September 6th, 2009

Venice in one day

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 03:37 PM on September 6, 2009.

After 2 days at Florence, we headed to Venice. We finally made a reservation for the train because there is no regional train from Florence SMN to Venice St Lucia. I am not sure if we would have one if we choose to go from other train station nearby but it is easier to go from Florence SMN. So we go from there. Before boarding, we need to validate the ticket, otherwise we might get fined if the officer is checking. The journey was around 3 hours. We alighted at Venice St Lucia and took regional train to Venice Mestre. Our accomodation was in Venice Mestre. Actually the central station is Venice St Lucia. But everything is damn expensive there. We thought they are just being commercialized, but turns out it is one of the ways to decrease tourism rate to the city. For more, you can read National Geographic, August edition about Vanishing Venice.

After checking in, we quickly caught the bus and went back to Venice St Lucia. It is recommended to buy 24 hour pass for Vaporetto (water bus) since it can be used to take normal bus at Venice Mestre as well. It was very expensive EUR 18/ticket. But the minute we hopped on the water bus and enjoying the city, we forgot about how costly it was. I was very excited to see this beautiful and romantic city with beautiful building along the water. I literally can't stop taking pictures of anything I saw ^.^

Few stops from St Lucia, we finally got a chance to sit at the front part of the bus. So now we can take pictures from both left and right side! We were even able to take pictures of ourselved with the water as the background. Really nice! Our first destination was St Marco which was built for Mark. Almost all parts inside the church was covered with gold. Near the church, there was Doge's Palace. Initially we intended to spend some time there but since we don't have enough time, we skipped it.

-Doge's Palace-

The next target was to buy Venezian mask. I was so determined to get it since I saw Bree's from Desperate Housewives =P So we went to Ospidale (bus station's name) because according to Merry's book we can get authentic ones there. Turns out that Ospidale is the word for Hospital. We could even see Water Ambulance nearby. We also passed by the hospital itself which looks more like a museum to me due to its lots of relief inside the building. From the hospital, we walked few blocks before finally arrived at the store... Which turns out to be Chinese painting store -____- Since we were already there, we asked the owner the whereabouts of the Venezian mask store. Before we even mentioned its full name, they have guessed it. They told me that the shop has clossed and recommended another store to us, which according to them, has the same quality as the one we've been looking for. However it was located quite far from where we were at that time. Meanwhile there were some other stores nearby which looked good as well. So we decided to went in to few stores. The first store we went in was operated by a husband and wife who claimed that all the masks there were paper-made, which made it different from just a plastic mask which might be made in China. LOL. Finally we settled at the 3rd store (if I am not wrong) since they have competitive price and nice design. I bought 2 masks, one for me and the other for my dad as souvenir.

With that, I had no other destination. So we just dropped by to Murano hoping that we can watch the glass blowing process. But they have already closed when we reached there. So we just went back to central station and got some dinner nearby. It was nice and cheap, so that we decided to come back to the same store on the following day. After that we hopped on the train to Mestre and headed to our accomodation. Our accomodation was a camping site. We rented a cabin which costed EUR 30 per night. The toilet was a public toilet so we had to take turn in going there. I took a bath first. It was quite dark so I almost went to wrong one. Luckily I saw a teenager brushing her teeth there and smiling politely. LOL. I think everyone there was so understanding since I am not the only one. When Merry went back from the bathroom, she also said that a man made the same mistake. And in the morning, when I brushed my teeth, another uncle did it again and stared at me as if I am the wrong one hahaha. We bet everyone must have thought, "It's ok. I made same mistake on my first day too" =P

After checking out, we got on the bus and headed to Venice St Lucia. We ate breakfast at the same place we had dinner the previous day. I had a nice Panini ^.^ Then we strolled along the road nearby and did some last minute shopping. We found another mask store which was super expensive but they have very nice and unique artworks. If you get a chance to go there and have lots of cash, I think it is worth to buy those masks. Anyway, that's pretty much about our one day at Venice. We took a 11AM train and headed to Milan. Our last train ride in Italy ^.^

xoxo McJuicy

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