Day 11: Venice

The view from the train ride to Venice this morning was amazing. I couldn't see any land around us when we were crossing to the island, only the sea. It felt like we were running right on the water. This city is definitely one of the most amazing places I've ever been in my life. I'd wanted to visit for so long and it looked exactly as picturesque as in the images I'd seen of it. The first sight of the Grand Canal as we stepped out of the station was stunning. 

We left our bags at the train station and made for San Marco square. However, the city is incredibly difficult to navigate. The streets are minuscule in length and width, and there are no direct routes or main roads anywhere. The weather was beautiful though -- not too hot like in Florence, nor rainy like Paris -- and the walk was very pleasant. Most of the cobblestone streets were lined with gelateries and shops of gorgeous Venetian masks and Murano glass.

We stopped far too often to look at everything (and to get our final Italian gelato). All the masks and glass products were so creative and beautiful; I'd never seen these types of art so perfected before. Since there are no cars nor cross-lights, the walking experience was a unique one in itself. We crossed dozens of bridges and saw lavishly decorated gondolas passing with men playing accordion and singing on the boats as they passed through the canals. It was exactly how I'd imagined Venice to be.

It was two hours later when we finally arrived at Piazza San Marco, the main square of Venice, which is dominated by the St. Marco Basilica, first built almost a thousand years ago.

We crossed the square, which was packed with more pigeons than humans, and noticed how the birds were actually landing on some people for food. As we were watching the scene, we were accosted by a man who put mini pasta in our hands, and the birds immediately flocked over.

It was actually a very cool (but ticklish) experience to be a landing post for half a dozen pigeons. However, as we were stepping away, the man demanded 10 euros. Luckily, after some stalling and protesting, we were able to slip away when another man came over to help us.

We took a brief walk inside the Basilica, which was very old and beautiful, with much older decor than most of the other churches we'd seen. 

From there, we just kept walking down new streets and occasionally stumbled upon amazingly beautiful sights when we reached the main canal. 

Venice is the best place to get lost in. We eventually made a near complete tour of the main island and had a cheap dinner and dessert near the station, where we waited to board our 9PM night train to Vienna.