I slept all the time till we landed in Venice-Treviso airport. Transfer to Venice took us an hour or a bit more. The bus delivered its passengers to Piazza di Roma, the biggest and the only "on land" transport place on the main Venice island. Actually, Venice is considered to have the largest "traficless" area out of all European cities which is pretty obvious considering the architecture and placement of the city.
As we had no place to leave the luggage and at first our backpacks seemed not so heavy, we decided to explore the main routes before heading to Bologna. First step during most of our travels was accomplished immediately at the nearest kiosk - we bought the map, second - getting enough strength for the city walk (i.e. getting some calories) - was fulfilled in the small park area next to the bus station. It was more than +30 °C (the exact weather following us during our all 3.5 stay in Italy), so finishing our Prague-made sandwiches and drinking some soda in the shade of the trees ,watching the pigeons and reading Ukrainian phrases on the trash bins: "..., I love you forever", seemed the perfect start of the journey (smile).
After all the preparations we started the walk in one of the most amazing European cities - through all the narrow streets and across all the bridges, seeing all the magnificence created here centuries ago. We explore little squares with the churches and fountains, found lots of arches and small bridges which led into the depth of the non-tourist routes...
From time to time we hit the bigger channels with water taxis and gondolas revealing the bigger scale life of Venice. We walked more along the narrow streets looking up to see the cloths handing on the ropes, seeing the flowers pots, the shutters, thinking how could anyone live in such an incredible place, spend the childhood, fell in love...
All the time we walked in Venice we fell like we were in some fairy tale, in past times... Partly this feeling was created by the absence of the tourist crowds which, I guess, were following one another on the main streets or just disappeared till the evening as the sun was completely outrageous (smile).
When we got on the main street heading towards Rialto - the most famous and the biggest bridge - we experienced a bit different Venice, hot, loud and crowded. What saved us was the view on the main channel from the bridge... It was stunning and breathtaking... but still we couldn't bare the sun for a long time and escape into the shades of the streets.
We walked more approaching St.Marco square. On our way we stopped at a small local place for a coffee and a small (really small - 0.2l) beer. The place also had a tap white wine which apparently was something very common for Italy and what we explored more and several in details later that and the next day in Bologna (smile).
St.Marco square was huge and full of light. Almost all the people were sitting on its perimeter in the shades not willing to cross it under any circumstances. We crossed it towards Basilica di San Marco but decided to leave all the "interior" sightseeing and climbing up the tower for the last days and headed directly to the Riva with its numerous shops and souvenir stalls, great views of the other islands and numerous gondola "parkings".
Tired by the sun we left the street and strolled into the direction of the other part of the island, along the wide channel and then the small ones, the Arsenal museum and some local wine shops. We ate some gelatto and rested on couple of squares, bought some souvenirs (better to do that in the first day of your trip while you still have the money) and took more photos of the incredible city surrounding us.
In the end we came to Fondamenta Nuove with its gorgeous view of San Michele cemetery (where Diagilev, Stravinsky and Brodsky were buried) on a separate island with a great architecture of the walls and tall cypresses inside. Unfortunately in the last full day of our stay we hadn't enough time to visit it which I'd definitely do the next time.
We had couple of pizza slices before heading back in the direction of Piazza di Roma to catch the train to Bologna. The streets were the same narrow and nice, the channels still looked charming and refreshing, but we were really tired to absorb all that beauty the same as earlier that day. What did bring us more positive emotions was a glass (still small) of a very tasty Italian beer and the view on the square with Teatro Italia.
As we had no place to leave the luggage and at first our backpacks seemed not so heavy, we decided to explore the main routes before heading to Bologna. First step during most of our travels was accomplished immediately at the nearest kiosk - we bought the map, second - getting enough strength for the city walk (i.e. getting some calories) - was fulfilled in the small park area next to the bus station. It was more than +30 °C (the exact weather following us during our all 3.5 stay in Italy), so finishing our Prague-made sandwiches and drinking some soda in the shade of the trees ,watching the pigeons and reading Ukrainian phrases on the trash bins: "..., I love you forever", seemed the perfect start of the journey (smile).
After all the preparations we started the walk in one of the most amazing European cities - through all the narrow streets and across all the bridges, seeing all the magnificence created here centuries ago. We explore little squares with the churches and fountains, found lots of arches and small bridges which led into the depth of the non-tourist routes...
From time to time we hit the bigger channels with water taxis and gondolas revealing the bigger scale life of Venice. We walked more along the narrow streets looking up to see the cloths handing on the ropes, seeing the flowers pots, the shutters, thinking how could anyone live in such an incredible place, spend the childhood, fell in love...
All the time we walked in Venice we fell like we were in some fairy tale, in past times... Partly this feeling was created by the absence of the tourist crowds which, I guess, were following one another on the main streets or just disappeared till the evening as the sun was completely outrageous (smile).
When we got on the main street heading towards Rialto - the most famous and the biggest bridge - we experienced a bit different Venice, hot, loud and crowded. What saved us was the view on the main channel from the bridge... It was stunning and breathtaking... but still we couldn't bare the sun for a long time and escape into the shades of the streets.
St.Marco square was huge and full of light. Almost all the people were sitting on its perimeter in the shades not willing to cross it under any circumstances. We crossed it towards Basilica di San Marco but decided to leave all the "interior" sightseeing and climbing up the tower for the last days and headed directly to the Riva with its numerous shops and souvenir stalls, great views of the other islands and numerous gondola "parkings".
Tired by the sun we left the street and strolled into the direction of the other part of the island, along the wide channel and then the small ones, the Arsenal museum and some local wine shops. We ate some gelatto and rested on couple of squares, bought some souvenirs (better to do that in the first day of your trip while you still have the money) and took more photos of the incredible city surrounding us.
We had couple of pizza slices before heading back in the direction of Piazza di Roma to catch the train to Bologna. The streets were the same narrow and nice, the channels still looked charming and refreshing, but we were really tired to absorb all that beauty the same as earlier that day. What did bring us more positive emotions was a glass (still small) of a very tasty Italian beer and the view on the square with Teatro Italia.
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