Italy: Venice, Murano and Burano
Venice was the 7th stop in #FLeuro2016, my backpacking trip across Europe and it was the most different out of all the cities I visited.
Venice has no roads so there are no cars. People travel by walking, cycling or boats. We got off the train station in Venice and it was like a fantasy world – colourful little houses lined the streets and the streets were canals. It was unlike anything I had seen before.
It was faster to walk to our airbnb than it was to take a boat bus (also Fatima gets seasick. I only found out after we arrived). The Google Map directions though Venice were poor and if we asked for directions, we would get a series of left turns and right turns and more left turns and more right turns. There weren’t really any street names. I have no idea how people remember their way around.
The sunset in Venice was magical. We saw the sun disappear over the horizon line in open waters as we ate seafood pasta on a small street near the edge of Venice. The world felt so large and Venice felt so small. It was like we were sitting on the edge of the earth.
We came to realize by now that wine was cheaper than water in Italy. Fatima and I decided to bring bottles of wine back to our airbnb and after we finished 1 bottle, we went back to get 2 more. By the time we were done all 3, the possibility of falling into a canal seemed not so unlikely.
At night, Venice is not as attractive, at least in the smaller neighbourhoods. The city square and central still had bustling shops open and lights, but in the corners of Venice you could smell they had sewage problems as a city. There are also rats.
The next morning, our airbnb host’s niece took us to the islands of Murano and Burano. We took a 20 minute boat to smaller islands where the houses are even more colourful and the glass art is more intricate. Glass art and jewelry are big in Venice and I ended up buying many souvenirs related to glass art.
Rides on the fancy canal boats were pricey and again, it was much faster to walk to places. There were many museums we decided not to go into simply because we loved to walk around Venice. There was always music playing somewhere, pretty masquerade masks being sold to another tourist, another bottle of wine being opened.
I’m glad I was able to visit Venice before the sea level rise any higher. At night time, the water rise dangerously close to the platform you walk on. I’d say it’s close to the last or second last step up the stairs before it reaches “street level”. I’m not sure what Venice’s plans are as a city to deal with this problem. I’m sure it’s something they’ve seen coming for awhile now.
Oh and before I forget, the boat bus operators are all very handsome.
Sincerely, Loewe