Venezia/venice and Verona account (12-13/03/05)

Finally, I went to Venice, a place that I had wanted to visit since I arrived here in italy. Venice indeed is a place which didn’t disappoint- it is unique as there are lots of canals are cars are not accessible. The only means of transport will be walking or taking water buses( ferry).One can also take taxi water bus ( which cost around 100 euro for a trip.

I tried the gondola with my friends on the last few hours while we were at Venice.
Now I can still feel the shakiness of the boat- I feel like I am still floating on the river.
Anyway, we got a good bargain for the gondola boat ride for about 14 euro per person.So all of us took this chance to experience the boat drive.

There are lots of masks and souvenirs made of glass here. I missed the masquerade festival which really interests me a lot since I watched the phantom of the opera.
Anyway, it was held during winter time and it was very cold at that time. Now is the best time to visit Venice till about june so I am glad I came at this time.

There are 3 main bridges here – acacdemia, rialto and finally the bridge which connect from our lodging area to the san simeon piccolo. We managed to exhaust the whole island of Venice- basically, we walked passed the place 2 times and another 2 times by boat. As you can guess, my legs are tired after walking for one and a half day. I am glad I am back home now and yeah, finally took a bath since all of us didn’t bathe yesterday. Reason being there were no towel provided in the hotel- surprisingly and also, we were too tired to be bothered.

We went to the murano island where the museum of glass is situated- as you all know Venice is a place famous for glass-making and the making technique is known as the murano glass making. Glasses here are made through the fine art of blowing and was revived by Venice itself when this art was dying in the 9/10th century.
Basically, here is where glasses are first made and commercialized.

Another place that must be visited is the piazza san marco and the palazzo ducale- these two are side-by-side. This is where most of the festivals were held and the Ducale building was the Doge’s residence and palace of justice.

The bridge nearby is the rialto bridge- which is the stone bridge connecting the 2 banks of canals. The bridge of signs was just next to this building where the old and new prisons were.This is place is known as the ponte dei sospiri.

Verona- this was our next destination after we departed from Venice on the 13th of march around 130pm.
We reached Verona around 4 plus pm to visit the casa di giulietta where romeo and Juliet were courting ( juliet’s residence). The balcony was there with a figure of Juliet down there.We didn’t pay for the pass to go into the building as we thought that after spending around 100 euro in Venice- it’s better to just watch from outside.
Verona and Venice are 2 places heavily commercialized so all of you can guess that things at these places are exorbitant except for the gelataria ice –cream.
Yes, I finally ate my first ice-cream here in italy in Venice! It was really nice but since I am sick so I wasn’t really helping my body to cure.
We went to quite a lot of places in Verona including the palace there with the stone bridge connecting it to the other bank of the river. We also visited the arsenal- amphitheatre there where bullfighting, competitions, and festivals were held in it.

We reached back at about 9 pm where most of us are drop dead.

Above is my short account of the 2 wonderful trips I had over weekend. One should come down and visit these places yourself and it is really worth it!

Ciao!