I Went to the Opera in Venice

American Mike and I left lovely Vicenza midday and headed for Venice. I took several videos of the city and boats and things, hopefully I can figure out how to share them.

View when exiting the train station. Where Johnny was in the Tourist! Fantastic.

The first half day was lovely weather, despite being literally on the water. American Mike and I walked from our hostel, located very conveniently over a bridge from the train station. Not so conveniently, it had lots of stairs.

We followed the map the nice desk lady gave us, back over the river, down the shopping streets, over the Rialto bridge (and back), and into Piazza San Marco. There were people everywhere, selling everything you can imagine. I even spotted several things that I was assured were handmade locally back when I visited the Dominican Republic in 2010. Interesting..

First view of the canal, and the only time it was sunny!

My shot on the Rialto Bridge. Nice backpacks guys.

The piazza was beautiful, despite all us tourists. That day was fab as I was able to convince American Mike to take my picture everywhere. On our way back towards the hostel, we came across an Opera house. As expected from someone in the National Guard who had just left Afghanistan after a six month stay, he said: “Do you wanna go?” And so we did. Silly us thought we were seeing the ‘opera with the balconies’. Nope. Just a concert. It was good though, and now I am highly cultured. After all, I went to the opera in Venice…

At this point, following our stint at the Opera, I lost American Mike to the bars. The next day he and his hangover went back to Milan.

I spent two more days in Venice, exploring as much as I could. First thing you notice in Italy – nothing is free like in London. Every museum, every tower, every basilica, you need to pay! I had to withdraw some (ie. A whole bunch) of cash before leaving for Paris.

I walked through the whole city, more or less. This was partly because I wanted to and partly due to the fact that I kept getting lost and would find myself on the other side of the map. I visited the Palazzo Ducale, the official residence of Venetian rulers, and the Bridge of Sighs. I went to the Accademia, home to the best collection of Venetian art, and wandered through the streets of the San Polo, San Marco, and Dorsoduro districts. And saw lots of churches.

I thought about taking a gondola ride, but they cost €80 for an hour. Not really what I was looking to spend! However, you can get from one side of the canal to the other by traghetto for only €0.50! It’s basically a 1 minute ride in a gondola directly across the canal. Good enough!

I didn’t miss out on the gondolas because I spent half my time on the vaporetto.. a water bus! Very effective and, because it cost me €18 to get a 24 hour pass (as if), I was on that thing all the time. Lots of fun, good pictures and videos, and you get to see all the lovely architecture that lines the canal.