At the beginning of September, we made it to Venice. I had been looking forward to Venice the entire trip. I had heard so many different things I really didn't know what to think: I love Venice, I hate Venice, Venice smells, Venice is like Disneyland, etc. After our three nights there, I think we'd both agree that neither one of those sentiments is exactly wrong. It was dirty, over-touristed, and overwhelming at times, but in general we both really enjoyed it. It was definitely different than the other destinations we have been to thus far, but that's probably unsurprising. We didn't go out to big dinners because there seemed to be other things worth doing and we didn't see all of the sights because walking around was just as much fun.
Perhaps the most interesting part of our three night trip was our constant presence at CommieFest 2009 outside of the Venice fish market. It was about a two week event. I'm not sure what was being said or what they hoped to achieve, but they did sell cheap food and E1.50 very, very large glasses of wine which we took to a little dock on the side of the Grand Canal to drink with the local cool kids arriving by motor boat who also had no qualms about pretending to be Commies in exchange for cheap wine. Alas, I ended my political career for 3 euros of wine.
Erin and Ryan suggested that we go to Piazza Santa Margherita and get some pizza and enjoy the scene. We did that our second night there and went back again the last night. We split some greasy pizza on a bench which seemed to be what most of the other people were doing.
We ventured to a gelato place recommended in one of our books (Gelato Alaska). Here is Ali with a scoop of stracciotella and a scoop of Orange-Arugala.
As was suggested by professionals (my grandparents) and amateurs (Rick Steves), we took a cruise down the Vaporetto #1 at night to see the sights. Given the darkness and the moving, none of these picutres came out, but here is Ali enjoying the cruise.
A lot of the other things we saw weren't photographed (or are being saved for Ali's post (which is sure to be awesome (she made me say that))), but we also did a tour of the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's, and a trip to Murano to see hand blown glass (Ali's idea). We saved a lot of the museum/artsy stuff for another trip.
We also passed the Bridge of Sighs numerous times. We crossed the bridge during our tour of the Doges Palace, but you really don't get the full impact of the sight unless you see it from the outside:
As anybody who has been to Venice knows, the Bridge of Sighs is named because every remaining Venetian resident sighs as they pass it lamenting what has become of their city.
Between getting lost and pretending to be Reds for a couple of nights, I think we both found Venice a lively, enjoyable city. I understand why some people don't enjoy it. It's certainly overwhelming and packed with tourists. But it was also extremely quiet outside of the tourist areas and all the locals that passed seemed to know each other. I'd happily go back again.
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