Saturday, April 2, 2011

Day 5: Innsbruck to Venice

This was going to be another early day but we were finally off to Venice. This seemed like this is one of the places that everybody could not wait to get to. Our our way out from the hotel we made a stop to see the Olumpic ski jump on the top of the hill and we also went inside a church. I found the inside of the church much more interesting then the ski jump. Maybe it's because it wasn't anything new to me as we have a pretty nice ski jump tower back in Calgary. After taking picutres it was off to Italy.




The drive was really scenic as we wound in and out of tunnels through Brenner Pass As we made our way into Italy you could tell right away where we were. The trees different and there were vineyards everywhere.

At our first rest stop we got introduced to the Italian way of ordering food. First you had to go see what you wanted, then you had to line up to pay for it and then after you got your receipt, you went back to order what you wanted. If it sounds like chaos...it is...on top of people butting in front of you in the line and trying to pronounce what you wanted, it took a while to get food but in the end it was worth it.

We made our way into Mestre where we got off the coach and then took a boat into Venice as no vehicles are allowed in the city. The ride was about an hour or so and there were everythign from tugboats to cruise ships in the harbor. As we neared Venice, from a distance you could see some building that were beginning to lean as the whole city is built on a marshy lagoon which why it is sometimes called "The Floating City". As we cruised for the port the site was unbelievable, it was unlike anything I've ever seen before in my life. I never thought in my life I would get to see Venice, so it was breathtaking.

  

We got off the boat and made our  way into the main town center, Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). There we saw the St Mark's Basilica and the infamous square with lots of pigeons, but not as many as there used to be. I was about to take a quick look inside the church but no backpacks were allowed and I didn't want to get seperated from the group so I went with a few people into the narrow streets of Venice.


Walking through the streets was like navigating a maze. There were little shops lining the streets selling all sorts of things. The only thing in my mind was to find the Rialto Bridge. I was able to navigate my way through the streets by following signs that were on the sides of some of the buildings but it would be pretty easy to get lost if you happen to miss one of them. As I made my way to the bridge, it was difficult to get throught eh streets as some of them were only wide enough for 2 people and of course some people walked 2 abreast which blocked anyone from getting through easily. Finally I found my way to the bridge and took a few photos of the spectacular view.



After taking some pictures, I had to make my way back to Piazza San Marco to meet up with the group for the gondola ride. Although I was able to find the signs to point me back in the direction of the plaza, I still managed to get a little lost and asked a local to point me in the right direction. After meeting up with the group, we walked over to the wharf where there were gondolas waiting for our group. We got into groups of six, bought some wine and then set off for a trip though the canals with the sun starting to set. Unfortunately, our gondolier did not sing...even after we asked him.


After the gondola ride we had another couple hours to kill before our dinner at the resturant. About half of the group decided to go our a tour of the glass factory to see how Murano glass was manufactured. The glass master made a few thigns, but he managed to make a horse of glass in just a few minutes. Becasue the glass can only actually be manfactured in Murano to be Murano glass, the glassmaker had to destroy the figurine. I ended up buying a small vase as I found it was something unique to bring back to Canada.


After getting my vase. I went to walk around the city some more and met up with some people from my tour and whom were mostly smashed from drinking wine on the gondola. I waled with them for a littel bit before going off on my own to take more pictures as I had now had some perfect lighting. I wandered back to the bridge while going a different route to see all of the shops. The place really felt much more alive at night then it did during the day. I had enough to do a pretty long walk and really just wanted to see as much as I could of the city. The group met up again a few hours later and we went to an Italian (obsviously) resturant for dinner. The dinner was really good with musicians playing accordians at our table and singing songs all night long while we ate. We had some pretty good wine...but not excellent and some pretty good pasta. This was also the first time I had ever had a risotto, which was delicious.

After dinner, we hurried back to the harbor to catch our ferry back to mainland, then we drove a short while to our hotel in Mestre. Next day we just had a fairly short drive to the city of Rome.

- Kyle