As we were sitting down and eating ice cream in Slovenia we came up with the plan to continue to Venice, Italy. We had not booked a hotel for the night and the internet was pretty sucky in the cafee so we decided to just keep going and spend the evening in the middle of the ridiculously romantic city of tiny canals and numerous gondolas.
I had been there before with my parents and brother and we did park on the main land and take the train to the actual island of Venice. So that was the plan on this time too. And we were looking for the train station. But due my excellent navigation and good co-driver skills we accidentally found ourselves driving on the bridge that takes you straight to the island. And there was no coming back. Cars in front, behind and next to us we were saying aloud a few pretty words that can not be written down here, we were stuck in the line that was pushing towards the real nightmare of parking. I mean Venice is a city were people move by boats. You can not even bysicle because of the bridges and small alleys that take you from one canal to another. So no, you can not really go cruising around with a four-wheeler and we obviously needed to dump the car somewhere. But as we came a little after 5 pm and were planning to spend just a few hours we parked at this parking site that costed us 4 euros an hour. So I mean for us it came out even with the option of parking at the station in the mainland, paying for the train park and then the round trip train tickets for two. And well it was faster and easier that way too, the car was even parked for us. So we swapped pants, filled the water bottles, took few apricots to keep away the worst hunger and started walking towards the old city center.
Venice was as beautiful as always. Even Arno liked it despite his hate towards the overly crouded tourist attractions. It wasn't even that crowded by the time we got there. We got to walk a long time before bumping into anyone and got even a little lost a couple of times but slowly slowly made it towards the center. Oh, I loved it. So beautiful. The sun was setting, people were eating pasta outside and gondolas going up and down the canals. Such a warm summer night feeling with all the old men playing harmonics, singing in their boats and one guy made even music out of wineglasses. Music and talking on one street, silence on the other. Turn wrong once and you get lost in the maze of beautiful little shops that sell handmade masks and wooden dolls, cafeterias that smell like freshly roasted coffee and gelato stands with dozens of flavors. Kids playing football at the square and ladies walking their dogs. And well then of course all the tourists feeding the pigeons...
We made it to the San Marco plaza until we got totally annoyed by the tourists and just walked fast to the harbor where we sat down and watched the huge cruise ships go by and little gondols rock with the waves. We met this guy with a crooked chin that was selling these beautiful paintings. I was dying to buy one because I am a big collector of art buy different artist all around the world. I always look for the coolest people or different styles but sadly this time we had no cash with us.
As the evening went on we settled down for pizza. We found this cute little place on a side road and were served by this nice, happy lady who brought us super tasty pizza which was a relief because I myself have had my worst pizza ironicly in Italy. But these were tasty. We also got to google for a place to sleep the night. I mean it was like 8 pm. It was hard, near Venice apartments are always super expensive but Arno managed to find one at lake Garda that is actually an area for rich people to spend their holiday so the hotel room we found with 40 euros (including breakfast) was a super good deal. Arno called the hotel and it was booked, we finished our pizzas and decided to keep going.
We walked around and as the shops started to close and headed towards the direction of our car. All the sudden the locals found their way out to the streets. There were bachelor party groups and people standing outside of bars drinking wine and chatting over a cigaret. It was super international and way different than what I recall from my own clubbing experiences. I liked the vibe, just chilling outside in the warm night listening to good music instead of pushing the beer smelling silver backs around the swetty dance floor in Helsinkis Amarillo.
We had to keep the pace up to get to the hotel before the check-in would close. And of course we got lost like a thousand times before making it to the car. The parking ended up costing us 16 euros (btw 24h park is only 26 euros so if you are a big group travelling buy car, it is cheaper and easier to drive) so we were actually pretty happy that we took the car instead of the train. We quickly got back on the road and headed towards Garda, tired but happy that we came to see the sinking city of Venice. And I personally am still deeply in love with the place, it is so romantic! So I really recommend it. Not even impossible for a weekend getaway since the airport is just by the island. I've even seen roundtrip tickets with 122 euros from Helsinki. One of my favorite cities in the world. Easy to go around by foot, a lot to see but not too much that one weekend or even one day wouldn't be enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment