Descent of Speed

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.

The last thing you see on the mainland, as you approach Venice is a large oil refinery. As you get closer to the island you see an enormous car park, a large cruise ship port, and an enormous bus station. My first thought was, this was going to be terrible. But then you cross the bridge, over the Grand Canal, and enter another world.

I was dropped off at the bus station. I knew where my hotel was in relation to the train station, but had no clue where the train station was in relation to the bus station. I found this bridge that said no bags over 20 kilos. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I lugged my bags across the street to the info office. Turns out the train station is a short walk away, on the other side of that bridge. I told the lady I had two large bags. She said no problem, everyone takes luggage over it. So off I went.

The bridge is one of four bridges over the Grand Canal, and is the easiest to traverse. All of the bridges have steps up and down them, but the ones at this bridge are fairly short, about 4 inches tall. My luge rolled up the stairs easily, but I had to lift my large bag up each step. I took a step, lift the bag, take a step lift the bag. About half way up, some random stranger gave me hand, even though I told him it was HEAVY.

Venice in early August is warm and humid. I was covered in sweat by the time I made it the short distance to the train station. I decided to leave my bags at the station. The hotel wasn’t too much further, but I was done dragging to large heavy bags.

I got to the hotel before Furlong. Fortunately I had no problem getting registered and into the room. I had been hoping the room had AC. It didn’t, but it did have a fan. I turned the fan on, turn the oscillation off, and plopped down in front of the fan. Furlong found me like that about a half hour later. I had to get up and let him plop down in front of the fan as well.

Once we both cooled off we ventured out into another world. On the other side of the Grand Canal, there are no vehicles. Everything is transported by boat, and the by hand trolley.  And with the canals criss crossing the island, it isn’t far to most places by boat. The easiest way to get around is to meander through the many passages. Which of course look very much a like.

There is a main thoroughfare connecting the train station, the Rialto and San Marcos Piazza, the main tourist attractions on the island. Some of it is lined with souvenir stands and restaurants. As you get closer to the Piazza there are a lot of high rent stores, Dolce, D&G, Guess, even a Disney Store. Although it is a main thoroughfare, there are times when it appears to be a narrow alleyway. You can recognize it by the number of people going to and fro. But get off the beaten track and it is easy to get lost.

Well you can’t really get lost. There aren’t many dead ends, and eventually you’ll come to once side of the island or another. But we did manage to take a bit longer to get to where we wanted to go a few times, but I expected we saw a bit more of than island that many people do.

The biggest problem with Venice is the number of tourists. There are way too many, in fact, as far as I can tell Venice is only for the tourists, and maybe some shopping. There isn’t much else there. You can easily see the best of Venice in a day. I spent two days there, and it was one day too many.

Sure a gondola ride might be romantic (I don’t know, I didn’t take one) but that will be about the only romantic thing on your trip, as I never saw any romantic eateries (although I guess sitting at a sidewalk café can be romantic) I think there are a more romantic getaways you can go to. Stop here for a day or two, get your gondola ride, then go somewhere else.