Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Day 2 - Venice May 2013

I decided to do what the Italians do and have a standing breakfast at the bar the next day. It was something like EUR3 for a coffee and a croissant. 

Some random building next to the vaporetti station.

As I was too cheap to experience the gondolas, I decided to hop on the next best thing - the vaporetti which is the public bus-boat service. It didn't actually come cheap either at about EUR7 for a single trip. I jumped on line #1 which is the touristy line and snapped away.

Life in Venice is conducted on boats....


Skeleton! Me favourite.

Venice in colour mode.....


Pin hole mode

Black and white mode hehe...

The Rialto Markets in pastel colour mode....


Rialto Bridge with a vaporetto underneath it...





Doge's Palace and the Clock Tower


Last stop for the vaporetto so I got off and got back on again to get back to the town centre.

It looked warm but it was icy cold in the wind. I was shivering by the time I hopped off.

Time for a coffee and some cornetto (Italian for croissant) in the sun.


Did you know there are two types of gondoliers in Venice - the red tops and the black tops.


Time to get lost in the alleyways. My internet stopped working on the last day so I didn't have google map. It was liberating just wandering around without a map and seeing where I would end up.


No prizes for guessing which type of masks I prefer....




Another day, another gelato stop.

Can't remember what flavours I got now.






I was determined to not have lunch at a touristy restaurant so I deliberately took some random turns in the back alleys and finally ended up at the back of a restaurant. A waiter was walking past and let me through. It turned out to be the oldest restaurant in Venice, founded in the year 1500 and was the first place to cook with spices which the oriental merchants introduced to Venice... haha. Awesome.

Starter : Melon and prosciutto (ham, Ah Here)

Spaghetti vongole for main, obviously...

This was the main entrance to the restaurant and it was right next to the Rialto Market... not so off the beaten track afterall. Heaps of cheapskate tourists took photos of the entrance but not venture inside for a meal.








Last gelato of the trip and this nondescript place was mentioned in the guidebook.

I got ginger because that was mentioned in the book. It was alright. Cheapest too out of all the others I had.

Bart and Homer, Venetian style.

The guidebook called this the ugliest building (on the left) in Venice and it may well be haha... the railway station.

I had plenty of time to kill so I went off to have a look at the Jewish section.

Suburbia Venice with the clothes lines hanging between the buildings.

This looks like a painting on Chin Hwa's walls....hehe

I sat down at a sidewalk cafe to while away some time, people watching. This group of old Italian men walked past singing songs at the top of their voices. I smiled and caught the eye of one of them who broke away from the group and started serenading me! His mate joined him and the two of them stood in front of me for at least five minutes singing to me. I had no idea what they were singing about and people were beginning to stare! It got a tad awkward but they finally moved on after the song came to an end. Hehe charming.

Aboard the train back to Verona for my flight to London

What my money got me and what I missed out on for the leg from Verona to Venice.

I bought some oh so soft sandwiches for my journey... yum yum.

This was the regional train I caught accidentally.

... compared to this sleek thing.

Bye bye Venice. I shall be back with the parental units.

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