Venezia! Canals & boat rides!

Our train ride to Venice was a bit more complicated than we expected, but we made it earlier than originally planned. We left Gimmewald at around 545 am, got to Interlaken only to find out the train we wanted was completely full. The lady at the ticket booth got us on a train later in the day, but didn't get us into Venice until about 6pm. We decided to hop on some regional trains, switched 2-3 times, and eventually hopped on a jam packed high speed train. We had no seats for about and hour or two and had to sit in the doorway that smelled like puke! Eventually we got seats in Milan though, but then the train conductor asked for our reservation. Reservation? Here's my eurail pass..continue to act stupid. She let us stay on! phewww, we made it to Venice by 2pm, way ahead of schedule. We were able to check into our hotel and then set out to explore the city. We mostly just wandered around the island getting lost between the canals and small alleyways.

We treated ourselves to some gelato and found a few really cool old churches that had amazing marble work.

We stumbled upon the current navy base in Venice, and then strolled along the main street watching the sunset over the La Salute Church. Shortly after sunset, we headed back to our hotel and then got a nice Italian meal in a hole in the wall restaurant near our hotel.

 

 

 

The next day we decided to first check out the Rialto Bridge. The Rialto Bridge was built in 1588, and until the 1850's was the only bridge crossing the Grand Canal. After checking out the bridge and the surrounding tourist shops, we again purposefully got lost in the neighbohood nearby. Just walking through all the alleyways makes you realize what a beautiful city Venice is. If you walk a few alleyways away from the tourist areas, the city has a whole different feel. We stopped a small bakery for a conali and then decided to do a "cheap" boat cruise.

 

Gondola Rides:



 

 

 

AKA we used our waterbuss ticket to hop on the city waterbus and cruised all the way to the end of the line and then back again! The gondola rides looked really tempting, but we got some good seats at the back of the boat, so we didn't feel too crowded and had great views. We used Rick Steve's book to guide us along our "cruise" as to which buildings were which. The building in Venice are amazing, and it is even more amazing that there are no cars, only boats. I couldn't imagine getting up for work everyday and cruising in on my boat!

 



 Grand Canal:

 



 

After our little cruise we had some lunch and went over to St. Mark's Square. The square is surrounded by St. Mark's Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile bell tower, and a museum. The square is filled with tourists and pigeons! While in the square we first went into St. Mark's Basilica. The Basilica was built in the 11th century and is decorated with booty from returning sea captains. The interior has gold mosaics and all different color marble. St. Mark the saint's bones have been at this site since A.D. 830! Both the interior and exterior were absolutely beautiful; no pictures of the inside though.

 



St. Mark's Square:

 

 

Next we went into the Doge's Palace, which was the seat of the Venetian government and home of it's ruling duke/doge for 400 years; until the invasion by Napoleon. Within the palace we viewed the various different senate halls and council rooms, the courtyard, and the prisons. To get over to the prison we had to cross the Bridge of Sighs, so named for the prisoners "sighing" as they looked at their last glimpse of freedom when going over the bridge.

 

Doge's Palace

 

One of the Grand Senate Halls:

 

The courtyard:

 

After touring the Palace, we made our way back towards our hotel, and found the coolest wine shop! They had homemade wine in small barrels that you could either bring an old bottle you had, or they would fill one up for you in the store. The wine was super good, and super cheap as well! Later that evening we went out to another small hole in the wall restaurant and got some more amazing Italian food.

During our last day in Venice, we did another short waterbus cruise in the other direction and then wandered over to the Jewish Ghetto. This small island was where Jews were restricted to living starting in 1516. The population in the ghetto swelled in the 1600's and the inhabitants were forced to expand upward, building six story "skyscrapers" that still stand today. As we walked through the area, it felt a bit deserted, and definitely isolated from the rest of the island.

 

After wandering around the streets and getting lost some more, we headed back as we were pretty exhausted from all the sightseeing. We got another great dinner, and decided to go to bed pretty early as we had another early train to Venice the next morning!