Since I was a little girl and read about the city where there were no roads only canal I always wanted to visit Venice.
A couple of years ago, I got a chance to turn my wish into a reality. The place is awesome. We went from Florence to Venice by train. As soon as we exited the train station (after booking for our return tickets cause just like the Indians the Italian railways were going on a strike the next day)what do I see but the Grand Canal with its gondolas and vapouratties(water buses).
For about 15 minutes we just sat on the steps of the canals taking in the sights and sounds around us. All that I had imagined Venice to be it was in the very first glance and my next three days there made me fall in love with the real Venice.
San marco square and the Dodge’s palace, the bridge of Sighs, Murano and Burano the islands of glass and lace respectively are all very very crowded but definitely worth the visit.
If you have a good map of Venice(which I did) navigating the 3 feet wide bylanes to cut across from one end to another and beating the vaporatties to the same place added to the fun.
The hotel we stayed in was a very reasonable one Euros 70 for three persons with breakfast.Eating out is very cheap if you do not go to the high flying restaurants.
There was never an hour of the day when there wans’t a gellati (icecream) in our hands. The varieties they have of the icecreams is awesome and when (not if but when) I go back to Italy again one of the first things I will do is go back to Venice for a second dekkho and hog on ice creams.
I can guarantee all you weight watchers you will not gain an ounce cause there is so much walking to do, you may even come back weighing less than you originally did.
Buy a good guide for Italy (I used Go Europe cause I was touring western Europe) and backpack.
Bon Voyage or as they say in Italy Ciao.