Last month, I finally got a chance to visit Venice. :) Since June is summer season, the streets of Venice were packed with tourists and there were long queues in major tourist spots.
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| Queue for St Mark's Cathedral stretches up to the Doge's Palace |
This means if you only have a day or two in Venice, you need to choose between lining up for hours to see what's inside a famous landmark or exploring the city. We opted to explore the city since we thought walking is a better use of time than waiting in queue for hours just to see one landmark.
We joined La Bussola’s Free City Tour of Venice and we learned about Venetian history, the Venetian way of life and lots of useful travel tips when touring Venice. Joining a walking tour is the best way to explore Venice if you've limited time to spare.
Our tour guide was an American studying in Venice and he was really good.
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| Our tour guide with his pet dog. |
Share with you some of the things we saw in Venice and some useful (and non-touristy) tips I remember from our Venice walking tour. Just a word of caution though - these are random snippets. I've no time to organize my thoughts. Haha...
- Did you know that Venice is actually a lagoon? So why did people end up settling there?
Our tour guide shared that during Attila the Hun's invasion of Italy, some peasants fled to the islands of the Venetian lagoon since it was difficult to attack it - the water was too shallow for ships and it was difficult to walk and fight in the murky waters. And the peasants were right - Venice was never conquered by Attila the Hun. Whew!
- Have you seen the map of Venice? It is shaped like a big fish, or 2 whales biting each other.
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| Map of Venice (Source) |
Now, look at the map closely. Can you guess how many islands make up Venice?
Venice is composed of over 100 islands interconnected by about 400 bridges and could be traversed by 100 canals! Here are 2 major ones -
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| Rialto bridge - the most popular bridge that spans the Grand Canal but it's currently under renovation. |
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| Ponte dell'Accademia - another main bridge that spans the Grand Canal. What makes it unique? It's made from wood. |
Several hundreds of the bridges are smaller ones and made from concrete like this -
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| Ponte delle Tette or "Bridge of Tits". Why that name? In the 15th century, this area was a red light district and prostitutes would hang out in this bridge and flash their breasts to passers-by to attract customers. |
- But even if Venice is composed of over 100 islands, Venice isn't big at all. It is only about 415 square kilometers so you could easily go from one point to another by walking. Or you can take the primary mode of transportation to go around Venice - via boats or gondolas. Even their taxis are called water taxis! :)
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| Boats in the busy Venetian canal |
Yes, even the ambulances and fire brigade vehicles in Venice are boats. According to our tour guide, the structure below is a fire station.
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| Venice fire station |
So when there's fire, the fire brigade boats come out of these tunnels.
- The most popular mode of transportation to get around Venice is the gondola. It probably charges the most expensive rates too. How much does it cost to ride a gondola? About 80 euros (USD90 or Php4,200) for only 30 minutes! Whoa...
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| Venetian gondolas |
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| A service center for gondolas |
- Rowing the gondola may look easy but according to our tour guide, it isn't easy at all. Do you know that it takes 5 years to train to become a gondolier?! Why? Because it's very difficult to row in canals. Remember that Venice is a lagoon? So canals are shallow (about waist-deep only) which means it's hard to paddle because you have to be precise in rowing so you don't hit the bottom or the side walls of the canals. Hats off to gondoliers! :)
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| A Venetian gondolier |
BTW, have you ever wondered how much a gondolier makes? Our tour guide said a gondolier could earn as much as 20k euros per month (that's USD22k or Php1.04M per month). Wow!
- While in Venice, it's common knowledge that you could easily get lost even if you have a map or GPS because alleys look similar and houses are not arranged by sequence. The number of a house pertain to the sequence it was built along the street! What a challenge finding a house in Venice by its house number. No wonder, our airbnb host's instructions were mostly based on landmarks, counting the number of gates you pass by and the description of the door. Haha...
But do not worry about getting lost in Venice. There are a lot of directional signages in corner alleys. Sometimes you'll even see 2 directional signages for the same landmark but pointing at opposite directions. When you encounter this, it means you can either go right or left and still end up in the same target destination. :)
- When high tide occurs in Venice, they call it acqua alta (high water). People are warned at least 2 hours before via sirens. Floods could be as high as 60cm (about 24 inches) and up to 2/3 of the city may be affected by flooding. :(
Last year, according to our tour guide, they had 15 acqua alta incidents. It's quite a hassle but Venetians have accepted acqua alta as part of their lives. It's business as usual and classes resume even if the city is flooded.
To protect their homes, people put barriers on doors (the gray thing at the foot of the door in the photo below) which prevents the water from entering their houses during high tide.
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| The gray barrier at the base prevents flood from entering the house. |
- Never even consider touching the water of the Venetian canals. Our tour guide explained that though most hotels and new houses have modern sewerage facilities, a lot of the houses in Venice are centuries-old which makes use of the old sewerage system. This means during high tide, the old sewerage systems may overflow and the waste flows out to the canals. :(
- You'll see old wells all over Venice and around it, you'll notice drainages like this on the pavement.
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| Drainage for rain water |
This is the earliest water system of Venice - they used to trap rain water. :) Today though, Venice gets its water supply from the beautiful Dolomite Mountains.
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| Dolomite Mountains (Source) |
- This is the Hilton Hotel in the Giudecca area, or what is known as the residential island. Our tour guide explained that this red brick structure used to be a flour mill before being converted into a luxurious Hilton Hotel.
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| Hilton Hotel in Venice used to be a flour mill. |
How luxurious? See that tower with a green roof in the corner? According to our tour guide, the top corner room costs 8,500 euros per night (USD9,300 or Php430k!). Crazy, right?
- We stopped by this Venetian mask store which boasts of Leonardo De Caprio and Tom Cruise as their clients.
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| Venetian Mask store showing autographs of Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Cruise. |
While looking at the window display, our tour guide shared with us some interesting trivia about Venetian masks.
Do you know why Venetian men used to wear masks when they go to the theater in the 18th century? Because after watching a show, they are usually pumped up so they go to a brothel immediately after (the masks enable them to keep their identities secret). Courtesans in brothels during the 18th century though were more like geisha - they were educated, talented and could engage in intellectual conversations.
We also learned that masks were designed for different purposes. The mask below for example is called the Bauta mask - it's the most popular mask worn by men. Notice that beneath the nose, the mask protrudes. Why? To allow the men to talk, eat and drink without having to remove the mask so they can keep their identities a secret.
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| Bauta mask |
Then there's this mask called Moretta, commonly used by women to flirt. It's just plain black (the photo shows the reflection of the cobblestones but the mask is really just plain black) and it is made from velvet. It's small - just enough to cover the face to conceal one's identity - and it doesn't have any hole on the mouth/lip section. And the most intriguing part is it doesn't have any strap or string.
If it doesn't have any string or strap, how do you think this was worn by women in the 18th century?
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| Moretta mask used for flirting |
There's some kind of a button behind the Moretta mask and it is worn by clenching the button with your teeth. Since you're biting something the whole time you're wearing this, you're unable to speak. Apparently, communicating without words was considered an art of flirting especially since it adds more mystery to the person's identity.
Here's another mask - the Plague Doctor's mask. In the 17th and 18th centuries, plague doctors (their medical physicians) wore beak-like masks like this. Why?
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| Plague Doctor's mask |
Inside the beak were aromatic items like flowers and other sweet-smelling substances to keep away foul odors that were thought to spread infectious diseases.
- During the 3-hour walking tour, we were also able to visit the Church of St Panteleone. This is just one of the many beautiful churches of Venice. If you're staying long in Venice, you could get a Chorus Pass for 12 euros which allows you entrance to 15 churches.
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| Church of St Panteleone |
What's there to see at the Church of St. Panteleone? You'll find the largest oil painting in the world! The entire ceiling of the church is covered by the painting depicting the martyrdom of St Panteleone. It was done by an artist named Fumiani and it took 20 years to complete it! Amazing.
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| Largest oil painting in the world. |
The sad part though was that the artist, Fumiani, died when he fell from a scaffolding while fixing the painting. :(
Right across the church, our tour guide pointed to a house and he said this was once used as a location shoot in a Katherine Hepburn movie. He said the specific scene shot here was that Hepburn fell from the balcony and landed on the canal (and that scene required several takes). Aacck!
- We also passed through a passageway of the building below.
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| This used to be a secret casino |
While in the passageway, our tour guide pointed to a hole in the ceiling and asked us - Can you guess what was the hole on the ceiling used for?
Apparently, it was a peephole. The building used to be a secret casino (I just don't know from what time period). The peephole allowed the secret casino operators from the second floor to easily see if the police were by the door on the ground floor.
- A glass of Prosecco may cost about 5 euros in restaurants in Venice.
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| A glass of Prosecco |
But along some back alleys around Venice, there are wine stores where you can have your empty mineral bottle filled up with wine for only 3 to 5 euros (and that's up to a liter)! Wow.
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| Wine stores selling wine refills for 3 to 5 euros for a liter |
- When ordering coffee, please be mindful that the price is different if you're going to consume it while standing (less expensive) versus sitting (more expensive!)
- When it comes to choosing restaurants, how do you spot authentic local restaurants (which serve great food and which aren't tourist traps)? There are 4 indicators -
1. There are no photos of the dishes displayed outside the restaurant.
2. The menu isn't thick (maybe 2 pages max) because authentic local restaurants only serve the fresh catch for the day
3. There are no English or multiple language translations of the menu.
4. There are no good-looking waiters by the door trying to charm you to dine! Haha...
These are all the things and useful travel tips I remember from our 3-hour walking tour of Venice. :)
BTW, the organizer of the walking tour, La Bussola, offers 2 free walking tours of Venice - the first one is an intro city tour (this is the one we joined and if you noticed, it doesn't cover any major landmark). The second tour covers popular landmarks like St. Mark's Square, Doge's Palace, Rialto, etc. But I enjoyed the intro tour because it covered off-the-beaten tracks.
If you plan to join both tours, I suggest that you split the 2 tours in 2 days unless you're ok to walk for 6 hours in 1 day! Haha... The itinerary may also vary as each tour guide has his/her own personal recommendations and stories to tell. And just in case you have never joined a Free Walking Tour yet, here's how it works - you're not obliged to pay, but if you're happy with the tour, you may donate whatever amount you think is fair at the end of the tour. :)
Since the walking tour we joined didn't cover the popular tourist spots, we just explored on our own. So here are the most popular spots to see in Venice.
- Along the waterfront at the Piazza San Marco, you 'll see these 2 tall pillars -
On the left is that of a winged lion which is the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist (the patron saint of Venice) and the other one is a soldier, a representation of St Theodore who used to be Venice's patron saint until he was replaced when the remains of St Mark were brought to Venice.
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| Walking in between these 2 columns is considered bad luck by Venetians. |
It is considered bad luck by Venetians to walk in between these columns because once upon a time, criminals, murderers, traitors and even homosexuals were hanged, decapitated or burned alive between the two columns. :(
- Along the waterfront (near the pillar of the winged lion), you'll notice a very congested bridge. When you go to the bridge, everyone's taking photos of this view.
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| Bridge of Sighs |
The white covered bridge in the upper part of the photo is called the Bridge of Sighs. Why? The bridge connects the interrogation room from the Doge's Palace or Duke's Palace (the building on the left) to the prison (right building). It was named as Bridge of Sighs because the prisoners would sigh at their final view of the outside world before being taken down to their prison cells.
- Here's the Doge's Palace (or Duke's Palace). This is where the ruling duke of Venice used to stay but it has now been converted to a museum.
See how intricate and beautiful the entrance to the Duke Palace is -
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| Entrance to the Doge's Palace |
At the corner by the entrance of the Doge's Palace, we also saw these statues -
Not sure what the significance of the statues is. I tried googling about them but couldn't find any results - or maybe I was typing the wrong keywords. ;)
- Just adjacent to the Doge's Palace is St. Mark's Basilica. This is where the remains of St. Mark the Evangelist are kept. I quickly googled about the story of St. Mark's remains and an article I read says that around 828 A.D, legend has it that the Venetians in Alexandria found St Mark's relics and stole them. How did they get away with it? They hid them in a barrel under layers of pork to slip them past Muslim guards. This story, according to the article, is depicted in one of the mosaics in the Basilica.
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| Basilica of St. Mark |
Check out how beautiful the architectural details of St. Mark's Basilica -
We had to appreciate the Basilica from the outside because we had zero chance from entering since the queue was just so long. :(
Across St. Mark's Basilica is St Mark's Square -
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| St Mark's Square |
- There are a lot of places to see in Venice alone but just in case you want to see more, you can take a tour to the nearby islands of Murano, Burano and Tortello.
- Murano is the home of the fabled glass workers of Venice. But here's an interesting story which I read online. The glass workers of Venice were sent in this island around the 13th century for 2 possible reasons - (1) to prevent the risk of fire from a glass furnace which could easily spread through a very compact Venice and (2) to keep the secrets of glassblowing a Venetian monopoly.
During the tour, we visited a glassblowing factory where they demonstrated to us the art of of glassblowing:
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| A Venetian glassblower in action who showed us how they make a Murano vase. |
At the end of the tour, you can buy Murano products in the factory's showroom. But I suggest that you explore other stores nearby as they usually have more affordable prices than the factory showroom .
Murano pieces are being sold all over Venice too so you also don't have to go all the way to Murano to buy glass pieces - unless you really want to visit a glass factory or see the island.
- Burano is a fishing village but it's a haven for photographers because of its brightly painted houses. Don't they just look so pretty?!
Burano is most known though for its lace making. Here are some beautifully-crafted lace products being sold in the island -
There are dresses, tops, table runners, place mats and shawls being sold too. Everything is just so dainty! :)
- The last stop in the island tour was the island of Torcello. With only 20 minutes to spend, I was only able to visit its 2 churches -
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| Church of Santa Fosca |
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| Cathedral of Sta Maria Assunta, also known as the Torcello Cathedral |
It's free to visit the Church of Santa Fosca while you have to pay to enter the Torcello Cathedral. Paying entrance fees in churches across Europe is very common since they need the funds for the upkeep of the churches.
Inside the Torcello Cathedral, I saw the relics of 2 saints. According to a personnel, they are that of South African saints but I wasn't able to catch their names and couldn't find any google results either. :(
Ernest Hemingway reportedly spent time in Torcello in 1948 while writing parts of his book entitled Across the River and Into the Trees. It is said that famous artists, musicians, movie stars also spend time on this island. Too bad, I didn't spot any. Haha...
That's it - our Venetian adventure. :)
When we were planning the trip, we were actually choosing between going to Oslo, Stockholm (which are both nearer to Iceland and Denmark) or Venice (which is out of the way)... but I am so happy we picked Venice. The architecture is just breathtaking, there are so many things to see and learn, the place is compact so you can easily explore the city, the vibe is very relaxing, and the weather is just great in summer (it allowed us to thaw in between cold countries!. Haha....).
