Day 57 – Venice

0km of 3828km so far…

I woke up with the nice view of Venice, but also some big boats crossing. We had already said with Justin and Sam that would cross to Venice together, so we got ready and took the little boat.

The sea in between the camp site and Venice

The sea in between the camp site and Venice

I got a little bit annoyed with the amount of money I spend with within the morning. The reason I chose this campsite was because it is just opposite Venice, so I thought with the 3 days vaporeto pass I would be fine, but I wasn’t. The pass didn’t cover the boat from the campsite, so I had to pay an extra €25 for these three days. But I guess that’s Venice

for you, so I just had to deal with it.

Approaching Venice

Approaching Venice

We finally got to the city which is as interesting as I had expected. You can only agree that it is a very strange but beautyful place. It is also packed with tourists and all the central places are saturated with souvenir shops, very expensive restaurants and cafes and gondola owners chasing you for a romatic boat ride, within the canals.

At the grand canal

At the grand canal

The famous Rialto bridge

The famous Rialto bridge

That reminds me I have to do the laundry

That reminds me I have to do the laundry

Venice is famous for its masks

Venice is famous for its masks

During my stay, it happened to be the 53rd Bienalle of Venice, so I though I should take the opportunity and visit it. There are two massive exhibition spaces that require a ticket, but also several smaller venues that are free. I bought the ticket and since I wouldn’t make both places in one day I decided to start with the smaller one, which is located in Arsenale which is the place where they used to make boats. The exhibits were all kind of modern art, some very interesting, others not as much.

Colorful art

Colorful art

Repetitive art

Repetitive art

It took me about two hours to go around it and by the end I was starving, so I left in a desire for one of those big and cheep sandwiches that I was seeing all day. Luckily the exhibition takes place in a quieter area of Venice, with more cosy cafes and bars, so I jumped into one of them and apart from food I took advantage of their toilet. As I said, Venice is a little bit expensive and one of the things that I find a little extreme is the €1.50 charge to go to one of the public toilets. I think they also accept credit cards.
After a little bit of wondering around the alleys, I ended up going to the National Modern Art Gallery for more art…

Bright art

Bright art

I had my typical ice cream and started making my way to the south to catch the boat back to the camping. One thing with Venice is that it is a lot bigger than you first think. The small alleys and canals, gives you the wrong impression, but in fact it is big and with the amount of dead ends, you end up wasting time which are dangerous for missing the latest boat.

Dead end

opst... wrong way

I made it back to the camp site at around 8pm, where I met Justin and Sam again and they kindly offered me food, which I was very glad to accept.

2 thoughts on “Day 57 – Venice

  1. Michael

    From your description Venice sounds less pleasant than a lot of the other places you’ve seen – I don’t like that kind of aggressively money-grubbing touristy place…

  2. Georgios Post author

    I know what you mean… but one way or another it is a unique place that is worth a visit. Ideally with a girl!
    =]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *