Matt and Lisa's Adventures

3 January 2025

The big advantage was that we arrived in Venice at 8:40 in the morning with the whole day ahead of us. The view of the grand canal after leaving the train station was awe inspiring, just as it was on our first trip here. This time however our hotel was much closer but as we were so early we couldn’t check in and so had to endure more time without a shower. 

First stop was coffee and I had my first Italian hot chocolate of the trip. It was delicious – rich and thick but it came without cream so it was a lot and far too rich for me to finish. We wandered the streets and lanes of Venice, there are no roads and the main method of transportation is via the canals. It is very hard to navigate with the streets not making a lot of sense and so many bridges while moving between all of the different islands. It was less busy and manic than when we were here previously but it steadily got busier as the day went on. 

As we wandered we eventually ended up in Saint Mark’s square. As we were there were did a quick tour of Saint Mark’s basilica which is spectacular. We only had a few minutes so there wasn’t enough time to properly explore and a guide of some kind would’ve been needed to get the full value of the experience. Strangely the floor of the church was nowhere near level. While I’m not an expert on construction I would have expected that would have been a good start for building a large structure, but what do I know…

We did light a remembrance candle for our poor Enid – RIP. 

At 11am we had a a walking tour with Simone who was originally from Lithuania. The tour was really good and we learnt a lot about the history of Venice and how it functions today. 

• There are four hundred gondolas in Venice. At the height there were about ten thousand. Boats were the primary transportation and the front of houses would face onto the canals. Gondolas have to be painted black by law as otherwise rich families would complete to out bling one another
• Venice was a democracy for a thousand years with the Doge being elected. They were elected for life but generally it was old men so they didn’t last long. A lot of them were murdered too. 
• The Doge had to bring their own furniture. When they died their family had three days to move it all out
• There are hundreds of cisterns around the city that captured rainwater for people to the pump up and use. They looked like wells and once we were aware of them we saw them everywhere. They aren’t used anymore as water is pumped from the mainland but tests were done recently and the water is still drinkable
• Venice used to have a lot of cats as they were needed to keep the rat population under control to help prevent the spread of diseases especially plague. It was forbidden to feed the cats as they needed to be kept hungry and therefore motivated. The cisterns had a little bowl so that the cats would have fresh water to drink
• The public hospital is located in an old building that used to be a fancy club house. The outside is probably the fanciest hospital I had seen and apparently the inside is very nice too
• The police, fire and ambulance all travel via water. We saw the boats which act as Venices ambulance. There is also a cemetery of a neighbouring island and so there is a boat to take people on their final trip to be buried
• Venice is slowly sinking and combined with rising sea levels Venice gets a lot of flooding. There are apps to predict when this is going to happen and the locals have learnt to adapt. It is more of a challenge for visitors. They have also built flood protections for the lagoon to try to reduce the frequency and impact
• With no roads all imports must come via sea and all trash must be removed via boats. We saw several trash boats working along with people pushing carts to collect rubbish. Interestingly there are very few public trash cans. This is because the city of Venice has financial issues and emptying rubbish bins is expensive

We had seen lots of “yums” ( Lisa’s term) in various bakery windows as we had walked and we were keen to try the cream cannelloni. It was ok, nothing to get excited about and I don’t think I would pay for another. 

The quintessential Venice experience is a gondola boat ride. We hadn’t done that last time and so it was very much on the list for this trip. I had done some research on the best spots for this and we arrived just as another group was setting off. We’re waited for an age for them to return meanwhile it slowly got darker. We decided that a boat trip in the dark wasn’t a good idea and so postponed until tomorrow. I think the group are still out there now…

After a beer we had lasagna as our first pasta meal. It was as delicious as you would expect. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep to catch up on what was missed on the train.

4 January 2025

We had surprise breakfast included with the hotel but no waffle maker so it was cereal and a pain au chocolate instead. 

Last time when were came to Venice we stayed in the main island and so this time we were keen to travel a bit further afield. We’d booked in a tour to Murano and Burano. The tour left from near Saint Mark’s square so it was first a hike to get there. We had about twenty people on our tour with about twelve being one group from the US. That group was late for the start of the tour and then late at each stop, this really wound Lisa up. Our tour guide was Monica and she was really good. 

• We had a private boat and driver for the day. We left from a really picturesque spot along the waterfront, in fact it was a puzzle scene that Lisa and I had both competed previously. We tried to recreate the scene as best we could in our photos
• First stop was the island of Murano which is famous for glass blowing. Venice didn’t invent glass but it became a really important industry for them and they invented related technologies like mirrors and eye glasses. The glass blowing is still a huge industry in Venice and we saw amazing glass across lots of different shops
• We went to a glass blowing factory and watched them work with glass which was very interesting. They all seemed so nonchalant despite working with molten glass that was a thousand degrees. They were working on creating pieces for a chandelier. Each person specialised in a specific skill and so it took a whole team to build the final product. 
• They had a vast gallery of all the things they had made from glass including cups, lights, animals and sculptures. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take photos in the gallery. There was also a shop but everything was very expensive and not super practical to get home. 
• We explored the centre of Murano and Lisa grabbed a coffee. It was a nice place, less flashy than the main Venice area as it was originally for the workers and still very much dominated by the glass industry
• We then took the boat to the island of Burano. This is an island of fishermen and is very picturesque especially as all the houses are painted different colours. It was a bit unclear as to why this happened, something about knowing where one house ended and then next started, which didn’t make a lot of sense. 
• Burano is famous for lace making and we saw a demonstration. It is a dying art as there are no new lace makers and those who do it are getting much older. It looked very complicated to do  and it was impessive to watch Sandra do it. There are seven different stitches and most people only know one, but Sandra could do all seven. It often took four people to complete a lacework and it could be several months of effort. It was all very nice but didn’t excite either of us
• We had wraps at a local cafe and then just wandered around the island. There were lots of beautiful canals and very pretty houses. We wandered through an old church that had some impressive art work. Then we caught the boat back to the starting point. Everybody looked pretty tired on the way back (despite not having done much) and so there were a few people with closed eyes on the journey back
• The Venetian lagoon is made up of hundreds of islands, some are large and some are very small. We went past lots of other islands. There was one that was massive and was used for farming. We saw another with the remnants of a monastery. There was one island that was owned by a couple as a private property. 
• The islands were formed by sediment that came down turn rivers from the mountains. The sediment causes issues now as it reduces the depth of the canals and waterways. Therefore the rivers have been changed to not go into the lagoon. This causes other issues as there is not enough sediment and so islands erode – it is a complex situation
• The first island that was settled in the lagoon eventually had to be abandoned as too much sediment built up around it making the water too shallow for boats to approach the island. This meant trade wasn’t possible and the inhabitants had to move to islands that had better water access
• There were pylons marking the channels for boats to use as other parts of the lagoon are very shallow. 
• There were several islands that housed monasteries and nunneries. One such nunnery island was near Burano but was shut down after the women of Burano complained that their men folk spent too much time spying on the nuns when they were meant to be fishing
• Police, fire and ambulance all operate via boats at it is the only way of getting around. We even saw a boat carrying a casket but I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo
• In Burano there was a church with a massive tower on a lean that looked like tower of Pisa. Monica briefly commented on it, but we didn’t get any details as to why it is leaning and whether it was safe

Last trip we didn’t do a gondola ride which was a mistake we were keen to rectify. We did a nice trip that took us along part of the grand canal near the Rialto bridge and then along some of the quieter canals. It was a fascinating experience and it felt like royalty to be traveling in this manner. It was also very interesting to see Venice from such a different angle as we looked up at people and places. It was very quiet and relaxing compared to the hustle and bustle of walking the Venetian streets. It was expensive but well worth it for a distinctly Venetian experience. 

For our drinks time I had found a canal that had lots of bars along it. We found a nice bar and this time neither of us had a beer! Lisa had been enjoying prosciutto and I tried aperol spritz which is huge here. Spritz is available everywhere and for very cheap (if takeaway) and you see people drinking it even first thing in the morning. I enjoyed my glass, it was very refreshing. 

We struggled with finding a restaurant for dinner as we were a bit early for the Italians. After a lot of walking we ended up on the main drag at a very touristy place. The food was ok but only barely. 

We were told that tiramisu originated in Venice and so Lisa needed to have some while she was here. She declared that it was very good. 

Overall thoughts on Venice

• The most unique city I have visited. Venice feels so different to everywhere else with the canals, bridges and boats. It is a stunningly beautiful place. On our boat ride back into the city it was fascinating to see the city from the water and imagine how ancient sailors most have felt when they saw the city for the first time
• It is very touristy with no discernible industry other than tourism. Even the glass blowing seems primarily to be for the tourist market in Venice
• The bridges, canals and narrow alleys are all amazing for the first few hours but then quickly become tiresome. It’s hard work getting around especially with the crowds. And difficult to navigate as map apps struggle in the city with poor GPS and the complicated winding streets
• It’s a fantastic place to visit for a day or two but that would be my maximum. Definitely helped that we went to the outer islands this time as all of the time in the central area would have driven me nuts