Carnival in Venice, Italy – 2003

 

Our trip to Venice began on Friday afternoon, February 28.  We drove to the small airport in Charleroi, Belgium, which is used by the cut-rate airline, Ryan Air.  Charleroi is about 45 minutes south of Brussels and has long-term parking where we kept our car.  Our flight to Treviso, Italy was a little over an hour and a bus took us into Mestre where we checked into the Ramada Hotel for our stay.  We unpacked, read a little and turned in to sleep.



Mestre is on the mainland or, terra firma, as the Italians call it.  The Ramada had a shuttle bus service for a small fee that took us into Venice and dropped us off at Piazzale Roma, a large area with parking garages plus bus and taxi terminals.  There is also a large train station nearby.  All of this is at the end of a causeway that is the main way to get to Venice.  There is no motor traffic in Venice; not even motorcycles.  From Piazzale Roma you either walked or took boats.  The three main kinds of boats are vaporettos, water taxis and gondolas.  Vaporettos are the main public transportation and these boats can take from 50 to 100 people at a time.  They are the cheapest form of transportation except for walking.  Water taxis carry about ten people maximum and cost quite a lot.  Gondolas are the old fashioned method of transportation, are rowed by one gondolier, and cost about $100 for two for a 45-minute ride.  In 1977 we visited Venice and, along with the girls, did a gondola ride on the canals of Venice so we didn’t feel obligated to do it again.



We woke early Saturday to a heavy fog, had our hotel buffet breakfast and took the first bus to Venice.  We proceeded to walk and, as we did, the mid-morning fog burned off to a clear, sunny but cool day.  We walked to the church of San Rocco (St. Roch) and had a look at the interior with many paintings by the Italian artist Tintoretto.  Nearby we went into the church called I Frari, a very large church with several paintings by famous Italian artists, the only one I knew being Titian, who is also buried in this church.  In front of I Frari was our first carnival poser in costume, posing for her professional photographer plus all of us amateurs. 



We stopped for a coffee at an outdoor café and began seeing many others in costumes.  Some were quite elaborate while some were sort of like Halloween costumes.  We made our way to the Rialto Bridge, the main bridge over the Grand Canal and much photographed.  Rita and I took photos of each other here then walked on to Piazza San Marco (or St. Mark’s Square), the main center of Venice with the San Marco Basilica, Ducale Palace and much more.  The crowds were enormous and there were many more elaborate costumes on posers in St. Mark’s Square 



We bought a three-day vaporetto pass and decided to head to the island of Lido to get away from the crowds for a while.  In Lido we walked to a restaurant called Gran Viale that was recommended by a friend.  We had a good lunch then walked to the beach area, which was mainly closed.  Through the fog we could see the Adriatic Sea.  We walked back to the boat dock and caught another boat back to San Marco square.  We walked to Campo San Zaccaria with its pretty church, which had many paintings by Tintoretto.  We also discovered that San Zaccaria was a good place to photograph posers in great costumes.  It was a fairly quiet square with good backgrounds for the posers.  We took some of our best photos here.



We walked a lot in the afternoon taking small back alleys along canals to Campo San Maria Formosa and back to San Marco.  There were thousands of people now and it was getting late.  We walked west past San Moise, Campo San Maurizie, Campo San Stefano, and crossed the Grand Canal at Accademia.  There were pretty little shops all along the way and it was crowded with people coming and going.  We bought sandwiches at a small bar and took them back to our hotel room for a light dinner.  Rita’s pedometer said we walked 7.7 miles today.



On Sunday we woke to overcast skies but no rain.  We took the early bus into Venice and began walking from Piazzale Roma in a different direction to the Rialto Bridge.  We made our way to San Marco Square, which was still filled with thousands of people.  We were able to get a window table at Caffe Quadri, a famous coffee shop founded in 1775.  It introduced Turkish coffee to the Venetians. 



Because of the crowds, we thought it was a good time to visit the other islands.  We caught a vaporetto to Burano but it took about an hour since it stopped in Lido, Punta Sabbioni and Treporti.  Burano is a pretty little village with brightly colored houses.  The story is that the people painted their houses bright so the fishermen could find their way home in the fog.



We walked through the small town and had a good lunch at Da Romano.  I had a starter of gnocchetti pasta with shrimp while Rita had shrimp risotto.  For main course Rita had sole while I had fried scampi and calamari.  We had a nice local white wine with the meal and split an apple strudel for dessert. 



Then we caught the vaporetto to the island of Murano, famous for its glass blowing factories.  We visited several show rooms filled with famous Murano glass, which is expensive.  We even saw one glass blower open on a Sunday for the tourists.  We didn’t buy very much at all here and once more took the vaporetto to Venice at the Fond Nuove stop.  We walked a new route back to Piazzale Roma north of the Grand Canal.  We walked along Strada Nuova through the Ghetto (Jewish section) and Labia Palace and crossed the Grand Canal at Ponte degli Scalzi Bridge.  Back at the hotel we had our first meal in the hotel restaurant and were surprised that is was actually very good with large portions.



By Monday we were tiring and decided to sleep in late.  We didn’t sleep in very late but caught the 10:00 am bus into Venice.  We caught the vaporetto number 1 that takes one along the entire length of the Grand Canal to San Marco Square.  It was a beautiful ride.  We found that there were still large crowds but they were smaller than the weekend.  We went into Harry’s Bar where a Bellini cost 13 Euros or about $15.   We declined.  We took the elevator up the Campanile (bell tower) in San Marco Square and had great views of Venice.  We found a small bar called Piero e Mauro where we had a great crostini or open-faced sandwich.  We found many posers to photograph especially back at Campo San Zaccaria.  We walked to the old theater, La Fenice and then to the Rialto Bridge.  Rita bought herself some masks, watch and earrings.  We walked back to San Marco Square where we went into the Basilica.  We saw the mosaics on the ceilings, the pretty tiled floors and the Pala d’Oro or gold alter piece.  We climbed up into the Galleria with great views of the piazza below with hundreds of people. 



By evening we had walked some more and finally stopped at Al Calice restaurant for a pizza.  We went back to San Marco Square as it is pretty lit up at night.  We caught the same vaporetto number 1 along the Grand Canal back to Piazzale Roma.  The boat ride was beautiful at night with the numerous palaces lit up.  Occasionally you could see an interior room lit up with its old wood beamed ceilings and Murano chandeliers. 



Tuesday was the last day of Carnival and our last full day in Venice.  We caught the early bus to Venice and again took vaporetto number 1 along the Grand Canal to San Marco Square.  We had beautiful weather, clear, sunny skies so we sat in the sunshine at an outdoor café in San Marco Square for a lingering cup of coffee.  We toured the Ducal Palace, which took most of the morning.  Highlights were the walk along the Bridge of Sighs to the prison cells and the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, which is the biggest room in the palace.  It is 14,000 square feet and is the Grand Council Chamber in English. 



Once more we walked to Campo Zaccaria for our final photos of posers and had lunch at Ostaria Al Mascaron near Campo Santa Maria Formosa.  It was a noisy neighborhood restaurant crowded with locals.  Rita and I had green salads then had a sea bass large enough for two.  After lunch we stopped at a bakery where Rita had a torta della nonna (grandmother’s cake) while I had a carnival pastry called Venezia.  We people-watched then walked to Rialto Bridge where we had our Bellini drink at an outdoor café right on the bank of the Grand Canal.  It was a nice way to say goodbye to Venice.



Ash Wednesday we caught a taxi to the train station in Mestre and our bus back to the Treviso airport.  Our flight back to Brussels was uneventful with great views of the snow-covered Alps.  We were tired after this trip having averaged about seven miles of walking every day.