Venturing out in Venice

Our second full day in Venice was a lot less structured, as in not at all.

Joe was up early as always and most of the others followed in a reasonable amount of time and left for a nice omelette breakfast across the street, I mean narrow path, that ran in front of our building. Bryan and I eventually caught up with the others about lunch time.  (Neither of us could get up and going that early)

This was just a casual day of getting lost in what I’ve started calling the Venice Maze Trap. I have a pretty good sense of direction normally, and can almost always orient myself wherever I am, but here I couldn’t tell North from South. We relied heavily on the maps on our phones. 

During the day the tiny streets and passageways are full of people scurrying every which way which just adds to the confusion of trying to navigate this literal maze.

We had lunch in the courtyard of a little square where we were surrounded by pigeons, lots of tourists, and local vendors selling their wares, which pretty much describes every little square in Venice. 

We came at the ‘off season’ in hopes of fewer tourists, but were surprised at the huge crowds and wondered about the massive tourism during peak season. Venice is said to be slowly sinking, and it’s hard not to think it is because of the combined weight of the throngs of visitors. 

We all enjoyed the bridges. Not crossing them, that just meant more stairs, but each one offered unique views of the canals as they were all different, and some quite beautiful, and always intriguing. Not to mention, as our tour guide said, each time you cross a bridge you cross over to another island. And there were certainly a lot of them.

We visited the famous Realto bridge, then a farmers market with the most vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables-and a few foods we didn’t recognize, and arrived at the edge of the grand canal.  We bought a water bus ticket for the day and started down the waterway.

The canal was a buzz of activity and filled will all manner of boats. Besides the numerous water buses, there were water taxis, private boats and gondolas, all sharing the same body of water, and all seemingly going in different directions. Where the narrow walking streets were the rat’s maze, the water was the rat’s nest. Numerous vehicles were criss-crossing, passing, starting and stopping and turning all at the same time. 

We arrived at the Academia, a well known museum where we decided to break into two groups. One group wanted to continue to experience the amazing sights and sounds of Venice, and the other wanted to pay money to stand around in an old building and stare at boring pictures. (I will refrain in mentioning which group I was in).

More formally, The Gallerie dell' Accademia is a renowned art museum founded in the 18th century as an art school, it now houses one of the most extensive collections of Venetian art from the 14th to the 18th centuries.

The Accademia offers a unique journey through Venetian art history, showcasing the evolution of artistic styles and techniques over centuries.

Those that went agreed it was well worth the time and money to visit. 

We regrouped about 90 minutes later for a light snack, then got back on the water bus towards Lido, which is an island at the end of the line. We stayed on the water bus and rode it all the way around the Grand Canal taking in the amazing sights of this amazing city. 

On our final night in the city, we wanted some traditional Italian. We had been looking everywhere for a nice Italian restaurant and finally found one, literally next door to our apartment. We had been coming and going in the opposite direction and kept missing it. We had a delightful meal and then back to the apartment to pack for yet another early morning departure. 

John and Larry found a local laundromat to clean a few items and even managed to get them partially dried before it closed. 

One more night in this city of water and boats, then we leave for our cruise. Somehow that doesn’t sound all that much different.