Blog Six: Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy [2-6 October]

Disembarking from the MSC Fantasia for the final time in Trieste sees us adding to the chaotic scenes in the ferry terminal. Buses, taxis and cars arrive, with little or no traffic control, and no queuing system. He or she who speaks Italian appears to get a taxi, we don’t.

Fiona has the bright idea of crossing the main road to the large and very posh Savoia Hotel – we stayed in its sister hotel in Genoa in 2019 – where we install ourselves in the lobby bar, order coffee, and encounter the red and white uniformed Trieste football team (Serie C) who are in the hotel for a pre-match meeting. After a wee while we have blended in with the furniture, so I go to Reception and ask them to call us a taxi to the railway station. It arrives almost immediately and a polite driver takes us at a reasonable cost to where we want to go – problem solved.

A comfortable high speed train journey from Trieste takes us to Venice Mestre, just as we did back in 1980 with our Transalpino tickets. A local train then conveys us across the lagoon to Venice Santa Lucia and we walk out of the exit marked “Grand Canal” to meet with the same incredible and unique city scene as we encountered open-mouthed 42 years ago.

First task is to buy a couple of week passes for the vaporetti – the city’s waterborn equivalent to buses. That accomplished, Fiona scans her pass and hands me mine as she walks through the electronic barrier. The little flappy gates remain open after her. I hesitate, then try to follow her, whereupon they swing sharply shut and hit me in the nuts. Welcome to Venice!

Two stops up the Grand Canal (one for each aching testicle) and we alight at the pier for our apartment, which is in a former palazzo, right on the Grand Canal. It also has that most prized of Venice assets, a small garden with a terrace and a stone balustrade overlooking the canal. Traffic, from gondolas to ambulances, never stops.

We are shown into the apartment and first impressions are a bit iffy. The curtains are closed, and it is quite dark and confusingly laid out. It also smells like an old people’s home – and that’s before we have settled in. Everything in Venice is damp, for obvious reasons, but once we get used to our surroundings we begin to fully appreciate how good they are – especially the location!

One de-merit, however, is that the small kitchen has a responsive hob, just like Casa das Flores in Madeira with Kathleen and Sean ten years ago, and just like our otherwise wonderful apartment in El Puerto de Santa Maria in 2018. As with our previous experiences, this kitchen contains a range of metal objects which the hob will not respond to. We eat in only once and it is a fraught experience.

Each morning we have breakfast on the terrace overlooking the canal. I suggest that to come out with a drink in the early evening would also be really nice, but that we might have a problem with the mosquito population so close to the water. Fiona mentions that the guest book contains a note that the size of the rats which come out to play on the terrace as night falls is disconcerting. We decide against it. The narrow streets around our front door are liberally festooned with rat boxes, but happily we don’t actually clap eyes on a rat during our stay.

Our first full day is glorious weather-wise. We get on a vaporetto to go a few stops down the Grand Canal, but it is so lovely that we gradually work our way to the outdoor seats at the front and stay on for as long as possible. Definitely a cheaper way to tour the Grand Canal than a water taxi and, after passing under a variety of famous bridges, we motor right on out across the lagoon and back round to St. Mark’s Square. Photo opportunities abound and we take full advantage of the day in the knowledge that the weather may change for the worse soon.

We visit the Gallery Ca’ Pesaro housed in a huge palazzo which has a fantastic exhibition of sculpture, painting and glass, including Klimt and Rodin, together with some Italian artists we have never heard of. Well worth a visit, the gallery also has a groovy cafe which faces out through open arches onto the Grand Canal.

A longer waterbus trip takes us out across the lagoon to the island of Murano, famous for its manufacture of colourful glass. Murano has quiet canals and a very laid back and peaceful feel compared to the hustle and bustle of Venice. You can visit its glass museum, go to demonstrations of glass blowing and glass manufacture, shop in endless glass filled shops selling everything from the allegedly arty to bright tourist tat. We did none of those. To be honest, neither of us particularly liked any of the vast array of glass objects we saw on our wander through the streets and canals of Murano. There’s a woman in Orkney who does it much better.

It is such a joy to visit Venice with a bit more money than we had back in 1980, and staying in such a fantastic location as we are. We feel that this time we have really got around the city and sampled what it has to offer. In the evening, a five minute stroll takes up from the quiet backstreet we inhabit to a busy thoroughfair with a few nice wee trattorias to try – the fish is particularly good.

Getting around by the vaporetti is a great way to see Venice, but they can be very crowded and are a favoured haunt of pickpockets. On one journey, we are preparing to disembark for our apartment, when Fiona senses trouble, and reaches down to find a women’s hand has unzipped her shoulder pouch and her iPhone is half way out. The hand withdraws and its owner melts into the crowd but it is a salutory lesson on security for us.

As we prepare to leave the Ca’ dei Cuori apartment to catch the vaporetto to the station for our train to Verona, we have a last look around. Fiona spies my passport tucked away down the side of an armchair. I am favoured with a withering glare – that would have complicated life somewhat!

My dozen favourite images from our stay in Venice are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.

Image Gallery