Un'Escursione a Venezia

As I was saying, we came to Verona in order to visit Venice without having to stay there. You can't come to Italy and not see Venice, but Stephen and I had both heard from various sources over the years that it was over-rated, full of rip-offs and pickpockets, smelly, dirty, too full of people (particularly tourists), expensive, and so on. Sure, some people rave about it, but that always happens. Neither of us were desperate to see it, but we knew we'd better. We were chatting to some fellow tourists the other day, and I mentioned that I'd like to see the glass-blowing area, and perhaps if we had time to do or see anything else, then we'd see how that went on the day. Later Stephen said that he'd be happy to spend the day along those lines, so that's how we played it.

So we set off this morning on a train journey of about 1.5 hours. The weather forecast said it would be foggy in the morning and clearing to sunny and hot later. We were due in there a little before 11, and it was quite fine all the way. From the station we went outside straight to the ferry boarding area. A day pass was 20Euros, which seemed a little steep, but I also saw that the only price printed on the board that was cheaper was 7.50 Euros, so if that was the price for one trip, we'd save if we did only three. So we forked out for a day pass, then waited for the ferry to Murano.

Dragon bones behind the altar?

Anyway, lovely gilded glass mosaic from

the 12th century in ceiling

All the city's glassmakers - or their factories, anyway - were banished offshore to the island of Murano in the 13th century, because they kept setting fire to the rest of Venice. There are still scorch marks and soot on the outside of some of the furnaces, so they're still a little careless sometimes. Murano was a nice little island, like a country town, but with a lot of similar shops. We visited the Glass Museum and also a 12th century church which was reputed (by Lonely Planet) to have dragon bones hanging behind the altar, but we couldn't see them. We looked in a few studios, and sat and watched some glassblowers in a chandelier workshop, but nothing really caught our attention. I bought a pair of earrings as a souvenir but I'd really been hoping to get a set of goblets or wine glasses or similar. But we didn't see anything along those lines. Maybe we were in the wrong part of the island. But that's a few hundred dollars saved, probably.

Murano

We had lunch at nearly 3 o'clock, and then took a ferry back to the mainland - or main island. It was a beautiful day, and the city had looked interesting as we brrmmed past on the ferry. Although we had a train ticket to go back at about 3.10  (Stephen was pretty sure he wouldn't want to stay long) the same ticket is valid for 4 more hours, so we could definitely stay till 6.10 (I imagine 7.10 could be pushing your luck. 7.09 yes, 7.11 no, 7.10... don't know.) The 4.10 train would be tight, but we were comfortable aiming for the 5.10.  We thought we really should see St Mark's Square, so that was the stop where we got off the ferry. It was a short walk from the ferry stop, but it was a nice day for a walk, although as predicted, the route was quite crowded. We found the square, and it was certainly impressive: lined with buildings that used to be offices and apartments of the city administration; now museums. And of course a basilica, and the Doge's Palace.

St Mark's Square

Since we had come all that way, I now had a hankering to see the Grand Canal. The railway station was at the far end of the G.C., so it made sense just to get a ferry to take us there. We looked it up and found the ferry number and route. We went back to where we'd got off the previous ferry, and the right number boat was there soon after. We got on, checking as we went that it was going in the right direction, because it really didn't seem clear. (It was a Number 2, but it could be going clockwise or anti-clockwise - there was nothing in the boarding area or on the vessel itself to tell you, no announcements, nothing.) But a man ushering people through said, yes, it's going to the station, and yes, it's going through the canal. Of course, by the time we got two stops along, I realized that we were going the wrong way, so we hurriedly jumped off before we compounded the problem. Another ferry back to our starting point, check again for another ferry that will definitely go in the right direction, line up, here comes one now, shuffle forward to board...snap! the chain is hooked right in front of us. 10 minutes to wait until the next ferry.

During this time I decide to check that the pattern of return trains to Verona that were leaving at 10 past the hour throughout the day were continuing that pattern past 6pm. Uh-oh. The first website I looked at showed no trains between 5.50 and about 8.10pm. Ooops. The next website showed two between 6 and 7 pm, but they were more expensive than the tickets we had, and on a different company's trains, so we would have to buy completely new tickets. Oh bugger. At this stage I thought I'd better fill Stephen in on the situation. We weren't going to be stuck, but it wasn't going to be as easy and fun an end to the day as we'd hoped. (The idea of water taxis crossed my mind, but we were at the front of a queue, and we weren't late yet, and I had no idea how to even go about looking for one or how much they'd cost or... Nah. I'd take my chances on the ferry.) (Later I looked at a third website, and yes, plenty of trains, no worries... What the...?)

A famous place, isn't it? Seen from ferry.

(Bridge of Sighs? That rings a bell.)

The Number 1 ferry arrived, and many people got off because we were at the San Marco stop. Being at the front of the queue we were able to get two seats together and by a window, so there was that. But we were counting the stops, and watching the clock, and cursing all the other water traffic, and there was nothing we could do to improve our situation. Until we were getting close to the end, and there seemed to be a little time up our sleeve, and the travel between stops wasn't that great - just zigging from one side of the canal and zagging back to the other - and we started to think that maybe we were in with a chance after all. And in fact, we arrived at the station stop at the expected time (about 10 to 6) and we were able to get off, go across to the station, figure out the right train and track, and even buy some food and drink for the trip, before scurrying back past all the tracks to the other side of the station to board. The train was a little crowded by the time we got on, but we got seats together, and as the trip went on, most people had got off again by about the third stop, so we were even able to stretch out and expand  our personal space for most of the trip home.

We got a bus from the station back to the Arena, (which, you might remember, is the amphitheatre very near our B & B) but rather than go home, we started looking for a place to have dinner. Due to some misconceptions and wrong assumptions, we ended up going in a big circle of probably a kilometer or so, before finding what we were looking for: a hamburger and chips (no, not MacDonalds or Burger King, although both were in the vicinity) but a nice gourmet burger. We followed it with a gelato in a cone to walk home with, and now here we all are: home again, safe and sound.

So, Venice? Not nearly as bad as we had been led to believe. Certainly the weather made it look good. I'd be happy to spend another day or two there. Not a week - those ferries would get bloody annoying. But please Italy, a bit more information for your visitors. It wouldn't be difficult to be clearer about where and when your vehicles are going to take their passengers. But then, it wouldn't be a holiday without a few u-turns, and we've actually had surprisingly few this time, and most have been due to Google Maps.  Not our fault at all.

Just thought I'd let you know, that all the time I've been writing this, I've been feeling as though I'm still on a ferry - there's still a feeling of swirly wavy movement in my head that's quite pleasant. I could almost believe I was a little drunk, if I'd had any alcohol, which I haven't. (I don't dare at the moment: this B & B room doesn't have its own bathroom: we're sharing, so I don't want to be going across the hallway to pee every couple of hours throughout the night.)

And on that intimate note, I'll say goodnight. See you tomorrow.