For those of you that don't know, I have a huge fear of open water. Yes, I can swim and I know that the Lincoln Tunnel in New York went under water. No, I don't know why, I just don't like it one bit and I don't want to talk about the irrationality of it. Additionally, there are two parts of Venice. One that is part of the mainland of Italy, the other that is a serious of islands connected by bridges and water ways. The cooler, more known part of Venice is the islandy part. In order to get there, you either drive, boat or take the train across the water to the island. Luckily, I have awesome friends who completely distract me so that I don't freak out when I realize that I'm on a train that appears to be choo-choo-ing its way across the top of the water ready to sucked into the ocean at any time. See what I mean?! Instant worst case scenario in my head and I'm not even there anymore.
Now that my lovely fear and the islands of Venice have been described, here comes the beauty of the city. Monday night, Jen and I decided to go to Venice on Tuesday and Verona on Wednesday because we both agreed that the possibility of rain and open water wasn't going to be the best mix for me and it wasn't supposed to rain on Tuesday. Good idea us! We got up and got to the train station around 9ish and headed the hour or so to Venice. The train ride was nice and we got there quickly. When we got to Venice, it wasn't too crowded so we decided to head toward St. Mark's before all the other cruises and tourists got there and bombarded the island. This is when I noticed something really cool. Italy is full of inter-Italian tourism. There were bunches of Italians with maps and cameras visiting for the day. It's a decent sized country with a ton of things to see, so I can only imagine how many more times I will need to go back to see everything! (ha, see what i did there?!)
Walking through the streets, its so easy to get lost, but no matter what, you'll have to cross bridges and walkways and as long as you follow the signs that have been put up, you'll find your way to the major things among the islands. We reached St. Mark's and were greeted by less people than we anticipated and amazing sunshine allowing for great pictures. The line to see the inside of the church was already hundreds of people long, so we passed on seeing the inside and took a bajillion pictures of people, pigeons and architecture. The church and piazza were beautiful, the water and sky was so clear. Venice is everything that I ever wished it could be.
The bridges were beautiful and its amazing how these buildings and things were built atop tiny islands that are now sinking and have crazy things that are now under water. There are parts of buildings that are not underground. How freaking cool is that?! Honestly! There are so many things under the surface in Italy and I wish I could see them all! For me, the coolest part of Venice was the Ghetto and seeing the history of the city. I'm out of words for Venice. It was just beautiful, see?
No comments:
Post a Comment