August 22nd : Venice, Italy
St Mark’s – High Prices = No Customers
First, let me preface this entry by simply stating: there are two Venices; I have illustrated the differences below for you:
Can you spot the difference?
Decidedly Venice, on one hand is clearly a tourist trap. A nasty and undignified one which, for example, charges 1.5 Euros (almost AU $3) for the use of public bathrooms.
On the other hand, parts of Venice are quiet, beautiful and friendly.
You know you are in the latter when you locate one of these (to the right). We couldn’t locate any fountains in the ultra-tourist precincts.
Arguably, the best of Venice is far away from St Marks where life is more picturesque. We ate a late lunch at a reasonable price right opposite the church shown below.
There were (relatively) few tourists and it was cool & quiet. Yet, this is not that far off the beaten track – about 15 minutes from the Rialto bridge.
This is the Venice we prefer and we took the afternoon off to sit amongst the quiet canals and enjoy the sunny weather.
We are catching a bus to Treviso airport for our flight to Paris. Bon Voyage?!
Well I did warn you. Someone told me that at any given time, there are more tourists in Venice than actual residents. It’s like a theme park.
Russell and I spent one day in Venice and hated it. I guess we only saw the touristy part. I’m glad you found the "good" Venice too!
Hi Guys! Yeah, you might have noticed I wasn’t crash hot on Venice. Murano and Burano were much, much nicer to be honest.
We found that the area near our hotel (B&B) was much nicer, a bit more like the other islands, and a fair bit away from the tourist traps.
Speaking of cameras, Toni’s been taking a bunch of awesome photos too. It must be catching on!
Cheers R & T