A Maze Called Venice

I spent my first 8 hours in Venice sleeping and smelling the ‘dam’. I am probably not the most laidback travel buddy (just for anybody’s future reference), because I got up early and set off on an almost 13-hour hike, never stopping for too long to cram in as much as possible. By 8 am I was out on the streets with my backpack and camera ready for a whole day on my feet.

The calm of morning

At the first bridge and boat in the canal, I had to control the urge to start shutter-bugging. If I started then, my memory card would have been full by end of the day. I was anyway pretty excited by the sight of the canal and boats and bridges!

I had a map with me but decided to just walk and see where I ended up. It is an Island after all. How can you get lost? Man!! What a stupid question, by the end of the day I knew that Venice was the master of all mazes. I am just lucky that it did not include some mythical creature chasing me, because I would have been dead meat for sure.

But before the maze sucked me in, I was just happily walking along in the general direction of the shore. After a while I made it, looking out over the lagoon. I was so chuffed seeing the boats and buildings. I knew where I was and decided to walk along the shore. It was pretty easy and peaceful. Then came the corner.

First sighting of the Grand Canal

The shoreline turned into the Grand Canal, and after turning this corner all the straightforward walking was done. From here you cannot just walk along the shore. From here on in the buildings are on the water. Fair enough I thought. I will take the first street in and then the first street out. In my head that worked but in reality, not so much. It seems as if there is no method to the madness of the layout of streets. And it was quickly apparent that there is no ‘shortest distance between A and B is a straight line’.

I was not worried. The day was still young, and I was in no hurry to be anywhere. I was a little concerned when some artist guy cornered me in one of the narrow streets wanting me to buy his paintings. After a while, I told him I don’t understand and goodbye. He suddenly started asking me if I am from Germany. As if that would make me buy his stuff.

Just on a side note. That was the second time the German thing came up. The night before at the airport I wanted to buy a bus ticket, and although the ticket guy spoke English, his accent made him difficult to understand. And by the third time I asked him to please repeat, he just sighed and randomly started explaining what he was saying in German. And suddenly we both smiled, he because the idiot tourist in front of him got the message, and me well…..because I got the message 😉.

On my way to Saint Mark’s

After I escaped the persistent street artist, I tried finding a way in the direction that I thought the canal was. After several dead ends and backtracks, I made it to the Academia Bridge. Finally, I made my first crossing of the Grand Canal. Up to now, very few people have crossed my path and I could snap some pictures and not look like an idiot getting in front of an audience.

This all changed when I rounded a corner onto San Marco Square. It was like an explosion of people. That’s why the rest of Venice was calm. All the people were here. Originally, I wanted to see the inside of the Basilica of San Marco, but seeing the endless line of people made me lose hope of getting in.

There were some benches next to the line and I thought that I will take a rest, make a plan and see what was poking at my toes with each step. I took a breather and discovered that I already had blisters on my toes! That was how much walking or getting lost I had already done that morning.

After doctoring my feet and rehydrating I decided not to enter the line. I would rather go see 10 things that wasting hours in a line and only see one thing. Had to weigh up these 2, time versus quantity, a lot of times in the coming weeks. I had not once expected the crazy number of tourists. There is apparently no such thing as offseason in Italy. Bummer. The joke was thus on me. I did not pre-book any sights because I thought that I will buy tickets at the entrance, maybe wait 10-20 minutes.

Venice gardens

Anyway. So, I walked around the outside of the Basilica which is also pretty impressive and made my way back to the water. I wanted to go see the gardens and from here on it was easy again walking on the banks or shore (not sure what it should be called). The first bridge gave me a view of the Bridge of Sighs and immediately after the bridge, the crowds started thinning out. The farther away from Saint Marks, the quieter it got. I was happily walking along again at this slower paced area. Here the streets were wider. Washing was hanging out of windows and the smell of fabric softener hung in the air. More and more greenery popped up and bird sounds filled the air. This was definitely more my type of place.

I got to the gardens and it was beautiful. Big old trees, grass, space. From that vantage point, you have the absolute calm of nature but you can still see all the hype of Venice across the water.
I took a spot on a bench, took my shoes off, rested my aching feet and ate my snacks that I had brought with me from home. I could have stayed there the entire day but the millions of things that could be seen made me put on my shoes, sling on my backpack and make my way back to the centre of attention.

Weirdly cool things

It was even busier here than before and I made a duck into the first street that I could. Some of these streets are so narrow that you can’t even make chicken wings with your arms. Anyway, I was again just wandering along seeing what cool things I can spot.

This definitely qualifies as cool and weird: The ‘Most Beautiful Bookshop in The World’. I wandered straight into it. Books everywhere. Literally everywhere. Its crammed full of second-hand books. They line the walls, boats, gondolas and out back, even the outside. The back stairway is probably the most memorable part of the store. The stairs are made from books and you are encouraged to climb them and look over the wall. Even though this is a pretty cool sight, I would cringe if my books were made into outside ornaments. But wandering into this place was memorable.

Just outside I got to another cool sight. It is a house surrounded on 3 sides by water. The owners must feel like they are living on a boat without seasickness.

Tracking down the Rialto Bridge

After this houseboat or boathouse, I set the goal of finding the Rialto Bridge. How difficult can that be? It is a major tourist attraction. Just follow people who look like they know where they are going. This way did not work because after a while I got to the opposite shore with no clue as to where exactly I was. I ducked back into a side street trying to aim in the possible direction. But again, there are no straight lines in Venice. Sometimes I came upon signs that pointed to Rialto, but with a lack of follow-up signs, I got lost again.

Somewhere I heard other tourists ask a local ‘Ponte di Rialto?’. I heard some ‘sinistra’s and ‘destra’s and thought that I can hitch ride with them. I followed them for a while as it seemed that they were hot on the trail. But they got distracted by something shiny in a window, and I did not want to hang around like a stalker waiting for them. So, I just I just walk in the direction that I was looking. And then!! Finally, the back of the bridge just appeared as if out of nowhere. That’s what happens when you dwell through a maze, every corner has a new surprise.

My word how many people! It looked like ants swarmed the bridge. You must squeeze your way through. I did and went up and down on all sides and in between the shops. Bought my first souvenirs there. After the last crossing, I was again on the side from which I had started that morning. Again, I tried walking along the edge, this time to get a picture of the whole bridge, but again the edge/shore/sidewalk disappeared in buildings or eateries.

A little lost again (that seems to be the story of my life 😉)

I had to duck ‘inland’ which started a whole new round of getting lost. This lost got me my first ‘fragola gelato’ and a hat finally. I forgot to pack mine, so the sun was toasting me since I got out of the house all those hours ago. And although there are hat sellers everywhere, it is a real challenge to find one that you are willing to put on your head and that does not cost n arm or a leg. (it still cost an arm though).

By this time my feet were killing me. The last time they hurt like that was on day 4 of the Fish River Canyon Hike. Wow, Venice 1: Fish Hike 0. And I also needed to find a bathroom. Although every now and then you see a board pointing in the general direction of one, they are as elusive as Yetis. I believed that the Venetians only indicate that there are bathrooms to confuse the tourists so that they are not able to escape the maze.

By this time, I just wanted to find my way back home, to rest my feet, get a kick-starter coffee and put on different clothes. It was crazy hot, and I was wearing jeans and long sleeves. But after endless, aimless walking, I sat down on some stairs, aired my feet and pulled out my map. Normally I am good with maps, I love knowing where I am relative to my surroundings, but here I was useless. There are too many bridges and side streets, and I don’t think all were indicated. I might as well have folded a paper plane out of the map. Then I remembered the map app on my phone. Turned out it does not work until it is updated in the place that you are in. Uggg.

The Jewish Ghetto

I just needed to keep walking. So off I went again. And then very randomly I got to the bus stop from the previous evening and I finally had an idea of where I was. I decided, that since I was there that I should go past the station to the Jewish Ghetto because from previous searches I knew that it was in that direction. That way I did not have to limp home and limp all the way back. So, I took out my paper plane and went in search of the Ghetto. This seemingly easy search turned into an epic one. I stopped a few times to ask people where I was, but the tourists did not know, and the ‘locals’ will only understand English if you buy something from them.

I was determined to find the place even with my feet starting to cry. Did not want to have killed them for no reason. I backtracked a few times and wanted to cry a little each time I got to a dead end and had to start again. Flipping finally, I saw the Ponte de Ghetto Vecchio sign by a bridge and knew that I had arrived. But what a disappointment after making it my life mission to find the place.

I am not sure what I expected to find, but that was not it. It was just a square with buildings around it. Nothing screaming decedents of Israel. The only ‘remains’ there was a piece of barbed wire on a wall and some plaques. There also seemed to be a small museum of some sort, but I did not go in. Was this even the right place? Guess I will never know.

Please find home!

Now I really needed to go home and I backtracked all the way to the bus station. From there I had to figure out which bridge I had crossed the night before. The most likely one turned out to be just another wrong-turn, leaving me to backtrack and choose the next best road. This one did not seem right, but this was the first time that I was actually on the correct path and within 5 minutes I was home.

I gave myself an hour to coffee, lay down, rest my feet and do a bathroom room run before going back out again. It was bliss lying down and drinking coffee. I updated my app and was determined not to get lost again. I still wanted to see the mini ‘Pisa Tower’.

Some more walking

Re-fuelled, but not really ready, I headed out again. But this time with confidence since this time I had an app. I did not want to walk head down staring at a map, but if I wanted to use what time I had left effectively it was the only way. But it turned out the canals confused the app and it wanted me to walk on water. So, I had to ‘reverse engineer’ my app. I knew where I wanted to go so I just aimed my dot on the map in that direction instead of typing in the destination. This helped a lot and getting way less lost, I found my way to the mini Pisa the ‘Scala Contarini del Bovolo’ and randomly saw another place where Goethe was.

Good night confusion

I really wanted to see the lights on the lagoon, but dusk was holding on forever and I was afraid of getting lost in the dark. So, I took some last pictures of Saint Marks and tried to find my way back home. It was still a long way to go.

I passed a lot of outdoor eateries and everywhere was merriment. The night was not as ‘ant invasion’ busy as during the day but still plenty going on. People eating and laughing and music playing everywhere (and with music I don’t mean radio’s greatest hits). Venice had this calm but busy atmosphere at night. It would have been nice hanging around, but the idea of me at night by myself did not seem like a good idea. I never once felt threatened or scared, but this idea of ‘it is not safe outside at night alone’ is difficult to shake when it is ingrained in you.

But I was dead on my feet anyway and I still needed to shower and pack for my early morning out. I had packed in as much as possible of the sights and I can honestly say that I could not have done more, except maybe getting up even earlier and having the app on my phone before starting. So, except for my hour coffee break during the late afternoon, I was out and about for almost 13 hours.

The first day in Italy done and dusted.

Click here for a very interesting read about the volume of tourists in Venice. I was there just a few days before they put up the turnstiles on May the first. So I just missed that.

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