Touring Italy — Venice
To celebrate my lifelong best friend’s completion of his undergrad, his sister and I planned a surprise two-week trip to a country he’s wanted to visit ever since he was a child — Italy! Italy is rich in history, culture, food and architecture so it was no surprise he’d been attracted to this country for so long. I managed to purchase two non-stop tickets from Toronto to Venice at a very affordable price thanks to Air Transat and within no more than two weeks of surprising him with the tickets to his dream trip, we headed off to the sunken city! This stop would be the first in a multi-city trip that included Venice, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, Vatican City, Pisa, Florence, & Bologna!
Being covered in water, there’s no way Venice can support a full-fledged airport in the city so the best way to get into Venice is to arrive at the Marco Polo airport, which is located on the mainland in Italy, and take a short bus ride into the city. What we found amazing is that once you get off the bus, that’ll be the last road vehicle you’ll see. From here on out, it’s all motorboats and gondolas!
As you can imagine, the canal system is absolutely breathtaking. The shimmering, reflective water and smell of ocean as you walk bridge over bridge is nothing short of incredible. While the canals in Amsterdam are beautiful in their own right, that city built canals to complement the road system. Here in Venice, walking by foot and waterways are the only methods of getting around — not even bikes are viable!
I picked out a hostel a short distance away from the train & bus stations and as luck would have it, we managed to score one of the only rooms with a balcony. Sure it was a small balcony, but the view overlooked a small restaurant square with street performers as well as a church. This was certainly a good first impression of the city thus far!
Walking through Venice is very odd since much of what used to be main streets are now waterways. This in turn makes any alleyway and narrow passageway a feasible public route. Large crowds of people funnel through narrow streets and somehow this is completely normal. These pathways have so many twists and turns that it’s easy to lose your sense of direction. To make things even worse, your choices of crossing over to the other side of a street will be limited by the number of bridges available. In many cases, you’ll need to take a rather large detour in search of a proper path to your destination. At one point during the night, we unintentionally looped around a district — it’s that confusing! The city does shrink substantially once you learn all the little tricks, but it can certainly be daunting for the first day.
During our first day of exploration, we came across the Rialto Bridge, which is undoubtedly one of the largest and most famous bridges in all of Venice as it goes over the entire Grand Canal. This bridge is so large that it’s lined with shops on both sides of the bridge — yes, shops! Truly an architectural marvel, this bridge attracts millions of tourists every year. The view from the top of the bridge is certainly one of the best in Venice as it oversees the main channel in Venice with boats of all sizes driving underneath.
The first thing we did the next day was go on a “secret itineraries” tour of the Doge’s Palace — seriously. More than just the name of an awesome internet meme, this 14th century icon was built as the place of residence for the Doge of Venice as well as hundreds of political bodies of the state. The doge was the supreme authority over the city with the power to administer and enforce law. The building was purposefully constructed on the waterfront of the south-east lagoon to form favourable impressions to visitors arriving by ship (back in the day that is). The waterfront façade is still quite magnificent.
Further to your right is a bridge that overlooks another bridge (lol). The bridge in question is called the Bridge of Sighs and connects to the Doge’s Palace (more on that in just a bit). Below is the view of that famous bridge from the bridge beside the Doge’s Palace.
Now, on with the tour! Upon entering the Doge’s Palace, you’ll find yourself in the courtyard where gorgeous façades surround you on all sides. In the distance you can see the top of St. Mark’s basilica, which will be visiting afterward. The staircase on the right is the official entrance way to the Palace and the top is where the new doge’s coronation would take place.
At the top of the staircase are two huge statues of Mars and Neptune, placed there in 1567 to represent power and dominion of Venice on the mainland and the sea. The doges ruled Venice for over 1000 years with the last doge being abdicated in 1797 under Napoleon’s rule.
The “secret itinerary” tour allows you to view many rooms that are not accessible to the public and include the Pozzi (which were tiny, dark, unhygienic prison cells in the palace itself), the Office of the Great Chancellor, torture chambers, Piombi (prison cells located directly under the roof and given to those who committed political crimes), the attic (to view the massive wooden roof trusses as well as some weapons), the Chamber of the Inquisitors (used to protect state secrets) and the Chamber of the Three Head Magistrates (where court cases were discussed). It was a really wonderful tour and if you ever go to Venice, I highly recommend checking it out.
Once the tour is finished, you can cross over the Bridge of Sighs (which I mentioned earlier) to what was known as the new prisons. This prison was built to improve the condition of the cells the prisoners at the Doge’s Palace were in. Since the court cases were evaluated in the Doge’s Palace, those sentenced to prison would be sent across the Bridge of Sighs to their cell. The small openings on the bridge were the final glimpses of the lagoon they would have. Knowing they had just lost their freedom, the expressions the new prisoners let out as they walked across the bridge were sighs — hence the name. Below is a picture from the Bridge of Sighs looking out at the lagoon (recall the reverse of this image from the bridge seen below).
The Doge’s Palace is located in the much larger St. Mark’s Square, which is best known for its Basilica and bell tower. The Doge’s Palace is actually connected to the basilica but you’ll have to exit and stand in line to the adjacent building if you want to get in to this next attraction. I strongly encourage you to pre-order your tickets for all attractions in Venice because you do not want to spend your vacation time standing in lines that can last up to two hours. If you book tours, make sure they include “skip the line” passes.
Entering St. Mark’s basilica is a wonder in of itself. The walls and ceilings shimmer with gold glass tesserae covering most of the visible space. You can walk around the main floor for free but it’s quite crowded and goes by quickly. For €10, I highly recommend you tour the upper level which overlooks both the inside of the basilica, allows access to the museum, as well as walk on the roof. From this height, you can really appreciate the beauty of the interior craftsmanship.
The real wonder, however, is the view from the roof. The view of St. Mark’s square, the bell tower and the Doge’s Palace from up here is magnificent!
We took the water bus back to our hostel and it made for some amazing shots! This, unfortunately, was the only time we were on the waterways in Venice. The gondolas were far too expensive for the short durations the gondoliers were asking, so the water bus was the best alternative (although there were no singing Italians serenading us on this watercraft!). However, for the price of a bus ticket, you can ride the Grand Canal and see a lot more of the city this way. Here are some highlights:
We were pretty strapped for time in catching our train to the next city when we boarded this water bus. Once the bus docked, my best friend and I partook in what was quite possibly the greatest mad dash I’ve ever done. We sprinted back to the main lobby, grabbed our luggage and made it to the train station in time for city #2 — Naples!
Venice, as amazing as it was, accounted for only 1/6th of the total trip and we have volcanoes to climb and islands to explore! Be sure to stay tuned for the next entry of this epic adventure!
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This blog entry is part of the publication Robert Cekan Travels & was originally written on July 22, 2014
Robert Cekan is a young entrepreneur and proud Hamiltonian. He is the founder of the Hamilton discovery website True Resident, as well as Cekan Group, a property management group. He is also a Hamilton REALTOR® with Ambitious Realty Advisors Inc., Brokerage and an active blogger.
For all of Robert’s projects, please visit robertcekan.com
