Lost in Venice with a taste of Turkish Delight and Souvlaki

[ellen10]

Great photos.
Have a god flight to Venice. Expecting an upgrade???

 

[love_the_life]

Great photos.
Have a god flight to Venice. Expecting an upgrade???

Now wouldn't that be something out of the box!

 

[Magpie10]

Pushka hope all goes well with your card, I had trouble with my NAB card in Italy, worked fine in Dubai, at certain banks only, but worked well in Greece, so didn't panic, but when I got to Italy, no go at all. Hope you sort things out ASAP.

great photos keep them coming.

 

[Tooner]

You jinxed me. Last night it refused to pay for our dinner at Jumeirah. . They will be getting a phone call in Venice when our cheap phone plan kicks in.

Sorry to hear that Pushka! I hope the experience in Venezia makes up for the card hassles

 

[Pushka]

It worked here in Venice Tooner!
Just a quickie before we stroll along the canals.

More pics later as wifi here is free.

 

[Anna]

Now that looks much more pleasant than the sand pit

 

[Pushka]

It's still early in the morning here in Venice and during the night we've had thunderstorms rolling through. Such a drastic change we've put our poor selves through in the last four days.

Adelaide winter, Dubai heat, Venice cool and stormy.

Digressing a little. Yesterday's flight was sadly no upgrade but in row 10 so not too bad. Checkin easy having completed it online and the club invitation was printed on the edocs.

Called on time then drove for around 15 minutes to get to the plane. Finally boarded from the rear so we had to battle our way to the front. J class were boarding at the front.

Mr P was acknowledged twice by the Manager. Just MrP. MrsP was ignored of course. Clearly Emirates acknowledge QFF'ers but clearly DNKWIA.

Flight uneventful and we arrived on time to a cooler Venice.

I'd purchased tickets for a shared water taxi for up to 8 people all of whom were on the flight. And of course they were all Aussies from either SA or Vic. There's no escaping us.



The trip took around 40 minutes and I'd texted the person who was going to take us to our apartment to meet us at the Rialto Mercato near the Fish Market.

Our apartment is gorgeous, new, and fully self contained. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen with cooker top, microwave, washing machine (yeah!) and lounge. Photos later when it's been tidied up again. It's just near the main entry to Rialto bridge so very handy.

We toured out on arrival and love all the shops and the leather goods are stunning, mostly from Florence.

It started to rain so we found a bar, ordered the house wine and people watched.

Then walked to another restaurant, ordered some pizza and more wine and were content.



Just a classic street in Venice as we walked home last night. Loving the long days here.



Anna, we were really surprised at how much of Dubai is still sand and not developed. A dust storm would be hellish.


Today - Rialto markets, maybe getting lost in St Marks square or Murano/Burano. It'll depend on the weather. It's only 5.30 am so a while to decide.

 

[TomVexille]

Jealous. Food and wine... :mrgreen:

 

[ellen10]

We did a day trip out to Burano/Murano loved it!
We just caught the vaporetto.
By the way love Venice!!

 

[Pushka]

Jealous. Food and wine... :mrgreen:

That's what we missed in Dubai. Ramadan stops daylight eating/drinking in public and no alcohol at all until 8pm. And it's so damn hot anyway.

I love Venice too Ellen10, even in the rain.

 

[RooFlyer]

We took the public transport vaporettos everywhere; reasonably cheap and if you are first on at one of the end points you can usually snag a seat at the front, in the open

But make sure you get the right one! The ticket you get doesn't actually say what route its for. In one case, we wanted route 4.1 to Murano and bought tickets accordingly; double checked with ticket seller; OK. The pontoon on the right was labeled '4.1' so we went there. But inside the signage indicated that it was for some other route. The pontoon next door was labeled '7' but inside was the route to Murano. (This is at S. Marco) The workers are brusque and unhelpful. Finally a tourist with Italian asked. The correct one was the one labeled '7' on the outside, for route 4.1

Another time we weren't so lucky and took a completely different route to the one we were expecting, but ended up at the right destination!

Only once did we come across some-one actually checking tickets on board - that was the route up the Grand Canal.

As of a few days ago, at Acadamia, there was no-one in the ticket booth and the machine wasn't working. Ride & risk ticket check, or walk? We walked; always good for you.

ps I'm a few days behind in my own TR; will cover Venice in a few days.

 

[Pushka]

About to venture on the vaporettos. Purchased a 48 hours pass before we left due to concern that the credit card wouldn't work. That voucher now exchanged for the tickets. We plan on getting lost for the day.

But first an expensive croissant and coffee. Paying for the ambience.



Gondolas. Everywhere.


Sun is out.

 

[Pushka]

Back to the apartment. It's been tidied.

The kitchen



The dining area




And the tiniest bathrooms ever.

Main bedroom with stacks of cupboards.

 

[love_the_life]

Lookin' good Pushka. Glad you are finding the climes of Venice more to your liking. Apartment looks great. Only a couple of days till you board now - can't wait to see your sail away pics.
Cold (think 5 degrees) and wet here so you ain't missing nuffin!

 

[PennieTurrill]

Got to love free WiFi! Sorry to see the card isn't play nicely. What a hassle. !

 

[Pushka]

Loving Venice. We got lost today. Not really. Just head for water.

We took the vaporetto for a grand canal cruise. Its the public launch so very crowded.

So many photos. Venice is a visual paradise. Hope you folks don't mind a photo show. Mr P has taken some amazing panorama shots which won't work on a forum unfortunately.

 

[Pushka]

The queue for gondola rides is huge. Everywhere. Given the euros they charge for a quick ride it's a profit venture for sure.

See the lady in red? She's doing the classic gypsy con. Remember Paris Pennie? Same deal. She asks you to sign a petition and then asks for a 5 euro fee. We thought surely no one falls for this but as we passed her by we saw she'd hooked a victim as they handed over the note. The sad thing is the victim was smiling and thanking her.



As we stood and watched for someone else her friend approached us. She thought we were American, then German and then she tried Dutch. We just walked away

 

[Pushka]

We stumbled across this popular place. At the time we were eating gelato so we waited until these were finished before we ventured into the spectacle.



It's wonderful but not quite the same spectacle as the Vatican.





And some very expensive restaurants lining the square.

 

[Pushka]

People were feeding the pigeons. They are fat. Feeding the pigeons is outlawed.

 

[Pushka]

As we walked to the end of St Marks Square we saw a cruise ship sail in. A Holland American ship - Nieuw Amsterdam from memory. This was sailing into Port. On Saturday we will do the opposite - sail out as Dame the Older has mentioned.

The port was lined with tourists taking photos. The locals loathe them.