Day 19: Venice day two

Second day in Venice, and the team was up and at em, eating a substantial brekkie of rice cake under a silken dragon motif on the wall. Yum.

We typically had missed our train, so read up on Venice and its various tours while waiting for the next one, booking a walking tour for that night. 

Seasoned as we were at this point with the Italian trains, we'd finally worked out that they never ever check tickets. So we ran for our train and daringly jumped on board last minute without visiting the kiosk first. Unfortunately, Murphy's law was golden, and this was the only ticket that got  checked our whole trip. Slammed with a 15 euro fine. Ah well, coulda been worse. Lesson learned.

We spent the rest of the day wandering and getting lost. Venice is beautiful and we just strolled around, pausing occasionally to pose heroically, creep on English speaking tours, consume gelato, etc.

Now I've noticed that when I'm travelling, I'll sometimes mistake a complete stranger (likely from another country) with a friend or family member. This had been happening t both of us constantly, but just near piazza San Marco, we spotted him: our awesome housemate Matt Connor. In Venice and he hadn't even told us. Ok, maybe not actually him, but possibly his long lost twin, complete with tattoo sleeve. 278ers, appreciate:

That mission accomplished, we returned to more heroic posing and faking random accents, though my default (aka only reliable one) is Indian. More reliable than my weird half-American accent these days actually. 

Rain was threatening, so we smugly nabbed prime spot at a restaurant's covered terrace to wait it out. And wait more. Sub par meal finished and faux pas cappuccino consumed (apparently bad taste to have a cappuccino after your meal), it still hadnt rained.  I stretched out that thimble sized cappuccino, taking about half an hour to finish it, and we realized we really couldn't hold out any longer, so left. As the rain hit. 

Luckily it didn't last long, and we sat in the piazza waiting for our night tour while I called my mama to wish her happy birthday. :)

Happy birthday, mama!!

Bridge of Sighs

Matt then reported that our night tour was only going to be us, and our charming guide Andreas, a Venetian local, took us all around the city. One of my favourite stories he told us was about a pre medieval revolutionary who had planned to murder the ruler of Venice and all his men in the doges palace in order to gain power. OK, I'll tell the story. At night, as the man and his followers made their way down a narrow alley (now packed with souvenir stands) they were found out, and a huge swordfight began. An old woman peeked down from her window and nudged her mortar and pestle off the sill, directly onto the revolutionary's head, killing him and saving the city. The nameless old woman is immortalized with a small statue, high on the wall where she once lived.

Andreas also told us about the corruption among the city's gondoliers (you needed millions of euros or the right connections to hold a coveted license), showed us many hidden alleys and architectural curiosities, including a graffiti man drawn in the 1700s and the houses of ancient guilds, and generally was good fun to be around.

Matt's attempt to right the most crooked doorway in the city

Our tour finished around midnight, and we grabbed one of the last trains back 'home.' Big day tomorrow.

Day 18: Venice

Goooooooood morning Mogliano. I love the smell of Italian/Chinese/Japanese cuisine in the morning.

When we finally woke from our salt-induced comas, we found a beautiful sunny day awaiting us. As usual, we had neglected to prepare or plan anything for the day, and a brief bit of research over breakfast showed we were already going to be too late to catch most of the guided tours that morning. We finished up our plastic croissants and headed for the train station. About a ten minute walk and a 20 minute train ride later, we walked straight out of Venice's main station and into our first pun of the day -

MonkDonalds. He's lovin' it.

Contrary to my naïve vision of the city, there were also walkways and streets and not just canals everywhere. We followed the main street through all the tourist schlock and manage to lose and rejoin the crowds at regular intervals. At one point we stumbled upon the central markets, brightly coloured stands of fruit and vegetables, fresh seafood and all manner of handmade trinkets.

We found a supermarket right around the time we both started feeling hungry, our breakfast hadn't exactly provided a lot of sustenance. We selected some premade salads, sandwiches and fruit drinks, and found some quiet steps to enjoy our lunch on. We took a few pictures of the residential canal we were by and pondered life in such a waterlogged environment. It was then that we noticed a small sign above our heads, and realised we'd simulateously been breaking several laws (We later also read it is against city laws to sit or eat in any areas that aren't designated for that specific purpose!). We did at least manage to find a bin for our rubbish.

We studied a rather useful map we had borrowed from the b&b and found where we thought we might be, and a few places we wanted to check out. Having now read Inferno, I was hot on the trail of Robert Langdon still and trying to recognise more sights and highlights from the book. We crossed countless canals and took about the same number of photos. We eventually made our way to Piazza San Marco in the early evening and settled in at one of the cafes for some people and pigeon watching.

Is it too late to change my mind?

There were numerous newlyweds posing for pictures, some of them looking less than enthused about the situation. Whether they were regretting a recently avowed life decision or simply the fact that they were both covered in mutant pigeons, it was hard to tell. We've started pointing out 'twins' to each other, couples who have somehow managed to dress alike. Quite common amongst the older community with BOGOF deals on beige jackets, it seems to be catching on.

One of our favourite opportunities though is taking pictures of awkward people taking pictures. Now this could be a gallery unto itself.

Dedication: She didn't appear to even know the couple

We saw people getting into rather extreme positions to take the perfect picture. There were people taking selfies of course, de rigeur at any touristic opportunity. The latest evolution of a selfie appears to be having your camera mounted on the end of a very long stick. We saw all manner of squatting, reaching and other physical contortion to get the right angle, one woman even lying on the ground. All this while fending off a constant stream of very persistent rose sellers and pigeons.

With my Indian rose selling friend

They wander around with a fistful of roses, making a beeline for any couple who look even remotely attracted to each other. Or not. They then shove a rose in the guys face and refuse to take no for an answer. “E la mia sorella” (she's my sister) seemed to misdirect a few of them, then one caught me planting a kiss on Auds cheek. “E la mia sorella?” I tried again … He laughed, thrust a second rose in my face saying “haha, I understand this too, I am Indian”. Can't make this stuff up, I didn't even realise that was a thing in India!

The live music started up as the sun was going down behind the Basilica, and we sat for a few more hours.

We finished our drinks and started hunting for somewhere to have dinner. Having seen il conto for our drinks, we didn't even want to know what the meals would have cost. We tried a few blocks further back from the main square, and found some places that looked like they served reasonably authentic food, but then we realised the train station was on the other side of the city and we didn't even know when the last train left. We asked one guy how far it was, he looked at us quizzically … “a piedi?”, he laughs … probably on foot at least 50 minutes. Great!


We got to the station in 45, take that doubting Italian, and saw that we had a train in 5 or 25. We elected for the slightly later, giving us some time to find food first. Of course there's nothing but pizza slices by the station, so we chose the least offensive (actually they were really tasty) and sat on the banks of the grand canal before heading home.


Another full day in Venice tomorrow, we'll try to book a tour and structure our day a little better this time. But first a few more photos.

Peak hour traffic jam

This one's especially for fans of the Bean movie ... I found it humorous anyway!