April 29, 2006 - May 1, 2006
A few of us decided to leave a bit earlier than the rest of the group. Most people left around 9-10am in the morning on Saturday but we departed at about 2:00am on a train bound for Venezia's Santa Lucia Station. We arrived in Venice around 5:30 in the morning and basically had the city to ourselves. Unfortunately the weather was slightly less than pleasant considering it was raining when we got off the train. We explored for the first few hours of the day and made it over to Piazza San Marco which was empty this early in the morning (it was even too early for the pigeons). We also found the open air fish and vegetable market where everyone was preparing their goods for the day. At that point we found a coffee shop and grabbed some coffee to help us stay awake through the day.
At this point we returned to Piazza San Marco to find it full of people and also full of pigeons, tons and tons of pigeons. Apparently the pigeons are a major attraction. There are small carts with pigeon feed set up in the piazza and people buy the feed and get pigeons to land on them and whatnot. We ended up spending quite a bit of time harassing the pigeons every time we passed through San Marco on the trip. Anyway, after this we went to the Doge's Palace to see the museum there. There is a lot of nifty stuff in it and we also got to cross the Ponte dei Sospiri (The Bridge of Sighs). We then also went to the Correr Museum after lunch. We spent a lot of time in both these museums as there is quite a bit to see. After the Correr the others had arrived and we ran into some of them in Piazza San Marco.
We ate a little earlier than normal Saturday since the place we wanted to go only had room for our group at 7:00pm. After dinner we explored the city at night and grabbed some gelato. The gelato was very good and very inexpensive for how large the servings were. After gelato we got a little lost and wandered in circles for a short time until we eventually found the direction we needed to go and caught the bus back to the hostel.
The hostel was more of a campground than a hostel. We stayed in "cabins" inside of a what was basically a campground. The cabins were not terribly well insulated and so they were freezing cold during the night even with the heaters on. Since they only left a think blanket for us, it was a tad cold during the night.
We slept in a little late on Sunday since we slept so little the previous night. We didn't get to Venice until close to noon. Instead of going in on a bus we decided to take a ferry across the water to Venice. The weather wasn't terribly nice until later in the day, but it was freezing while we were on the ferry. After we arrived we walked around the city for awhile until we found somewhere to eat. We just grabbed some "pizza a taglio" (pizza by the slice) and then kept exploring. We went back to San Marco after eating and went into the Church. There is quite a lot of bling in that Church as well.
After San Marco we wanted to try and catch a Gondola ride. We talked to a few different Gondoliers until we found a good price. It only cost us 60euro for 6 people. Most of the Gondoliers were offering rides for between 30-50 minutes for 70 euro or more. We got about 45 minutes for 60 euro which was quite a good deal. Our Gondolier was named Ludivico and I of course liked him very much because the first thing he said to me was: "Sei Italiano?". He was also a very nice guy and took us around the tranquil parts of Venice instead of going out to the busy Grand Canal. It was definitely worth the 10 euro it cost me.
We went to find dinner after the ride. We went to an old trattoria that was recommended by Rick Steves and had the "Menú". It was mostly seafood so I wasn't a terribly big fan, but it was interesting to see the typical food that an old trattoria would serve. The rest of the evening in Venice wasn't terribly eventful, and we ended up catching the bus back to the hostel/campsite.
That night at the hostel turned out to be an interesting one. We were playing "Catch Phrase" in our cabin, making quite a bit of noise, when a few Australians and a New Zealander showed up and wanted to join the fun. This definitely made the night a bit more interesting. After that we called it an evening.
On Sunday we did not make it into Venice. We had to be out of the hostel by 9:30 in the morning and none of the buses were running because Monday was as holiday. It is the Festa di Lavoro, or the Italian equivalent of Labor Day. I claim that the only reason there was a strike on Friday was so that the bus drivers could get a 4 day weekend. Anyway, we had to take taxis from the hostel in Fusina to the train station in Mestre which was somewhat costly. We then hopped on a train which went to Bologna, changed trains there and made it back to Florence.