It was a long journey that included an 8 hour layover in London. Thanks to the travel miles shenanigans, we were able to spend it in a lounge with drinks and food. It was surprisingly a good way to spend day one trying to get over jet lag.
We arrived at our hotel at 1230am and we were never so happy to see sandwiches in our life. Wine and a sandwich, then promptly to bed.
We started off bright and early with our first gelato of the day.
In our true tourist fashion, we joined a free walking tour to learn about history, sustainability, and architecture. Ricardo our guide just so happened to have a degree in almost all those areas.
Speaking of sustainability... in the early 1900s Venice flooded approximately 4 times per year; Venice now floods more than 60 times a year. In the previous 400 years, the sea rose one meter and is expected to rise over one meter in the next 100 years. As a result, life in Venice is changing. This building illustrates the impact of the rising water levels.
We didn’t experience a Gondola ride ourselves, but we loved watching them go by. Sometimes we even heard one of the guys serenading his patrons.
We only had three things on our have to do list for Venice: gelato, pizza, and lasagna. Our tour guide pointed us in the direction of a delicious restaurant that checked off number two. I guess that means Lasagna for dinner.
After our tour, we (and a million others) made our way to St. Marks Basillica. We were very spoiled by the tour, he showed us lesser known locations. The plaza and the basillica were beautiful, the people were overwhelming.
Using google maps, we navigated a thousand alleys to get back to the train station. The thing about Venice is you have to learn to overcome a life time of being told to avoid dark, empty alleys.
At the end of one of the dark, empty alleys, we found the Acqua Alta (translation High Water) Book Shop. Because the book shop floods often, for preservation, books are placed in boats, bath tubs, and raised bookshelves (excuse my comma filled sentence, it just felt right).
Jet lag + delicious Italian coffee + delicious Italian wine = coffee, wine, coffee, wine, coffee, wine... you know, uppers and downers.
Venice and it’s lagoons are a UNESCO world heritage site. We learned on our tour that every time you cross a bridge, you’re stepping onto another island in the system of islands. Venetians call Venice an upside down forest because the islands are built on wooden pillars packed with mud. A process that petrifies the wood pillars. The same process was used to build Amsterdam 400 years later.
We loved our quick visit to Venice... next stop Slovenia!
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