Our day in Venice

Venice

I was fifteen as I visited Venice for the first time. I wanted to see that city because I read about it some years before. Also, many people said that it was the most beautiful city they had ever seen. I wasn’t impressed at all. The city was overrun by people and it was stressful for me.

As Rob convinced me to go to Verona he suggested we include a trip to Venice. The train ride is just about one and a half hours. The train from the Puerto Nouva was packed. Venice was again full of people and Rob took my hand so that we won’t lose each other. Usually, I am good in finding my ways through cities, but not in Venice. The narrow streets seem to look all the same. Thankfully, Rob knew where he wanted to go with me and how to get there.

At first, we went to grab some food in a small café. We sat down outside and watched tourists passing by and played a little game: spot the German. Rob taught me how to distinguish different nations by the style. For people from Germany it is very easy, because they all seem to wear the same.

Then, we went on to the church, where they shot the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. At that time, we went there, they had set up an exhibition about Leonardo Da Vinci and his invitations. After that Rob brought me to the house of Marco Polo. Sure, there is not much more than a plague at a wall and a little court in front of that house.

What fascinated me, where the shops for the carnival in Venice. All those masks on the wall and some workshops with very unique designs. Rob showed me another shop with handmade notebooks, a little family run business in third generation. I love notebooks, but I already have around twenty empty notebooks so I just enjoyed being in that shop. But I could not hold myself back from buying a hat. I am always wearing one at work, but not apart from that.

Another fascinating shop is the bookstore Libreria Aqua Alta. The little courtyards in the back that are located at a canal were cosy. The bigger courtyard was occupied by people, who climbed up the piled-up books. I guess the owners did this on purpose, but still I am a booklover and I was not okay with stepping on books for a picture.

At the Marcus place we stopped for some pictures. After that we strolled through the city and looked for a restaurant. We found one and managed to get a small table. As we were eating Rob made me aware of the fact, that Johnny Depp ate in that restaurant, in the same room as he was in Venice for his movie The Tourist.

On our way back to the train station we stopped at a patisserie with fancy cakes. One of the cakes didn’t survive the train ride back to Verona, but still it was fun to buy them. In the train station we were waiting for our train to arrive. Nearby we became aware of a conversation of an American couple with an Italian officer. They were complaining and demanding a taxi to their hotel. The officer explained to them, that there were only water taxis and the woman became very angry. Why would they want a taxi instead of a water taxi? Very easy. He was obese and sitting on his e-scooter. We could tell from their complaining, that they had managed to get from the airport to their hotel earlier, but we didn’t know how. It was a little bit hilarious seeing them losing their mind over their own incapability of researching their destination.

On the ride back to Verona we were very tired and joyful about our successful trip. The next we would go home again. We had a lot of fun and I was very happy, that Rob and I could share this experience.

-Toni

Ahhh Venice

Once I stayed in Venice for two whole weeks. Two weeks in a small town like Venice is way two long some might say but to me it was just right. I saw everything the city has to offer…or so I thought…
I brought Toni to Venice for two reasons. Number 1: The city has a certain Magic to it and Toni didn’t saw it the last time she was there. And Number 2: I recently found out that Venice has a certain Crypt, I never heard of before.
The train tickets to Venice we booked the night before. So we got up early and took the first train to Venice. Everyone who took the train to Venice before knows how beautiful it is, for the rest let me paint a picture for you: You sitting in a nice modern and clean train and drive out of Verona through the north of Italy towards the eastern coast. Beautiful landscape goes past you behind the window. You slowly see that the land gets more flat and the sea is slowly getting into sight. The little villages passing by and you drive through a port city when all of a sudden you drive on the ocean itself. The tracks to Venice are in the middle of the ocean and you see water on the left side and water on the right side, occasionally you see a little island passing by and then you drive past some cruise ships and then you are there, in Venice.
Toni and I got out of the train and started to stroll through the busy streets of Venice to find some breakfast. After a little walk we found ourself a little bit near the church of San Barnaba. The church is featured in the third Indiana Jones movie, that why it is special to me. The breakfast was delicious, fresh and locally produced. While we ate we played a little game we like to call “spot the German”. The game is basically to look for some one in the typical German Tourist Uniform and bet if the person is german or not. You win when you can hear them speak.
We visited the typical spots of Venice, San Marco, Gran Canal, Liberia Acqua Alta and so on. But we also got a little taste of the goods you can only get in Venice. Toni bought herself a dashing blue Fedora with some little feathers on the side. (She needed a bit of convincing to buy it but otherwise she would have thought about that hat for the rest of her life) I on the other hand got myself a leather bound journal. I once bought a journal like it the last time I was in Venice at the same spot so I had a little nostalgia moment.

One special place every traveller has to visit in Venice is Marco Polos house (“I did not tell half of what i saw for i knew i would not be believed”) and so we did.

After our shopping trip we finally wanted to visit the crypt but it was closed for a view hours so we tried to find a nice place to eat. We ended up in a little restaurant that was once visited by Johnny Depp, when he filmed the movie “The Tourist”. The restaurant was proud of that visit and had a lot of pictures of that evening on the wall and a framed denim jacket Johnny left behind.We finished our meal and got back to the church that held the crypt. The crypt is called: The flooded Crypt of San Zaccaria. The crypt is in the cellar of a quite nice church if you are interested in churches. Sadly when we got to the crypt it was high tide and it was forbidden to go into the crypt but we saw enough of the Marble Coffin and the flooded floors to be amazed.

We saw everything we wanted so we headed back to Verona. The next day was our last in Verona so we took a last tour through the city and the Arena and then we started our long way back home.

Fin

-Rob