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prosodicThis is only a condensed version of things I will eventually post in my travel blog.
I'm out of love with Venice. It's still a beautiful city, but it no longer enchants me.
First of all, the logistics of getting around are a bitch. No vehicles are allowed in the city, so you get everywhere by foot or by boat (if you have heavy luggage to carry any great distance, woe to you). And we stayed on one of the islands, so we had to take a boat to even get to the mainland. Not that that was a big deal, really, but it made luggage handling a bit more complicated. And the vaporetto is very slow, so you can't exactly be on a tight schedule if you're planning to use it (and if you get seasick easily, a trip to Venice is probably not the best idea...not that this was a problem for me).
I didn't have this experience last time, because we stayed in Vicenza and only spent 2 days in Venice and traveled in and out by train. And we went through Treviso Airport last time, instead of Marco Polo, which, as we discovered, is a tremendous pain as far as transportation into the city. You have two inexpensive options:
1> Buy a vaporetto ticket, take the #5 bus to Piazzale Roma, walk to the vaporetto station there, and take the boat to the nearest station to your final destination. This can take a lot of time. (This is what we did upon arrival).
2> From the airport, buy a pass for the boat transfer that takes you to the closest point to your final destination (we were lucky in that the boat stops at Lido). Walk 7 minutes from the airport to the dock to catch this boat. The boat takes an hour. Then, depending on where you get off, you still have to walk or take the vaporetto to your final destination. (We did this in reverse to get to the airport yesterday.)
Also, I can't remember everything being so expensive. The food is ridiculously priced. And I didn't have a good meal there. The lunch I had the other day was so disgusting (penne with tomato sauce and meatballs) that I was sick to my stomach the entire day. It tasted like Chef Boyardee. I paid 14 euros for something I could've bought for 50 cents at the store and dumped out of a can and heated up.
I can't believe that I couldn't get a good meal in Venice. I could, however, get fantastic tiramisu and gelato.
And the last time I was there, I remember everyone being so nice. Not the case this time. We dealt with a lot of rude Italians.
Maybe it's because I was there at Carnival last time...things seemed more magical then and people seemed happier and friendlier. And there wasn't so much graffiti. There is a ton of graffiti around Venice, desecrating even some of the most beautiful landmarks of the city...like the Rialto Bridge.
And the weather yesterday - thunderstorms, wind, and rain coming down in sheets - did nothing to add to the charm. It pretty much ruined our plans yesterday. The umbrella I borrowed from the hotel blew inside out, which apparently caused a laugh riot among the other people walking through the square at the time. Why it was so funny, I do not know.
The weather was gorgeous the first couple of days - warm and sunny - which was great. We spent Monday on Lido since we got there early in the afternoon. That was fine...we just checked into the hotel and explored a bit. Tuesday was spent almost entirely in Piazza San Marco. And that was basically it.
I'm out of love with Venice. It's still a beautiful city, but it no longer enchants me.
First of all, the logistics of getting around are a bitch. No vehicles are allowed in the city, so you get everywhere by foot or by boat (if you have heavy luggage to carry any great distance, woe to you). And we stayed on one of the islands, so we had to take a boat to even get to the mainland. Not that that was a big deal, really, but it made luggage handling a bit more complicated. And the vaporetto is very slow, so you can't exactly be on a tight schedule if you're planning to use it (and if you get seasick easily, a trip to Venice is probably not the best idea...not that this was a problem for me).
I didn't have this experience last time, because we stayed in Vicenza and only spent 2 days in Venice and traveled in and out by train. And we went through Treviso Airport last time, instead of Marco Polo, which, as we discovered, is a tremendous pain as far as transportation into the city. You have two inexpensive options:
1> Buy a vaporetto ticket, take the #5 bus to Piazzale Roma, walk to the vaporetto station there, and take the boat to the nearest station to your final destination. This can take a lot of time. (This is what we did upon arrival).
2> From the airport, buy a pass for the boat transfer that takes you to the closest point to your final destination (we were lucky in that the boat stops at Lido). Walk 7 minutes from the airport to the dock to catch this boat. The boat takes an hour. Then, depending on where you get off, you still have to walk or take the vaporetto to your final destination. (We did this in reverse to get to the airport yesterday.)
Also, I can't remember everything being so expensive. The food is ridiculously priced. And I didn't have a good meal there. The lunch I had the other day was so disgusting (penne with tomato sauce and meatballs) that I was sick to my stomach the entire day. It tasted like Chef Boyardee. I paid 14 euros for something I could've bought for 50 cents at the store and dumped out of a can and heated up.
I can't believe that I couldn't get a good meal in Venice. I could, however, get fantastic tiramisu and gelato.
And the last time I was there, I remember everyone being so nice. Not the case this time. We dealt with a lot of rude Italians.
Maybe it's because I was there at Carnival last time...things seemed more magical then and people seemed happier and friendlier. And there wasn't so much graffiti. There is a ton of graffiti around Venice, desecrating even some of the most beautiful landmarks of the city...like the Rialto Bridge.
And the weather yesterday - thunderstorms, wind, and rain coming down in sheets - did nothing to add to the charm. It pretty much ruined our plans yesterday. The umbrella I borrowed from the hotel blew inside out, which apparently caused a laugh riot among the other people walking through the square at the time. Why it was so funny, I do not know.
The weather was gorgeous the first couple of days - warm and sunny - which was great. We spent Monday on Lido since we got there early in the afternoon. That was fine...we just checked into the hotel and explored a bit. Tuesday was spent almost entirely in Piazza San Marco. And that was basically it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-27 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-27 08:49 pm (UTC)Glad I got to see Brixen and Vipiteno, at least, although I felt more like I was in Bavaria than Italy.
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Date: 2007-09-27 08:55 pm (UTC)Anyway, I loved Italy...we spent three weeks there and I have great memories of it. My main problem so far is that there are so many places I want to see that when we plan vacations, I have a hard time deciding to return to a place we've already been, rather than seeing someplace new. :/
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Date: 2007-09-27 09:06 pm (UTC)I wish I had time to give Paris another chance. I spent so little time there. And I'm not done with London yet. Otherwise, I'd rather not revisit places I've been before.
Except for Bath...because I just love that city and it has such a powerful emotional and sentimental connection for me.
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Date: 2007-09-27 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-27 09:16 pm (UTC)