Throughout the whole weekend we did two main things: walk and eat. Then walk and eat some more. On saturday we wandered around the city, over the Rialto Bridge and to St Mark's place which was ridiculously overcrowded. We went into the Basilica, then the Doge's Palace, visiting the museum and going over the bridge of sighs where wrongdoers glimpsed their last view of freedom over the canal before entering the prisons of the palace.
As we were leaving the palace a man was handing out tickets for a free trip to and from Murano island where they do incredible glass blowing to make vases and jewellry etc. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity as it was part of our plan for the weekend anyways, and off we went! The boat trips offered a great view of the whole of Venice from the sea and once we were on the island, we were shown around a small factory where a man was working. He made two things in front of us, a colourful small which was really pretty and a superbly intricate little horse.
In both cases he used a fire over 1000 degrees celsuis to make the glass molten enough to shape and sculpt, and the end results was really incredible for such a short time spent making them.
Then we looked around the area where they sold all of their products, and although we didn't buy anything (it was so expensive!) everything was really beautiful.
After that we had a lunch of pizza (we were in Italy after all) and salad (because we had to justify the unhealthiness) before continuing to walk. At this point, my dad - not being particularly in shape and having slept badly the night before - decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap, whilst mum and I continued our sight-seeing. In the afternoon we walked towards the Accademia Bridge, and crossed it where we noticed that all over the bridge lovers had attached padlocks.
On the other side we did some more wandering, intrigued by the fact that there were churches at literally every street corner. We had another ice-cream (this time tiramisu and wild blueberry) which wasn't as nice as the day before but still very tasty! And then we walked back to the hotel, stopping occasionally to look in some shops where they were selling masks (because I'd decided I wanted to get one as a souvenir). Alas, I found none to my taste and within my price range that day. At the hotel we changed and then went to a lovely restaurant for dinner, and had some delicous fish with tiramisu for desert (I gave myself a break for the weekend :P). Of course, we got lost both going there and back because navigating through the little passages and canals is not as obvious as it seems!
On Sunday, we went took the Vaporetto boat (which was again a nice way to travel and see the city other than by foot) to the Bienale exhibition. It's a very famous modern art exhibition where each country displays one thing. It was overall a very strange experience; art not really being my thing I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. I just found most of it downright odd. Here are some of the things that we saw:
were allowed to go and pick them up....something about male greed...
After having had enough of the art, we had a late lunch in a small restaurant on a little back street where I had delicious cannelloni (I was yet to have had pasta in that particular trip to Italy and decided it was a must). And then - guess what? Another ice-cream! This time I had chocolate and raspberry, two of my all-time favourites in a cone with chocolate and nuts at the top - yum!
I remembered to take a picture :P
Once the ice-cream was gobbled down in a matter of seconds we decided to disover an area we hadn't visited yet - the Jewish Ghetto. It was actually very similar to the rest of Venice, the architecture, small roads, canals and bridges were all the same. The only differences were the occasional Kosher restaurant and hidden synagogue (they weren't obvious at all because when they were persecuted they had to be kept secret). Hence we walked right past most of them without a clue. Then unfortunately my dad had to leave, as he was flying to Asia the next day for work, so it was just me and mum - more walking! This time - hurrah! - I found a mask!
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It cost 12 euros which was more expensive than some of the ones at less than 5 euros of crappy quality but decidely less than the top quality ones at 50 euros or more!
On our little walk we were scouring the area for a restaurant for dinner, neither of us were hungry after a big late lunch so we were looking for a place where we could have a light dinner of fish and salad. Miraculously, we found exactly what we wanted, and right on the edge of the canal, so we had a lovely dinner there, hindered only by some rain near the end. Up until then we had had beautiful weather for the weekend so were incredibly lucky about that.
And then the last day was upon us! As we had managed to do everything we had planned to do that weekend in the first two days we were basically free to roam around. First we went to the Rialto Market, which was so colourful and the fruitty smell was mouth-watering!
Then we went over to Accademia again, crossing the bridge and found a lovely restaurant by the side of the river. I was dying to have pizza again, and I ordered a delicous one with tomato, mozarella, aubergine (eggplant) and parmesan. I'd never had one with those toppings before but I loved it! Even though I was so full I still had to have my last ice-cream of the trip, so we found a nice gelateria nearby and I had tiramisu and 'frutti di bosco' (berries of the woods - raspberries, strawberries, blackberries etc.) Mmmm......
We decided to head back to St Mark's square as we hadn't really explored it that much the first day. Once we got there we went around it, discovering to our horror that it was just as crowded as during the weekend!
Then we entered the basilica as we had only been in the main part and wanted to see the museum and the balcony at the top. After climbing a steep set of stairs and paying 5 euros each we were allowed to enter. From the balcony we had an amazing view of the whole L-shaped square.
In the museum saw the famous four horses, which if you read Dan Brown's 'Inferno' you will discover actually had their heads chopped off to transport them from Constantinople to Venice, and then re-attached, which is why they now wear collars to cover the place where they were severed.
(I'll be doing a post later on Dan Brown's books which I discovered this summer).
And then it was time to leave! We headed back to our hotel on a vaporetto to get our luggage, then back on another to go Roma Square, where the bus station is. We hopped on a bus to Marco Polo airport and bye bye Venice! Overall I had an incredible weekend, I'm so glad I discovered the beautiful city and would definitley recommend it as a holiday destination for a long weekend.
Here are some photos of other weird and wonderful things I saw :)
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