In Venice, we never tired of watching the activity on the canals. All types of work efforts, such as construction workers, garbage collectors, laundry services, and household movers, take place on the water. Our room in Venice was quite charming with Victorian furniture and brocaided-fabric-covered walls.
After settling into our room in the pink-fronted Canal Hotel (on the 2nd floor with no elevator and no Internet in our room), we went downstairs and asked the lady at the desk where we could go to get a gondola ride and which was the best path to the San Marcos Plaza. She told us that we had to walk about 30 minutes to get a gondola ride and that we had to take the long path to the San Marcos Plaza since we would get hopelessly lost if we took the shorter route. We soon discovered that the lady at the desk was either sadly misinformed or was supporting the shops that lined the longer path and one certain gondola company.
We left the hotel with the intent of following her recommendations only to discover that there were multiple gondola ride options within a two-minute walk from the hotel and they were the same price as the ones that were 30 minutes away. So, within an hour of arriving in Venice, we were on a gondola ride…..which was absolutely charming!! Like all gondola captains, ours wore black and white stripes and a straw hat. We started out in the grand canal and then went into many of the narrow canals.
After our gondola ride, we started on the long path to San Marcos Plaza. Along the way, we took pictures of the sites. The Plaza was surrounded by a huge church and other gigantic ornate buildings. Since the Carnivale had wrapped up only a couple days earler, workers were dismantling a large stage that had been built in the plaza. After checking out the plaza, we retraced our steps back to our hotel. We chose a restaurant called "Gino's" for dinner that night. We liked it so well that we decided to eat there the next night also.
No comments:
Post a Comment