Hello and welcome to today’s tour along the canals of Venice,
between leaving Prague and reaching Venice I travelled a whole day through Austria and parts of Italy. During lunchtime I had a break of two hours in Innsbruck and was totally amazed by the view of the mountains so close to the city. Coming from the rhine, I’m used to mostly flat meadows and fields with forest or some hills in the distance – in Innsbruck, it was like I could touch the top of the mountain.
Stepping out the train during a short stop in Verona, I can already feel the Italian atmosphere – so good! 🙂 By the time I reached my hostel on the island, it was already dark – it is definitely worth having a room there though, make sure you don’t book the hostel that is in Giudecca if you don’t want to take the boat taxi every day.
During my research for the trip, someone recommended me to have an early start walking around the city. Due to all the early trains, it was easy to get up again – even later than the days before and I hit the Venetian streets around 8am the next morning. It was definitely the best way to experience that place! Wandering around for two hours aside the touristy main streets through Cannaregio and almost all the way to the Castello – I had a wonderful, quiet morning watching the Venetians starting their days. Additionally, I was lucky enough to be on the Eastern side of Venice and see part of the sunrise that morning. However, words cannot describe what pictures can, so enjoy!
Later that morning, I joined a little society to walk around the city and get some information from a local tour guide. The guide Lara, who is originally from Düsseldorf, showed us around Dorsoduro, San Marco and San Polo. Making our way through the back streets of Dorsoduro we cross countless bridges and walk over what used to be the back streets of the city. The real nice facades of most houses can only be seen from the canals, which are the original “streets” of the city.
While there are only two or three shipyards left in Venice which still build gondolas, the city also has a limited number of gondolieri who are officially allowed to offer gondola tours. Due to the small amount and the high request, the tours are quite expensive even though its doable if you share it with up to six people for a boat. The gondolieri know the canals and the city’s history by heart and can give amazing tours with many stories along the way. However, it’s better to take a tour a little bit off the biggest tourist attractions since the high number of boats in the narrow canals often create a long traffic line.
For the very small budget, you can also take a 2-Euro gondola ride just to cross the Grand Canal. This one only takes a minute or less but you get to be in a boat on the water 😉
After the tour, Ed from New Zealand and me decided to explore Venice together for the afternoon. First of all, we looked for a good lunch spot and found a nice little restaurant in the Jewish district at Fondamenta Misericordia. The street was a good recommendation from our tour guide Lara to have a good Italian meal for lunch and especially the fish is supposed to be great there. The icecream from Suso (near Rialto Bridge) was also a good tip from her.
During the afternoon, we came through some overcrowded tourist streets which are nice to see but I was happy enough to avoid them afterwards again. Unfortunately, we were too late for any of the markets at Mercato di Rialto and the day was coming to an end before we could visit Giudecca or even think about having a look at Murano.
I really enjoyed the day in Venice and wished to have a bit more time to explore some more details of this beautiful place. Travelling on a budget though and considering the crowded streets, it was a good decision to get a glimpse of a day and come back another time. For me, it was definitely worth visiting Venice and if you love to travel, it’s a place you shouldn’t miss for sure.
My time there ended the same evening by taking another night train to the lovely capital of Austria and looking forward to a few restful days with some Irish friends over there.
Hope you liked the article 🙂 if you have any questions or comments, I’m happy to answer those below. Leave a like or even share it and see you in Vienna.
Anna
