My Venice experience

Hi all

I thought I would share my experience of Venice since I got so much good advice from this group, and wanted to give something back. For those of you that have been you probably won't find anything new here, but if you haven't I cannot recommend it enough!

Best Regards
Mike
http://www.soundclick.com/bluemenagerie
"We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams"

================================================== ======================================


Day 1 - Lido Beach

So we started with an early flight into Venice and arrived at the delightful Berghinz B+B (www.villa-berghinz.com) early in the morning on the island of Lido (Lee-do). It was 95 Euros a night for a large double room with en-suite and the staff were lovely, even though their English wasn't great. There were only 2 other guests. Breakfast was just a yogurt, bun and croissant, but I would go back again. It was nice to stay in a villa and get a feel for staying in a typical house on the island. The vaporetto (water bus), was only 5 mins away, as was the beach. The main street on Lido had lots of bars/places to eat and was quite lively.

To get to Lido, we got a 3 day blue pass for the boats for 22 Euros. This is so worth it. You can go anywhere around Venice with this, including the other main islands. IIRC we got the #5 bus from the airport to Piazza Roma, where all the buses go, and then the vaporetti start. The beach is mostly private but huge, and we got asked to leave by the keepers but we had hired out a beach hut for 16 Euros so was allowed to stay. the Public beach was a tiny part but was pretty much the same. There were a lot of Italians here. I guess they go to Lido for a beach break. It was so cool to be able to go to Venice and stay on the beach. Lido is only 15 mins away from San Marco, the main square in Venice by boat. If I go back, I will stay on Lido again for sure.

Day 2 - Venice

We had checked out Venice the evening before, and had the whole next day to see the sights. We gave ourselves 1 day, but on reflection could have done with 2. We didn't really go to the museums or galleries as its not our thing, but it would have been nice to visit some of the seconday sights. Venice is like no where I have ever been - Getting lost around the narrow streets and canals is just the start. That is an experience in itself. These are the main sights we saw:

San Marco Basilica - This is a visual delight, although it was really busy, so we didn't queue up to go inside in the baking sun. What surprised me was the amount of pigeons and poo that was around, not helped by the fact you could buy pigeon feed for 1 Euro and people would let these dirty birds eat off them. Like Trafalger Square on steroids.
Palazzo Ducale - Since the Basilica was so busy (and we did get there early), we went to the palace and it was a good visit. The things that impressed me was the main ball room, with the huge paintings, the prisons and the map room. You also get to walk over the bridge of sighs and experience what it must have been like for prisoners to walk over before their execution.
Bridge of Sighs - This bridge links the prison with the palace and is worth a good photo. Behind you at this point is the lovely St Gregorio Church across the river.
Camponile - This is a great view of the city from St Marks. 6 Euros. A must. If the bells go while you are up there you are in for a treat - a very loud one! Also there is a lift so don't worry about having to climb any stairs.
Railto Bridge - The first stone bridge which links the 2 sides of venice has a nice market to shop around. This is a very lively area like St Marks.
Grand Canal - Getting the #1 Vaporreto back and forth the main canal is amazing. There is tons of churches and museums on the banks. The main way to get about is on the boats - they effectively replace the bus/tram systems folks will be used to in other cities. When walking around, expect to find many a dead end! We didn't get the water taxis, or the gondala's. I thought 60-70 Euros was too much, even though everyone was doing it. I think 30 mins was 60 Euros and 40 mins 70 Euros. The canals didn't smell that much and it was hot.

I didn't think much of the food we had when eating out. In fact the best thing we had was a fresh cold lasnage from the supermarket and various deli snacks. It was great to get drinks from there though for 40cents, rather than 2 Euros. I did have a good pizza however, but a bad pasta dish. Luck of the draw as we didn't have much money and I didn't research eating much.What I did notice is that there was no fast food. Sure there are pizzas, pannini's etc, but no Americanised chains like McDonalds and Burger King. I thought that was delightful and proabably why not many venicians are overweight.

Day 3 - Island Hopping

On the third day we went to the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. Again, you can use the vaporetto to go here, route LN. The later 2 are actually 40 mins North of Venice. Pop them in google to see the differences in apperance of the islands.

Murano was a bit dull to me. The only highlight was watching a craftsman blow glass, and in the space about 30 seconds, he had weaved a fantastic glass horse. It was magic.
Burano was beautiful, the fishing and lace island. The houses are all different colours, so look like a rainbow. This is so the fishermen could see their houses from the waters. It was my favourite island.
Torcello was green and completely different to Venice. It was the main area before Venice became what it is today. We went up the bell tower (stairs this time) and got another great view from there. Very peaceful and quiet there.

All in all it was a very worthwhile trip and is up there with my favourite cities in Europe. I would have liked one more day to do the odd extra thing in venice and spend more time on the beach, but I loved it here and would go back if I get the opportunity again.

Thanx Mike!!

my next weekend's trip is bound to be great !

cheers
Shobhit

Also , it was nice to hear your compilations....lead guitar is
great...is that you ?

Hi Shobhit!

Glad you liked the Venice guide - You will have a blast for sure!
Yes thats me on the guitar also - Travelling and recording is what I do
right now - for how much longer I'm not sure lol.

Best Regards
Mike

"shobhit" wrote in message
ps.com...
Also , it was nice to hear your compilations....lead guitar is
great...is that you ?

In ,
Mike Azzopardi typed:

Bridge of Sighs - This bridge links the prison with the palace
and is
worth a good photo. Behind you at this point is the lovely St
Gregorio Church across the river.


Sorry to correct spelling, but since it's the name of the church,
and likely to confuse people if left as is, I think you mean St.
Georgio.


...across the river.


And it's across the Grand Canal, not a river.



Railto Bridge -


That's Rialto.


I didn't think much of the food we had when eating out.


Venice is filled with poor to ordinary restaurants catering to
tourists. It's very easy to get poor food if you aren't careful.
There are however, several very good (and expensive) restaurants,
but you have to know about them.


In fact the
best thing we had was a fresh cold lasnage from the supermarket
and
various deli snacks. It was great to get drinks from there
though for
40cents, rather than 2 Euros. I did have a good pizza however,
but a
bad pasta dish. Luck of the draw as we didn't have much money
and I
didn't research eating much.What I did notice is that there was
no
fast food. Sure there are pizzas, pannini's etc, but no
Americanised
chains like McDonalds and Burger King.


Sorry to tell you that you are wrong. I don't know about Burger
King, but McDonalds very definitely has a presence in Venice.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

Sorry to tell you that you are wrong. I don't know about Burger
King, but McDonalds very definitely has a presence in Venice.


There is a burger king within a stones throw of the rialto bridge.

But my fave cheap eating place in venice is the pizza place under the
academia bridge.

"Miss L. Toe" wrote:



Sorry to tell you that you are wrong. I don't know about Burger
King, but McDonalds very definitely has a presence in Venice.


There is a burger king within a stones throw of the rialto bridge.

Are you suggesting that we throw stones at it?

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

In addition to mike's trip report, here is a blog I have just found which
might be of interest to the serious Veniceophile.

http://veniceblog.typepad.com/

In eenews.net,
Miss L. Toe typed:

Sorry to tell you that you are wrong. I don't know about
Burger
King, but McDonalds very definitely has a presence in Venice.


There is a burger king within a stones throw of the rialto
bridge.


I'm not surprised, but as I said, I wasn't sure.


But my fave cheap eating place in venice is the pizza place
under the
academia bridge.


Which place is that? Which end of the bridge? The Dorsoduro side?

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

In ,
Zichu typed:

In addition to mike's trip report, here is a blog I have just
found
which might be of interest to the serious Veniceophile.

http://veniceblog.typepad.com/


I think this is the longest web page I've ever seen. It's much
too long for me to read it all, but there's some very interesting
stuff here, and some wonderful pictures.


Thanks for posting the link.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup