While in Florence, we decided to spend a day in Venice. To avoid disappointment and to ensure a cheaper fare, we purchased the Florence - Venice train tickets a day in advance. Early next morning on 21 May, we walked to the Florence Train Station from our accommodation to catch the high speed train - Trenitalia High Speed Rail.
Venice is known in many names - City of Water, City of Canals, Floating City, City of Bridges among others.
Waterbus or vaporetto is the only mean of public transport. However, not all opt to travel in this mode of transport. A common sight is to see overnight visitors trudging strenuously and simultaneously dragging their luggage along the alleyways to the hotels or back to the train station. The more well-off lots chose to hire potters to do the hard work.
Our visit to Venice in May coincided with the peak season when most of the popular sites were jam-packed with people. With an annual visitors count of 30 million, it would be a miracle for us not to be caught in long queues. But our policy has been to avoid attractions that needed long hours of queuing.
Waterbus or vaporetto is the only mean of public transport. However, not all opt to travel in this mode of transport. A common sight is to see overnight visitors trudging strenuously and simultaneously dragging their luggage along the alleyways to the hotels or back to the train station. The more well-off lots chose to hire potters to do the hard work.
Our visit to Venice in May coincided with the peak season when most of the popular sites were jam-packed with people. With an annual visitors count of 30 million, it would be a miracle for us not to be caught in long queues. But our policy has been to avoid attractions that needed long hours of queuing.
Public transport is by vaporetto, the waterbus.
It is said that one thing the locals never do is to take a ride of the gondola simply because they are considered way too expensive. Gondoliers are among the most well-paid people in Venice - earning around US$150,000 a year. Still, visitors appear undeterred by the price. We did not take the gondola. Instead, we chose to move around by walking along alleyways and hopped onto the waterbus when we decided to do a round cruise of the canal network.
As we witnessed first hand, people who die here are not transported by hearse car. Instead the remains is transported by funeral boat or water hearse.
Stores selling Venetian masks are a common sight. Buying a Venetian mask is almost like buying a panda soft toy in Sichuan or a wakid in a local indigenous cultural centre in Sabah. We bought two tiny masks for our grandkids in Australia.
We crossed the Rialto Bridge to go to the Rialto Market. Unfortunately, it was closed by then.
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