I would like to begin saying that I've been to Venice 5 years ago more or less, in a school trip and I have to recognize that it wasn't a city that really caught my attention. During my second day-trip there (which is by no means enough to enjoy the city at its fullest) I thougth a lot about what was the reason for me not having a great memory of the city, while corner after corner I was redescovering this amazing city. After lots of thinking I came to the conclusion that it has to have somthing to do with being a trip with so many friends, and the truth is that we didn't sleep much at all and when visiting I was thinking more about sleeping than any other thing and I guess that after visiting other magnificent Italian cities you get a little bit immune to amazement.
My redescovery
We arrived to the trainstation in the morning and as soon as we got out I realized that the idea that I had about Venice was completely wrong. The view of the great canal and a building with an oxidized green dome made us stop for the first of many pictures of the day.
We hadn't thought of an optimal route to follow and with very little idea of what to do we pretty much spent the whole day walking. Obviously I wanted to see the cathedral because a friend of mine told me it was better than he expected so without further do we started walking having just a light idea of where the cathedral was.
On our way I realized how beautiful but old it was. It seems like the buildings have only been painted when they where built. Even so, the walls full of dampness and peelings give the city an unified look and Venice wears with pride the passing of time.
The canals are a little bit annoying at times and makes moving around the city a little bit more difficult but the two times I've been there it's never smelled weird as I've heard many people say. It's definitely not Vienna where it's impossible to spot a single piece of paper on the floor but for Italy and with the canals that I'm sure they accumulate trash and have to be pretty hard to clean I was surprised on how clean Venice was.
After a nice walk, always surrounded by countless asian tourists, at last we arrived to the cathedral that looked from the outside just like a Disney castle only better and in the inside it doesn't disappoint with hypnotic mosaic patterns on the floor and everything else with a golden color that seemed from another world.
When we arrived the was a huge queue to get in so we kept walking and exploring the city since we only had one day and we couldn't waste any time. We walked trough Riva degli Schivoni which is full of tourists until you cross a bridge and they all disappear, and we continued to Via Giuseppe Garibaldi which is a really wide street (very unusual for Venice) and not very touristic but with charm and ends on a small park.
When we were going back to the center to eat lunch we saw that the queue for the cathedral had dissipated so we took advantage of it and enter and after that we went for lunch. When we came back to visit Palazzo Ducale it was already closed so after lunch we spent the rest of the day exploring even more the citiy until 7 when we took the train back. If you can do something in Venice without fear of getting bored is walk and explore.
Comida
For lunch, an Italian friend that studied there gave me some recommedations. The place to which we end up going was tapas like, where they serve a slice of bread with some sliced meat, cheese...and in my friend's words: ... with that some proseco you cant go wrong.
I want to leave here a list of all the places she recommended if you ever want to check them out:
- Cantione già Schiavi
- Alla ciurna
- All'arco (this is the place we went to)
- Vino Vero
- Bacareto de Lele