You’ll notice this one is capitalised. Its one thats always been high on the bucket list.
But, before we get to Venice we have another stop after Modena – Padua or Padova in the local patois. Well we didn’t quite get into Padova for the night, having booked a hotel relatively nearby which was affordable. As a side point we’ve tended to look mostly at 3 star hotels cos they are reasonably affordable and indeed in Italy they are, far more so than in the UK. A typical cost here so far has been under $100.00au per night whereas it was $150.00 in the UK. Here though so far the quality has been much higher than the UK albiet a little less interesting, that is until we got to Montegrotto Terme near Padova – WOW!….
but, it is still stinking hot and here the aircon was more than a little ineffective. This one was more expensive at $143.00 but it did include breakfast and we dined in the main dining room that night to a 4 course meal that was brilliant for just another $70.00 including drinks. She’s an old girl apparently having been built in the 1960’s to take advantage of the areas spa fad, as have 5 or 6 other major hotels but they’re all fraying around the edges. Even the peacock in the garden seemed to be fraying.
Anyway, on to Venice. Now I’d booked this online some weeks ago and the confirmation suggested that we should contact the venue at least 48 hours before arrival to arrange pick-up of keys. This is billed as an apartment not a hotel and is shown to be some 53 sq mtrs which all sounds very atrractive and huge by what we’ve become accustomed to, so we’re looking forward to swinging the cat. I ring the provided number 48 hours in advance to get ‘sorry, you have wrong number I give you nuther number to ring’. Ring the second number to get ‘ I call you back’. Second number does indeed ring back some hours later to say “I get my secretary to ring you’
Eventually secretary rings back with ‘I not know you can you send me booking details, boss is overseas and he has all the booking information with him’.I ring the booking agency, Hotels.com and hold while they try to ring the venue to no avail. Oh well call us again in the morning if nothing happens.In the meantime I text the booking details to “the secretary” who, next day, gets back with question ‘when you arrive?’ (Sorry,this is sounding like someone on twitterface). Anyhow, we eventually after many texts arrange to meet near the flat on the nominated day, only to be kept waitng for 3/4 hour and then whilst flat is still being cleaned asked to come back in 1/2 hour though not before taking 40 euro cleaning fee, 18 euro local tax and another 200 euro as a security deposit the latter being entirely unadvised.
By late afternoon we’re ensconced. The temperature is hovering around 38 and humidity about 90. At least the aircon worked..
and we were right on a canal…
After a bit of a rest we went out for dinner and boy was there some choice – Italian, Italian , Italian, Italian, Italian and I think that is about half of what was in the plaza around us – the rest were Italian….
but, over our 3 nights we tried 3 and they were all good.
But, food is not what we’re here for. We’re here for VENICE!!! Firstly though I seriously underestimated the time needed – 3 nights and 2 days has not been near enough, exacerbated by the temperature. We were not physically able to take in all that Venice has to offer.. but here is a small sampling….
and this is just day one.
The cruise ships, the private yatchs, the canals the alley ways, the Doges Palace, the shops selling dress ups for festival and did you notice the knockers on that one.
We used the waterbus (ferries) to get around but discovered we are not really world travellers cos we got fined for failing to register our ferry tickets. The fine is abut 70 euros each. Needless to say I had a few words to say to the 3 female ticket nazis when they tried to arrest us. How the hell were we supposed to know that two piecesof paper carried electronic info…
as it turns out when you tap these things on a card reader at the docks they ‘beep’ and you’re good. We showed them to the first ferry person when we got on and got a grunt so we thought OK we’re good.
Day two dawned hotter and not aided by lack of sleep cos of the constant waterway traffic overnight we headed out to see what more we could see…
(the cars are on Lido, one of the larger islands)
Venice is 100 plus islands, many of them mud flats. It dates back to 450 or thereabouts when the original Venetians ie those of Veneto on the mainland who sought to escape the invasion of the Visigoths, the northern hoards. Much of the infrastructure is still built on top of ‘adler’ timber poles…
as illustrated by this model in the Maritime Museum, which were sunk back then although somewhat expanded upon since. Apparently Venice is sinking but it also has to cope with rising water levels so perhaps we might not get another chance to see it.
I loved Venice, Judes not quite so sure. I would go back tomorrow, I think there is still so much more to see and experience. It is a truly intriguing city albiet with a current population of less than 60k. Tourists add 20 million annually to that number so it is a seething mass, certainly at this time of year. To go back I think October, November would be better
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