Tag Archives: Veneto

Day 58 – Venice

0km of 3828km so far…

Me, Justin and Sam caught the 9am boat to get to Venice. We walked together up to the Saint Marco square, where there were small patches of water and apparently Venice floods every 5 years around October and they put raised pathways for the people to walk on.

Gondollas, many of them
Gondollas, many of them

The pathways just in case...

The pathways just in case...

After we separated, I took the vaporeto for the south east edge of Venice to go to the big venue of Biennale. The venue was build in 1895 and apart from its main exhibition space, it has several smaller pavilions for individual countries. The whole exhibition was rather big and I got out of it completely overdosed at around 3pm.

La Biennale it self!

La Biennale it self!

ropy art

ropy art

blue art

blue art

dead art

dead art

I took the vaporeto which went all around Venice and then crossed to Murano island up north. Murano is famous for its glass making furnaces, but to be honest that was all about it. It was very similar with Venice it self in terms of architecture and the canals and all the main streets were full of glass shops, one after the other. I wasn’t interested in buying anything that can be broken, so I went around some alleys in fast forward and then I caught the vaporeto again. I went even norther to the island of Burano. This is indeed a very beautiful island. It’s very small and quite, with only three or four canals running within it. Its main feature is the colorful houses, as each one is painted with a different bright color. Burano is about an hour away by boat, so as it was getting late I had to catch the vaporeto to Venice and then the last one to my camp site.

Murano and its glass

Murano and its glass

Burano

Burano

Colorful canals

Colorful canals

... and windows

... and windows

... and me

... and me

Sunset from the vaporeto

Sunset from the vaporeto

At the square the big cafes always play music to creat atmoshpere

At the square the big cafes always play music to creat atmoshpere

Today was very probabe one of the coldest days of my trip and as I was not cycling it was a little hard to keep warm. I am glad that about a month ago I bought a silk liner for my sleeping bag which improves the warmth a lot, as the temperature within the tent was around 9 degrees when I went to sleep.

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.