Venice the City of Romance - Day 1

Hotels in Venice are generally quite expensive. For budget travelers like me, it may be a better option to stay outside Venice.

I stayed in Mestre, a small town only 15 mins away from Venice. My hotel was right next to the bus stop, as well as the train station.  There were buses running from Mestre to Venice every 10 mins from 5:00 am till midnight. The hotel itself was inexpensive, very clean, cozy and convenient with daily buffet breakfast (I love, love, love hotel breakfast!!). So what else can I ask for?

You will never understand why people call Venice one of the most romantic cities in the world until you go there yourself. There are no cars, you can only walk, take a ferry or a gondola. When you were there it felt instantly like you time-traveled 600 years back to the most glorious days of Venice.

The city naturally has a classic dark undertone like an instagram filter is automatically applied everywhere

And, lovebirds, Paris is not the only place where you can lock your love to a bridge.

I loved how the gondola, the greenish water, and the reddish brick wall in the background created a perfect sense of harmony. Italians really are natural artists.

It felt good enough to be just there randomly walk around. But Venice has way more to offer. Palazzo Ducale near the St. Mark's Square is a must-go.

Birds chilling out at the St. Mark's Square

Inside Palazzo Ducale

The Palazzo Ducale has more than 1500 years of history and was rebuilt, extended and restored over the years. In the late 15th century, a violent fire broke out and it took them almost 100 years for the reconstruction to complete. After that, the palace remained pretty much the same as we see it today.

I wasn't that familiar with Northern Italian arts and I didn't have time to read about it before the trip. So I couldn't say much about the art works in Palazzo Ducale. One of the most famous thing about this place, however, is the bridge of sigh.

You can easily understand how it got the name because the palace, where the richest and the most influential people stayed, and the cells of the prisoners were only separated by a canal and connected by the bridge of sigh. It was where a prisoner could catch a last glimpse of freedom.

 

Heaven on the left, hell on the right

I have been to one of the cells, it was so dark and it felt ominous. Actually what else could you think of when you were in a dimly lit cell where people only suffered, probably till death. I thought it was a bad idea to take pictures inside but I did....lol. Just it was way too creepy to post it here.

To wipe off the creepiness. I am posting a beautiful picture of Venice taken right outside Palazzo Ducale, for no obvious reason. (except to wipe off the creepiness lol)

After that we went straight to dinner. This restaurant was recommended by one of my friends who has been traveling around the world and knows only the best places to eat. Everything served here was so nice, from the homemade bread, to the homemade pasta and the swordfish <3

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Travel tips:

#1 When it comes to food, you can never go wrong with Italian restaurants. But the ones located near where traffic is heavy are tend to be (heavily) over-priced. Even if you have no idea where to go, rule of thumb is to walk a little further from the main streets. The place where we had dinner was just 5 mins away from the Grand Canal. But it was cheaper and the food served looked waaaaay better than the ones facing the water.

#2 Adding to #1, as I suggest you to walk a little further from the main streets, don't walk too far. It's extremely easy to get lost in Venice. You may not be convinced because I get lost basically everywhere lol. But all of my friends including those who I think they can store maps in their brains with built-in GPS say the same.

 [1 July 2014] I am writing this blog more than one month after my Italy trip. Looking at the photos you have no idea how much I am missing this place. I am looking forward to the second time I go there, and I know I am going to have so much more fun than the first ;-)

My Italy - Prelude

I studied Fine Arts for 2 years in the university besides my Engineering major. Textbooks in Western art history usually begins with the astonishing 200 years between 1400-1600 in Italy, what people commonly called the Italian Renaissance. 

I have only come across the important works of art briefly in the textbooks and I always wanted to see the masterpieces with my own eyes. My plan was to follow the development of art, which started in Italy, later spread all over Europe and reached its peak in Paris (A hint of my next destinations LOL).
 

Therefore, the coming travel journals may sound a little boring for those who have absolutely no interest in art. But it is important for me to write down what I learned during the 10 days, and to remind myself how much I used to enjoy art.

It may as well serve as a very simple art guide in Italy for those who are interested but never have the chance to learn more about art. I did my homework and I can show you only the interesting and essential facts :-)

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It was a 13-hour midnight flight and I would be reaching Milan at 8 am the next morning. For some reasons I couldn't sleep on the plane so I took some snapshots instead.

I sent this picture to my family during the trip and it took them 2 weeks to realize what was it.

At first I thought these were clouds, but quickly found out they were snowy mountains!

I only managed to see 2 sunrises during the entire trip. This one I saw on the plane was very beautiful, the second one I saw in Florence was beyond words.

As a side note I have requested low-fat-low-cholesterol meals for my flights. And they actually looked and tasted way better than regular in-flight meals! They replaced oily omelet with warm grilled chicken breast, hash brown with low fat mashed potatoes, and served with plentiful colourful fruits and vegetables. For those who are tired of regular airplane food and/or as health-conscious as I am, give it a try next time!

 

It was a 10-day trip in Italy and our plan was to start with Venice, then Florence, Rome, and finally Milan again. We were catching a 11:30 am train to Venice on the day we arrived at Milan. Before the ride we found a seat in a cafe called Bistrot Pasticceria. I ordered a sandwich filled with cream cheese, tomatoes and shrimp. The bread was so soft and the cheese was so rich it tasted almost like a savory cheesecake. Yum!

After that our adventure in Italy began.


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Travel tips: 

#1
Apparently Italians do not normally use skim milk to make coffees. I tried to order skim milk cappuccino several times but they looked at me as if I was ordering lemon cappuccino. So I eventually gave up trying. 

#2

As soon as we arrived at the Milan airport we got ourselves vodafone SIM card for EUR 20 with 1GB data. After activating the SIM card I kept receiving SMSs from vodafone, all in Italian. I'd suggest you DO NOT IGNORE THEM. I used google translate and found out they were activating a number of services. If you don't bother to find out which of them are free of charge, disable them all.