No one died when I was in Venice, but there was a vaporetto (water-bus) strike the day I arrived, and so my first experience of Venice included waiting in gargantuan lines with my big, awkward luggage then cramming myself and that luggage onto an extremely crowded boat, dropping it on someone's foot, getting yelled at in Italian, and being dropped off on the wrong side of the canal. By some divine act of Providence, I managed to locate the hostel after only about thirty minutes of aimless wandering, looking like some dumb (sweaty) American...which, in this case, I suppose I actually was. Shaaaaame.
Anyway, I'd like to say the rest of my experience in Venice was easier, but that would be a lie. I quickly found that Venice with a map in your pocket is pretty much the same as Venice without a map in your pocket. My day began as my days in Europe always began: with me being cheap. To get to the hostel, I'd only purchased a one-way bus ticket, and I wasn't about to pay for another one to get back to the train station to make a reservation for my trip to Florence the next morning. (Attention! Italian trains require a reservation. So if you've got a EURail pass and you've been enjoying hopping on and off DB and OBB trains at will, don't forget to make a reservation for your trips in AND OUT OF Italy. You will see later how this gets me in trouble...) No, instead of buying a ticket, I decided to walk. To walk.
This...was a horrible idea. Not only was this the first new city of my solitary adventure, it was a pretty crappy place to start trying to navigate without any prior knowledge of the streets. One of the coolest things about Venice is also the most aggravating. In most cases, the buildings butt right up against the main canal, so following the water to any destination is virtually impossible. Every little bridge over the smaller canals could be every other little bridge over the smaller canals. Unlabeled alleyways break off from main roads until suddenly you find yourself on a dark and narrow street, the sun blocked by impossibly tall buildings, with no clue how you got there until suddenly a bright square opens up in front of you with bustling tourists, street vendors, fountains, and church bells. You'd think you'd be able to find this on the map in your pocket, but... Alas! poor traveler, you cannot.
Had I the time and the courage, I might have loved this. I recently finished a book called The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer (it's actually called something else in the original German, but the title escapes me now). It's set in Venice and there are mermaids and alternate worlds beneath the surface of the canals. There are master thieves and stone lions and--oh, boy, it's just super cool. Suddenly, after reading that book, the claustrophobia and anxiety of Venice were replaced by all the magic I should have took the time to feel when I was there. Because the city is really, really cool. Everything about it tantalizes the imagination. There are no streets--just sparkling, aquamarine canals. There are masks everywhere (probably a tourist trap, but I like to pretend like I'm living in Othello's Venice). Did I mention there are no streets? People will say you can do Venice in few hours, but I beg to differ. If you want to be stressed out and lost and scared all the time, you can do it in a few hours. If you want to take your time, stroll down alleyways and try on every single mask you see, and really soak in the beauty of Venice, take at least a day and a half.
Before I go, here is a nice list of my top tourist tips regarding Venice (some repeated [and worth repeating] from the rest of the entry]):
#1 Make reservations for your transportation out the minute you arrive in Venice, especially if you'll be leaving by train on a very busy travel day. (Note: Where tourist-happy cities are, every day is a busy travel day. Remember, tourists are on vacation and won't be needing to be at a job during the week.) Don't believe me? From Florence, I needed to get to Bern, Switzerland. I waited until the day before to make my reservation. I could only get as far as Milan. Learn from my mistakes!
#2 The best way to see Venice is by vaporetto. Unless you have time, confidence and a GPS, don't expect to be able to walk the streets of Venice with sure feet, especially when it comes to getting from one section of town to another. What you should do is buy a 24-hr-or-so water-bus pass and just hop on and off along the canal. Most things worth seeing are near a bus stop. You can hop off and explore the area, and then follow the yellow signs painted on the buildings that will point you back to the vaporetto. (Be careful! The yellow signs will direct you to different sections of Venice as well [i.e. Rialto] but they are not always easily visible [sometimes they're up high on buildings] or even consistent [you can turn a corner and reach a fork and not see a sign])
#3 Don't be alarmed if the vaporetto workers are on strike. They have a pretty thankless job and people can be pretty rude to them. They (and other transportation workers) go on strike often, but this does not necessarily halt services. It usually just delays them, and popular areas will still be getting pretty consistent service. (For example, there is always a bus that will stop at Rialto.) Mostly, you can predict a strike by holiday weekends. If there's a holiday on Thursday, there will probably be a strike on Friday to make it a 4-day weekend... Plan for time-delays.
#4 Enjoy your time there! Try not to be a big, electric ball of stress like I was. Also! Be prepared to walk up a lot of stairs to cross the big bridges. And watch out when it rains! Streets are stone-paved, which means they're super slippery... I nearly kicked it plenty of times in my tractionless flip-flops! Safety first!
#5 Gondolas are mad expensive. I overheard a group of English teenagers arguing a price with a guy and he was like "Six of you--fifteen euro each" and an angsty boy stalked off from the group saying "I'm not gonna spend bloody fifteen euro on a boat ride" while his girlfriend(?) pranced after him, whining about how he oughtn't leave her alone and blah blah blah. God, I love eavesdropping. Anyway! The point is... if you're cheap like me, or are traveling alone and don't have five other teenagers to split the cost with you, ask about being taxied across the canal. It's not a 45 minute romantic lounge down the canal, but you still get to take your picture and say you were on a gondola. (I didn't do this--a girl staying in my hostel did, and she said it was only, like, two euro or so)...
So, that does it for Venice. I hope you enjoyed our first taste of Italy. Next time, I'll try to whine less.
Next destination: Cinque Terra
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