Destination:                                    Venice, Italy
Other names:                                 Venezia, Queen of the Adriatic,City of Bridges
Notable people:                               Marco Polo (explorer), Antonio Vivaldi (muso)
Other known associations:            Masks, Blinds lol
Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAPFM3dgag (vivaldi)

Did you know that the city of Venice actually sits within a lagoon? It is made up of roughly  120 islands and to manage your way across the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is ‘Venezia’, you must navigate one the 400 odd bridges that be found within the city. Now while I come across as extremely worldly person :P, I must admit I have plagiarised these facts from our lovely tour guide on a recent trip to Venice.

Now I have seen many photos and paintings of Venice but it is a very surreal feeling to see the famous city of canals in real life. Visually, it is a city like no other….
The first thing, I noticed about Venice was how few venetians actually reside in the city. Whilst there are many rustic residential homes it feels like a ghost town (in winter at least). It feels like it a grown up “Disneyland” in that it is set up for tourists and is bustling by day, however at night all the locals go home to the nearby town of Mestre.  Now this could be Combinations of factors including;

a)      Time of year – Apparently in summer it is almost claustrophobic with the amount of people in the city.
b)      The fact that it’s a pain in the bum to get home from a big night out as gondoliers only work during the day. The other alternative is a water taxi but no one wants to pay €100 to get home!
c)       All those car lovers who refuse to live in a city where they cannot drive their luxurious European cars, as cars are banned.
d)      The smell – some parts of Venice city have a very ‘funky’ smell that have you covering your nose and mouth almost immediately.

I found Venice to be a city rich in culture with opera and classical music performances being a major centre piece of the city’s entertainment offering. There are hundreds of little alleyways and shops where you can easily lose yourself. Venetians masks, Casanova hats, Quill pens are among the more popular venetian souvenirs that are sold all over the city.

The iconic gondolas can be seen moving effortlessly almost anywhere throughout the city. Although, I think it is a myth that all gondoliers sing opera, our gondolier instead whistled the Popeye theme song for our 40 min journey,( but was entertaining nonetheless). Rustic and beautiful baroque style churches are fairly common in the city landscape as well.

Most importantly Seafood and traditional Italian food is done so well it is easy to see why this city has been so popular with tourists for decades.

For the coffee lover, it is a well-known fact that Italians are the masters of coffee and the coffee here definitely did not disappoint. We were recommended café del doge by a friend (thanks Anne!) which served the perfect ‘wake-me-up’ cappuccino.

An interesting fact is that during the winter and autumn there is a phenomenon know as high tide where water levels rise and parts of the city begin to flood. To allow people to traverse the labyrinth of passage ways and bridges, planks are strategically placed those common routes tread by tourists.

My good deed this weekend was to piggy back a Singaporean aunty onto one of these planks because my shoes were fairly waterproof and she was stuck….I was also tricked into carrying my 80kg travel buddy as well…only to realise later had we turned the corner we could have easily access the planks. #sorebackfornothing (I’m new to the hashtagging thing so forgive me if it’s wrong!)

5 observations.

1. Seafood is amazingly fresh
2. Almost all the pasta is homemade – delicious
3. Even in winter gelato is still in demand!
4. Tap water is not drinkable
5. Venetian blinds are not commonly found in Venice!

A city like no other and one that would suit the hopeless romantic and curious traveler alike with its majestic buildings with hundreds of canals and bridges scattered throughout this stunning city.

JD