.::. Must-do in Venice .::.

I was watching this video, and it made me miss Venice very much. It looked exactly like how I remembered Venice to be, and made me long to visit it again.

I only spent a day in Venice in June. It was mid-June and not that crowded yet. The weather was perfect, sunny and not too hot. A day was enough to cover most sights in Venice and take a ride on the Gondola and take in Venice. Two days may be too much and I'd prefer to move on to other beautiful Italian cities instead. But if you would like to do tours in the palace and spend more time visiting the churches, one day is insufficient.

That said, it's so beautiful that you can just sit somewhere and watch the world go by forever. The boyfriend found Venice to be 'boring' though, for there is nothing much to do after visiting the main sights. Moreover, most locals live across the sea, at Murano. Most houses in Venice is not occupied as the houses are bought over by rich people who only visit during summer. It's so tourisy that locals find it too expensive to live in Venice.

Upon reaching the train station at Venice just before noon, we tried to locate our hotel but lost our way! We were really lucky to have met a group of Thai tourists outside their hotel who lent us their map, and even went to BUY us a map from their hotel (because hotels have their own maps which they only sell to guests). Free maps are not available unlike other European cities.

After we finally located our hotel, we deposited our backpacks and wasted no time to explore the city.

Accommodation is extremely expensive in Venice, even hostels, which usually does not come with a private bath. I booked a hostel - Venice Chic, but switched to Hotel Belle Epoque last minute as we got a good deal on booking.com. It cost 70 Euros (no cancellation, paid in advance), which is cheaper than the hostel without bath. Venice Chic hostel cost us 88 Euros without bath! After forfeiting the 10 Euros downpayment for Venice Chic, it was still cheaper to stay in a nice hotel near the train station.




Venice is stunning. It's just as beautiful as what you see in pictures and movies.

Obviously, the first thing you must do is to get on a river taxi, equivalent to our buses here as they stop at different places. Almost all routes stops at the famous Piazza San Marco. Don't expect to pay prices of 'normal buses' for your ride, it costs about 5 Euros for a single trip. Don't try to hop up the taxi with the crowd without paying - they seriously do check your tickets and it's not nice being caught without one.

This is the main Piazza, which is a must-visit. The beautiful architecture with repeated patterns is Doge's Palace. It's probably the most crowded area in Venice where everyone flocks to.

A gondola ride is also a 'must-do' in Venice.

Afterall, when I think of Venice and it being the most romantic city, a gondola ride on beautiful calm waters under the blue sky, surrounded by beautiful architecture comes to mind.

A gondola 'long' gondola ride would set you back by about 100 Euros. It's best to ask around for the best rate although it can't really deviate that much. It's really expensive for a backpacker on her graduation trip, and I thought long and hard before parting with that money. Then again, I'm glad that I did go on that ride! I would have regretted tremendously if I didn't.

Apart from enjoying the experience, tiny canals and pretty buildings around, taking pictures on the gondola is also essential!

Make sure the boatman helps you to take a nice picture right in the middle of the grand canal with the famous Rialto Bridge in the background! It requires some good balancing skills, but he should have practised it many times.

And don't forget to make use of the boatman as much as you can, get him to take more pictures for you whenever possible. Remember that you paid him 100 Euros for that hour!

After the ride, get an Italian Gelato and stroll along the grand canal. Take in the sights as much as possible and enjoy the moment.

Go on Rialto Bridge (where it was the background on your gondola shot previously) and wave to gondolas passing by.

Get a pro-looking fellow-tourist, preferably someone using a DSLR to take a nice picture for you. When the sun is setting, it's good to on your flash or risk having dark faces!

Then stroll around the city and shop by beautiful handicrafts shops. They are beautiful, but pricey since they cater mainly to tourists. I would have liked to own one of this masks and the hand-made glass photo frames though. But we were backpacking, and on a budget, so the only souvenirs we got from Venice were magnets and postcards - things which I collect from every city I visit.

Take some time to get lost in the narrow streets with your map and enjoy the experience. It's like solving a maze, for a wrong turn takes you to the canals with no through bridges.

Enjoy the experience and snap pictures along the way.

Every corner is post-card worthy!

We took some time to navigate the narrow streets, but we finally made it back to the area near the train station. It was probably a good 30-60 minutes walk.

The view from the bridge at near the train station, as we were staying at a hotel nearby.

When you are at Venice, you must try their famous fish soup 'Zuppa di pesce'. It was really good and was easily the best fish soup I've ever tasted. It's tasty, flavourful yet light and refreshing. The seafood inside is also very fresh, which makes the soup really sweet.

I liked it so much that the first thing I cooked after the trip was fish soup! Of course it didn't taste as good as this.

Apart from the fish soup, other common dishes were squid ink pasta, risotto and of course pizza.

A walk after dinner in the cool night is really relaxing too.

And we had fun trying to find a platform so that we can take a picture together. In the end, the camera ended up on some 'ticketing machine' for the boats.

The last thing about Venice is patience. Be prepared for delays and strikes, it's not uncommon to run into them.

The day when we had to leave, we realized that there was a strike going on. The buses weren't coming to the station to pick us up to the airport! It was hectic, running around trying to make sense of what was happening. When we finally got on a bus to the airport, there was a major jam enroute. And when we finally managed to get to the airport in time, we realized that our flight was cancelled, like many other flights were!



You can only imagine how crowded the airport was, filled with confused and frustrated tourists and travellers, trying to find a way out of Venice. Some flights were flying, but it was difficult to know which airline to queue for without knowing the routes nor schedule. It was chaotic, but we finally got tickets to Hamburg, where there were frequent trains to Berlin.

It took us a whole day to reach Berlin instead of half a day. It was a tiring and crazy day, but this is really quite common while traveling in Europe. I have met strikes and closure of tourist attractions many times while traveling in Europe!