Skip to main content

Venice - Islands, Bridges, Walkways and Waterways


My first stop in Italy was in Venice, which is quite an interesting destination. The train from Vienna will leave you off at Padova in Italy, where you will need to catch a regional train to Venice, and then a bus, train or water boat to proper Venice. The buses on the mainland are aged, but they do work quite well and are properly maintained. Age is just but a number.
Venice consists of a series of islands, with proper Venice being a mostly tourist destination abandoned by locals who have settled on the other islands around Venice. There is however a regular water boat service to the different islands and even a car ferry to the larger islands but not to Venice itself, where only walking and boating are allowed.
Venice’s Grand Canal. The grey and orange rectangular structure in the canal to the left is a water-bus station
I took the train to the mainland station(Mestre) which meant that I had to take a bus over to the island and walk my way to almost the other end where my hotel was. There is a more convenient way to get to my hotel which was to take a train to Venice’s other train station, from where I could have caught a water boat which gets me closer to my hotel.

My hotel was a converted 3-floor house. Venice is an interesting small town mostly consisting of shops, restaurants and hotels. As I pointed out, most locals live on the other less known and touristy islands, though you will also find some fair amount of residential houses in Venice.
Venice’s Famous St. Mark’s Square
While the Gondolas that traverse the canals are touristy, these are quite pricey. It is cheaper (free) to walk around and savour the many attractions by foot. Avoid the restaurants by the oceanfront and those that line the main canals as these tend to be quite pricey, and if cheap, make it up with tiny servings.

Some of the places you may like include Castello which has affordable pizza, and the hidden gem of Osteria A La Scuela which is a good place to have a nice Aperol Spritz and enjoy the tradition of the Aperitivo.

If you’re looking for an evening joint, there’s Bacaro Jazz which has some nice-ish music and a quirky decor made up of bras hanging down from the ceiling, but it is touristy and quite pricey. But it is not like there’s much else anyway.

It’s highly recommended to grab a day public transit ticket and take the water bus to Lido island, the larger of the many islands around Venice. If you are looking for a beach, there is a public beach at Lido including rentable lockers. You can also take a water boat to the islands of Murano and Burano which are fairly easy to visit if you have the transit day pass that allows you unlimited use of buses and boats.
A 6 Euro Pizza Margherita in Venice 

An interesting thing to note about Venice is that due to its age, their sewer system predates modern sanitation practices and therefore sewerage empties directly into the canals. The city also floods towards the end of the year due to high winds and tides, though there is a plan to solve the problem by 2020 or thereabout.

Next in these series, all roads lead to Rome, and so do some trains. Or, you can be clever and get the book on Amazon to read about my entire trip all in one place. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here .  Peroni - One of the best beers in Kenya. Did a taste of canned and bottled Italian, and bottled Tanzanian I like the tangy flavour and body in Tanzanian Peroni. The can is close. Heineken drinkers will like the Italian one.  I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs,  I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lusaka and Livingstone Zambia to Namibia By Road

Zambia is a pretty large country,  an exciting one and with no shortage of potholes.  For instance, take the direct route from Lusaka - Livingstone to Namibia through the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo border crossing. Typically, roads are either good or tend to have potholes here and there. However, the last 120 kilometres of the Livingstone to Sesheke/Katima Mulilo route are best described as potholes dotted by some road here and there for the just thirty kilometres past Kazungula town, which is also the Zambia - Botswana border crossing.  Trying to drive to Sesheke is so bad it will take you anywhere between 4 hours to 6 hours to navigate those 100 kilometres. You may or may not have your dignity at the end and your vehicle may be in more than one piece.  If you really must use the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo crossing as of December 2022, then take the 900 kilometre longer detour from Lusaka to Mongu then back to Katima Mulilo. It doesn't guarantee you absence of potholes, b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenyan Beers and Craft Beer Reviews for 2025

It's 2025, and you asked for yet another Kenyan beer review. Let's cut straight to the chase - we keep the many stories for once we are drunk. Right? This year we categorize the beers according to breweries.  Bila Shaka / Bateleur  Flagship is Bila Shaka which is a rich flavoured but bitter IPA with 6% volume.  They focus more on quality and experimenting.  Home to many pleasantly (sweet per 2 people. I agree) favoured beers like Dire Straits, and for the ladies who love it a lot on the sweeter side, there's Honey Badger. These come in at about 5% or so. Jua Kali isn't as sweet as the above and is a mixed rice and barley beer, for some reason popular in the hot coast. Capitan is their bar beer and is a light-ish, pleasant beer at 4% volume and a good time passer when you're there for a long and good night and have things to do the next day. My favourite local brewer and highly recommended, especially Dire Straits. It's a medium beer, don...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Nairobi City By-Laws that Never Were

Well, you have all heard about the proposed Nairobi city by Laws, currently awaiting approval by the Local Government minister. The proposed laws seemed to be quite comprehensive, and ranged from simple laws governing traffic-lights-conduct to the outrageous ones which seek to limit the behavior of city dogs. We here at gramware have been having a feeling that some of the laws on dogs were referring to a word used to co-notate the gender of a female dog; and commonly used to refer to human beings with outrageous behaviours. Still, we think that there are some laws that city hall missed, and we decided to list some of them here. Most of them might be outrageous, and probably a reason why they didn't make the cut. Here they are: It shall be illegal for a city Resident to stop on a street to stare at a video screen for a period of time longer than 15 seconds. any resident contravening this shall be charged with obstruction. Pedestrians within the city shall attempt to walk in almost ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenyan products: The art of punishing your consumer

This post was written in 2011. Facts may have and indeed have changed - but the conclusion has not.  Dormans instant coffee tastes better than Sasini instant coffee. Ramtons electronics are manufactured for Kenya's Hypermart Limited, yet maintain a high product quality Peanut butter used to taste so good, but you could not afford it on the pocket money that you got back in school. A few years later, you have your first real job and your first "disposable" income. You buy your first real tub of peanut butter, probably the first in your life. You feel proud that Dominion peanut butter is manufactured in Ruiru, a town that you visited in your campus days to withdraw your pocket money, it was the nearest bank ATM to your campus.  This was before Equity bank became a mainstream bank and decided to open an ATM in your campus, and before M-Pesa meant that you ...
Post a Comment
Read more