Waking up to the sound of church bells, we took an early train and zipped away from artistic Florence and headed for Venice (hometown of Franky in One Piece! 😎) on the train in the morning. Basically Venice is miltiple islands linked to mainland by one long road/railway, of course there are plenty of outlying islands that are only accessible by boat. You WILL need to go up and down multiple stairs since Venice is all linked by bridges above the canals, so be warned if you have any large suitcases.
What’s the first thing we do when we arrive? Eat, of course! 😜 This restaurant has some really interesting food and we went back the next day to encore lunch, haha. Pictured are cod cream+beetroot gazpacho+bacon, black rice and cream cod pasta. When we google translated the menu we thought it meant squid ink risotto but it was literally black rice. 😂
Shops also display their goods on boats parked outside their shop.
Canals, canals everywhere.
Venice is famous for the Carnival of Venice where people attend wearing elaborate costumes and masks (just like in One Piece!). There are plenty of stores selling Venetian masks and some also let you make your own!
Read it as “River of Toilet”, lololol. 😂
Venetian masks don’t always stick to traditional styles, there are heaps of modern ones such as the mechanical ones that’ll make you look like the Terminator as depicted here.
Gondolas!! Some gondoliers wear black and white stripes while others wear black and white, maybe they belong to different gondola companies?
Murano is an island off Venice reachable by and it’s famous for its unique glasswork, Murano glasswear is readily available in Venice, although I don’t know hiw many are actually from Taobao, lol.
A little Murano pendant I bought for myself. ❤ You can see they are made sort of like boiled candy, probably several rods of coloured glass squashed together then cut into round slices.
You can get a Murano glass ass as well! 😂
The Venice postcard shot. 🙂
Tour groups on gondolas.
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of Saint Mary of Health), visible from the end of the Grand Canal.
Beautiful pattern of tiles decorate the floor of the basilica.
A… boat. 😂
You can see the Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore (Church of San Giorgio Maggiore) on the opposite shore.
Little antique shop selling some cool stuff, why do these shops only exist in Europe!? 😤
Bright red gondola!
Venice is full of narrow streets that lead nowhere so it’s easy to get lost.
Sometimes in life you know you will get ripped off but you still have to do it to check it off you list, and riding a gondola in Venice is one of them. Officially, its €80 for about 30mins (€100 after 7pm) for a ride of up to 6 people, but prices are negotiable especially during earlier times of the day. When haggling, just make sure the gondolier agrees on the duration as well as the price, otherwise you may end up paying a cheaper price but also have a shorter ride. Don’t expect romantic singing as that will cost extra, your gondolier will probably be yelling and chatting with other gondoliers during your ride. Actually we didn’t even see any gondoliers singing, we did see this one accordion guy singing on a gondola surrounded by a few other gondolas, does that count as gondola singing? 😂 Anyway, using our “walk-away” tactic, we managed to get a 30mins ride for €70 pretty easily.
Whee~~~ Down the Grand Canal we go! 🙋
There are some parts of buildings you can’t see unless you are on the river.
Going down the narrow canals, you will see quite a few houses that look abandoned.
DO NOT ride if you get seasick easily! 😂 Of course I never get seasick because I belong in the ocean since I’m a Pisces, haha.
Gondola drag race!!!
Yes, we did choose this gondolier because he had the most lavish looking gondola. 😂
Another statue of Athena, my goddess. 😘
Sun starting to set as the day ends.
This was a view from out hotel, paid extra for canal view! What’s the point of staying in Venice if you can’t see the canal when you look out the window!? 😂
Accidentally walked into a supermarket and accidentally bought dinner. 😂
Took a stroll after dinner to burn off the alcohol.
Remember how I said Rome had people selling selfie sticks by shoving them in you face? Well Florence and Venice are like that too but not as bad. In Venice the product will turn from selfie sticks to roses after dark and umbrellas when it rains. So basically during the day, there’ll be hawkers shoving selfie sticks in you face, during night they’ll shove roses in your face and whem it rains they will shove umbrellas in your face.
Looking across the Grand Canal at the ttain station.
They have Burger King here!! Why not Pizza Hut!? That’s Italian foid, right? 😂😂😂
Using slow shutter speeds on the Grand Canal, but always gets interrupted by passing boats.
Venice is simply enchanting at night.
Walked to where you can see the bridge that connects Venice and the mainland. Oh, that line of lights on the top left hand corner was a plane, not an UFO. 👽
Which song comes into your mind first? Bella Notte (“Oh this is the night, it’s a beautiful night, and we call it bella notte.”) or That’s Amore (“When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore”)?
Buona notte Venezia! ❤
Around ½ of The World in 80 Days 