Location: Veneto Region of Italy.
Route: 10 minutes in local buses from Mestre in Mainland.
We were: Sanjeev (with a Canon 550D) and myself. So you know who took the photos here.

Venice – Venezia – romantic, beautiful, magical. Heard a lot about it and always wanted to visit this city. Wealthy city of sea trade and art, operatic music, beautiful buidings, romantic air – and what not! Well, we definitely included it in our European vacation. While starting, we had only a few ambitions – Peggy Guggenheim museum, wandering about to see this “Alleppey of the West” (to talk back in the same coin).

Venezia is a lagoon city built mostly “on” water. The S shaped Grand canal is the main traffic route to reach anywhere in the city.

The city is usually crowded by tourists, who sometimes outnumber the local population. One thing we learnt a little too late – to enjoy Venice, GET AWAY! Forget the maps and must-see destinations, just be lost and wandering in the labyrinthine streets and quiet residential quarters. That adds to the magic that everyone talks about. We were wondering what is so great about Venice, because this feeling was hard to find on the tourist locations.

How we reached
Booked all our train tickets, accommodation and museum passes online from India. Trip Advisor, Google maps and Train Italia websites helped us. And that saved a lot of time, money and helped us plan better; we had a fair idea of the land, rather the water ways! We went there in summer, beginning of June. Weather was almost Indian-like. T-shirts and casuals were good enough; perhaps an umbrella or jerkin for the rains. You can wear whatever you like, but we chose to go the local way. Shirt/T-shirt and casual cotton pants – all easy to dry and welcomed even in orthodox churches.
So finally, we reached by the Mestre station by 9:30 in the morning by Train Italia from Paris.

Where we stayed
We had booked a Bed&Breakfast in Mestre itself. Outlet Sweet Venezia. Very good rooms, and very warm host, who knows exactly what you are looking for. In fact, most of what we learnt about Venezia and you read here is from the tourist book he gave us to take around. Shows the concern.

Their breakfast was nothing remarkable, just a few crackers and rusk. But we loved the room and the spacious bathroom. Sufficient!

On hindsight, perhaps we should have booked a room in Venezia itself, and not in the industrial mainland that is Mestre – to feel the magic of Venezia once the sun goes down (which, by the way is by 9 PM in summer). Anyway, we don’t know what we missed, so we are happy.

To get around

We got 2 ACTV passes for 24 hours from a nearby tabacchi (that is any shop that sells papers, magazines and a few snacks).

The pass is valid in all public transports. Worth it! You get into a bus through the front door and swipe it on the small machines, or you swipe it at the ferry and queue up for the vaporetto. Vaporetto is the water bus that is pretty much the transport mode in Venezia – provisions, ambulances everything.

Canal Grande

We took No:1 vaporetto – destination is St. Mark’s Square or San Marco, but the objective is to cruise through the Grand canal. This S shaped canal – the most famous watery high street in the world- is not only the life-line of the city, but also a beautiful experience.

With beautiful buildings on both sides, gondolas floating around, a cruise on the Canal Grande gives a very good start to the Venetian holidays. No wonder that Lord Byron, Mark Twain, Dickens and others loved these waters!

The No:1 vaporetto moves leisurely, stops at all places and thus gives a feel and view of the city. And then, it started raining. Beautiful! Water on all sides! We got a beautiful snap of the architectural icon of Venice, the Rialto bridge. More about the bridge, later.

Having a coffee or wine looking on to the canal is truly a great experience. Ernest Hemingway, they say, used to do that, of course not coffee or wine. But like in other European cities, you pay extra for the drink, if you choose to have it sitting.

San Marco, the city centre

And finally we reached San Marco. The centre of Venizia, where the carnival tours end for celebration.

San Marco – At the foreground is the city symbol, winged lion. Behind is the Palazzo Ducale; the residence of the Doge of Venice, now a museum.

Ponde de Rialto

This is another most visited space in Venezia – the oldest bridge on the canal. We got a real good view of the Grand canal from here. But, yes, this place is always crowded with lots of souvenir shops around. We took a female mask with a stick as a Venetian souvenir and a few other trinkets like glass pendants as gifts. And moved on to the more interesting vegetable and sea-food market. It was in the morning, the markets were rising into the morning.

Colourful fruits and vegetables

Sea food is very popular and pride of the city

I liked most – Campo

What I liked most is the quiet residential squares, out of the crowd. They are called campo, in contrast to the Palazzio that is San Marco.

Forget the map and get lost. Then we reach such lazy lanes not crowded by tourists. These are relaxed squares just outside the houses with small bridges or doors opening out to them. We saw well decorated wells in the center and later learnt that these are the main rain-water collecting cisterns, very important for a saline water city. Very cosy place to sit and relax, local people going about doing their routines, children coming out to play, or coming together to gossip. Do spend some time on those relaxed squares.

We left in the evening in Train Italia to Florence. Though rains restricted our tour, I liked whatever we saw, especially drenched in fresh rains. The Grand canal, mode of transport, the open spaces, leisurely motor-free walkways, beautiful houses with red flowers in each balcony. Of course Picasso and Jackson Pollock in Peggy Guggenheim’s house and of everything, that house itself! The fragrance of the flowers in each street woul linger with us for sometime!

A gondola on the Grand canal. It seems, you must bargain with the gondoliers to get a reasonable price We preferred the Vaporetti

Near Rialto market - These birds seemed very comfortable with people walking around buying vegetables. The yellow house and red flowers added beauty to the pitcture.

Rialto Market getting ready in the morning

Bridge of Sighs - now covered with billboards, for construction purposes. Lord Byron called it so, because from here the convicted got the last sight of Venice before they were taken in.

The Peggy Guggenheim Museum - She collected Picaso and Jackson Pollock. Great to see indeed. But I was so struck by her canal facing house (now museum). How I wish I were rich!

Carnival and masks are in grained in the Venetian majesty and mystery. Most of these are for the gentlemen. There are more luxurious ones with feathers and glitters for the ladies. Mysterious. Romantic.

"Pozzi" - ornate heads water pipe that freely flows drinking water for this salt-watered island.