hundred years from now there will be no Venice. But I say, they are making two much money here and they will make these buildings and streets boats before that happens.
A couple other interesting things. There is no where for kids to play after school except the little courtyards that are around every couple of blocks so between 3 and 6pm the courtyards are full of little children playing, riding bikes, roller skating. Right next to all the tourists trying to have their romantic dinner.
When people walk their dogs there is no grass… no what I mean. So its fun watching people letting there dogs pee right where everyone is walking. The dogs are use to it and they don’t care. The Venice people love dogs. Most the dogs we have seen are either Bull/Terrier or hunting breed dogs (English Setter, Brittany Spaniel). Kind of weird. Not much hunting going on around here. No stray dogs.. every dog I have seen is a pure breed which means only rich people. You can buy an apartment with a view for about 500k. Do you want to be on the waterway… The average house would cost you about 1.5 million. Not to mention the massive repairs.
Ok… enough. My son says I’m writing too much and nobody is going to read it. We are taking an overnight train to Munich, Germany. We wake up tomorrow in Deutsch land.
But for now… Ciao…
Ah… Venice. City of Culture, Beauty, Music… and way overpriced. I paid 20 bucks for some lame Pasta. And, bread rolls that were hard as rocks!
Oh… but beautiful Venice. They gotcha; you can’t disagree with a city built entirely on sandy sea and every corner is a Kodak moment. The gondoliers and their slender romantic boats. Many of them with musicians singing for your pleasure. For $120.00 you have 40 minutes of Venice like you have seen in the movies.
We have spent 30 hours here and have walked it from North to South, East to West. The amazing thing about Venice is that you can get lost in the city and find yourself again because it is small. A 20 minute walk any way and you hit water. Imagine you are on an Island with taxi and bus boats running every five minutes around the island. You are never more then a few quick moments away from any point.
For the hearty traveler like Stephen and I you can see everything there is to see in one long day (which we did). Most people take two to three days. In my opinion that is two long if you are wanting to see more of Italy in a short amount of time. There are other parts of the Italian wonderland that I would rather linger.
Venice has Italian “Mojo” going for it, no doubt, but the people that operate here know it. Therefore, you pay more for everything. How about five bucks for a litre of water. Everywhere else, including Rome it’s two dollars. Every meal is a least $40.00 dollars for two and that is with getting half of the food and options. The trinkets, souvenir's, and gifts are not bad, but the locals have a bit of an attitude. Ok… enough American whining. Now the good part.
As I type this I am in a beautiful “Compo” which is courtyard in Italian, listening to a woman play the most beautiful Cello. The weather is balmy with just a gentle breeze. The stones on the courtyard must be hundreds of years old with gentle waves running through them in height. Because Venice is built on a Sand/Mud base everything is always shifting. They say Venice is sinking back into the sea and a hundred years from now there will be no Venice. But I say, they are making two much money here and they will make these buildings and streets boats before that happens.
A couple other interesting things. There is no where for kids to play after school except the little courtyards that are around every couple of blocks so between 3 and 6pm the courtyards are full of little children playing, riding bikes, roller skating. Right next to all the tourists trying to have their romantic dinner.
When people walk their dogs there is no grass… no what I mean. So its fun watching people letting there dogs pee right where everyone is walking. The dogs are use to it and they don’t care. The Venice people love dogs. Most the dogs we have seen are either Bull/Terrier or hunting breed dogs (English Setter, Brittany Spaniel). Kind of weird. Not much hunting going on around here. No stray dogs.. every dog I have seen is a pure breed which means only rich people. You can buy an apartment with a view for about 500k. Do you want to be on the waterway… The average house would cost you about 1.5 million. Not to mention the massive repairs.
Ok… enough. My son says I’m writing too much and nobody is going to read it. We are taking an overnight train to Munich, Germany. We wake up tomorrow in Deutsch land.
But for now… Ciao…
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