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Somewhere during the last days of September, I got on a plane with my brother with destination Venice, Italy. This is the second time I’m visiting Italy this year. In January Rome and now Venice. I’ve been traveling a lot this year. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, I always wanted to “see the world”, but after returning from Rotterdam, last summer, I’m beginning to feel anxious only at the thought of leaving again. Rotterdam took it’s toll on my personal comfort and it’s gonna take a while till I will be happy to travel again.Nevertheless once I was on the plane, I was alright. The ride was smooth and the view just before landing was breathtaking: an endless waterline full of small boats with their sails glittering in the orange sunset. The airfield was just a few feet away from the water.

We checked in at a nice hotel in a small town near Venice and after a 20 minutes bus ride we were there: a big square filled with buses and cars. The place where land ended and water began. As the whole city is built on pylons over the water, the only way to get around Venice is trough its maze of narrow streets and channels. From now on we either walked or took a boat to get us from one place to another. It took us a while to get accustomed before we started to explore Venice. In the two days we would walk in and out of Venice, visit the islands and enter lots souvenir shops.

The first evening we walked a lot and visited some of the nice places including the San Marco square. After walking for a few hours and making a lot of pictures (I stopped now an then and shouted “che bella” and took a picture, completely annoying my brother during the whole process :) ), we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we were surprised to be greeted in Romanian by the cook and being asked what sort of meal should be prepared for us. After a nice breakfast we headed back into the city maze. To tell you the truth, Venice was quite disappointing by daylight: the same lack of care for the monuments and the decaying buildings as in Rome, the rats who lurked around everywhere, the garbage on the streets and the smelly water were not exactly what I imagined. Anyway, I tried to see more than meets the eye.

At noon we decided to head for the Islands and hopped in a boat to Murano^[1]. Murano was peaceful, clean and quiet. Torrents of tourists were debarking every half a hour but they got soon lost in the little streets and buildings of the Island. We walked trough the stores just to see all kinds of glass made artworks … really fascinating. The most exciting part of our tour was inside a glass factory, witnessing how glass artworks was made. I can say the speed and skill of a “Maestro” is mind blowing. From the moment he took the melted glass from the oven and the moment where a beautiful glass horse stood on the table with it’s front legs in the air, only 2-3 minutes had passed. Some hours later we returned to the city and entered once more Venice’s maze. In the evening we walked down the pier and to the beautiful public gardens. We made a lot of pictures that evening, a challenging task without a tripod.

In the morning we packed our stuff and made one final trip to the islands. The first stop was Lido. As we debarked it was like stepping into another world. The silence, the peacefulness … the grander of the big houses and city canals… Lido is the citadel of the rich, rarely bothered by the hoards of tourists that choke the streets of Venice. The panoramic view of Venice and some other islands from Lido’s shore is breathtaking. The island is connected to the mainland and has also boats carrying cars and goods to and from the highway near Venice. Here’s one of the places I would love call home (if I could afford it). It’s also the place where I found my street :). Literally.

For the next part of the journey we embarked in a ferry boat which took us near the building site of the MOSES system which once built will be able to protect the Lagoon opening to the sea. This will make Venice less vulnerable to high tides and storms that plagued the city in the past. Once we left the protection of the Lagoon we felt the power of the Adriatic sea, the high currents and winds making our engines to work harder.

Our final stop was Burano, a small island north of Venice. Burano is a copy of Venice at a much smaller scale. The city streets are here tidy and clean, the buildings are all painted in bright colors, every door and window is covered with curtains from beautiful silk canvas. We had little time to walk around as we had to catch our plane, but we were very impressed with Burano. We kept thinking: “This is how Venice should look like”.

On our way back to Venice I was silent, thinking of the past days and recalling nice memories. The ride took longer than we expected and we had to run to catch our bus back to the hotel. Two hours later we were boarding the plane back home.

I was turning back with mixed feelings about Venice. It was interesting to see a city where everything moved by water, tough there were lots of other stuff I didn’t like. I would say go and visit Venice for a day but spend double the time on the lagoons islands.

Over and out,
The Lion.^[2]

1. Where the famous Murano glass is made. [»]
2. The song to this post is: Justin Nouzka – Mr. Therapy Man. Open “Lion’s Radio” and scroll down to listen to it. [»]