Verona & Venezia… Finalmente ci siamo incontrati!

Finally we met Italy, taking our Contiki coach at dawn… out of Germany and into land of pizza, pasta and some really slick-looking men… and I meant ’slick’ not ’sleek’ cos I was left wondering what gel some of these Italian men use! Our first stop was Verona, just to do a little bit of sightseeing.

Upon reaching the city centre, one of the first things we saw, which was hard to miss, was a huge Roman amphitheatre which was built in 30 AD, well known for being a big venue for opera back in the day.



But most importantly, for all the die-hard Shakespearean romantics out there, we were brought to the famous balcony where Juliet pined for Romeo. The play was based on a couple in Verona… and the balcony we saw apparently belonged to the house of the Capulets. It was really quite interesting to see hordes of people taking photos of a balcony… whilst others left love notes on the walls of the walkway leading to the small garden area where the balcony was situated.





A night at our motel just off the Venice Islands, and the next morning we were off to Venezia! Venice completely blew us away, especially me… which I’ll get to in a short while. We first had to hop a little ride on the ‘Venezia People Mover’… I prefer to call it a ferry =p, for a half-hour ride to the Venice Islands itself.





Landing at the pier in San Marco, one of the first sights to behold is one of the main palaces in Venice itself, Palazzo Ducale di Venezia… which was the palace in which the Doge resided. This was when I started feeling a sense of deja vu… why I wondered… not because I was the Doge of Venice in my past life… but because I had climbed this very palace in a hugely popular PS3 game called ‘Assassin’s Creed 2′!



I have killed several archers on these balconies… and climbed some of the highest towers in the game… and that was when i gained a new appreciation for the programmers of the game… simply cos they recreated the buildings to such detail it felt like I had really been there before. I think Jack heard enough of me saying ‘I’ve been here before!’, ‘I’ve climbed this tower!’, ‘I swam across this river!’ throughout the day.



The artistry with which the buildings in Venice are built is absolutely unreal. The Doge’s Palace is mainly gothic in design, and recognisable in an instant. Carvings and sculptures adorn the palace, and the number of people in the courtyard area justifies what a huge attraction this is… not to mention the 150m queue to get in.





I could go on and on… but all the reminiscing and ‘wow’-ing we were doing led us to our first stop to grab an authentic cuppa of Italian coffee! What a pick-me-up!



Then it was more walkabout time, as Anna told us to just ditch our maps, walk around, get lost and come back to the meeting point. And we did just that, journeying aimlessly through the narrow streets, turns and corners, it was really gorgeous architecture, canals and rivers throughout. Our cameras were kept entirely busy… and it’s really nothing like beholding the visual treat that Venice is. We finally met Venezia.









Us being lost tourists… this was the part where we had really wandered way off the main area of San Marco… but yet there were still so many things to see.





We were fortunate to stumble upon a church which was more of a conservation project, as most of the churches there are still in use as places of worship… so one must be appropriately dressed (No shorts and sleeveless tops), and no photography was allowed. The church we wandered into was more of a museum, so we snapped as much as we could while inside.









After much walking, our tired feet took us back to our meeting point, where Anna brought us to a glass-moulding demonstration, from the guys who make the original Murano glass art pieces. These pieces ranged anything from 50-2000 Euros… some even more, and depending on the detail and size of the piece, can take a day to months to make!

Our demonstrator made this male horse glass piece in a matter of minutes… take a good look at the pic and you’ll know for sure that the horse is male! =P





Okay enough of being on our feet! A good 5-6hrs we had spent walking around Venice… so now who can leave Venice without hopping onto a gondola… glass of sparkling wine in hand, and sail the canals? And our group did just that, we took up one of the optional activities in our itinerary and were whisked away on a gondola!


Our tourmates, Yoko from Japan and Mary from USA.


Us with Lermy, from Australia! And some sparkling wine =)


Our gondolier! Only thing is he didn’t sing… well, we didn’t either! =P







After the gondola ride, we did more walking and had some time to grab dinner too! Stumbled upon this really nice restaurant called ‘lineadombra’ which had a great view too. Not to mention fabulous food… *grin*





After some raw fish, an entire seabass baked in sea salt, a bottle of white wine, a shot of Limoncello and a shot of Grappa… we enjoyed our food so much that we were this close to being late to meet our tour group at the meeting point in San Marco! Let’s just say it was 8pm… our meeting was at 8.15pm and we were a half hour’s walk away. So the Maths wasn’t right… BUT thank god for boat-taxis! I must commend the very helpful staff at lineadombra who helped to serve the food really quickly, whilst explaining what exactly we were eating and drinking… and helped us call a boat-taxi and held the boat while we were getting on it. Excellent service from Simone and gang, a big ‘Grazi!’ to them.



We reached our meeting point, literally, on the dot… and started our journey back to our motel off the islands. The walking around sure burnt a number of calories… or kilocalories, but memories of the architecture, scenes, artistry and history of Venice were etched in our heads… definitely a must-see for those who appreciate that kind of beauty. Better hurry though, we heard Venice is sinking 1 ft every 10 years… so don’t procrastinate on this one.

In the meantime, I was itching to go back and play the Venice portion of Assassin’s Creed 2 once more… reliving my days as Ezio. (Slash, stab!)





Next stop… Lucerne, Switzerland!