Europe Travelogue 2014 - Venice, Italy (Part 3)

Trying to power through these posts because I'm heading to Aussie in 18 days! Soooo excited because this is my "biggest" trip this year, and I'll be there for 16 days. The last time I visited down under was probably when I was sixteen? Almost 10 years ago!

Yeah so anyway, don't want to accumulate too much backlog. But seems like backlog is how I roll. Haha. 

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Previous posts on Venice:

Venice Part 1

Venice Part 2

Got up bright and early because we are going island hopping! As mentioned previously, our Rolling Venice pass allows us to have unlimited travel on the vaporetti (water buses), and this includes the route to Murano and Burano!

This is an ambulance!

Camwhoring a little while waiting for our vaporetto.

Our first stop was Murano, which is famous for glass-making. There were some forums that said there might be touts at the vaporetti stop inviting people to watch glass-making (which of course comes with some sales pitch to make you buy their products). But I was disappointed that there wasn't anyone actively getting tourists to watch this very special craft the whole time we were there. ):

Nonetheless, we just enjoyed roaming along Murano's beautiful canals, peering into shop fronts to take a peek at their beautiful glassware. But we were forewarned that some shops sell cheap knock-offs that are made in China. Like whutttt. :/

We spent less than an hour walking around, because we weren't keen on purchasing any fragile glassware given that we still had probably a week left of traveling. Plus it makes sense to get some if we had our own home - which we don't. Haha.

So we got on the vaporetto and headed to Burano!

I was so excited when I spotted the colorful row of houses!!! Apparently if you own a home on Burano and wish to repaint the exterior, you have to get the permission of the government and will have to choose within the color scheme set for that area.

How could you not be happy everyday if you lived here!

Anyway, while Murano is famous for glass-making, Burano is famous for lace-making!

Fun fact, the water from these fountains is drinkable! Sure helps us reduce cost of buying water because we can just fill up our mineral water bottle.

Happy dance lol

Hey kitty!

So we headed back to the Venice, and decided to take a "free" sunset cruise around the island. I forgot which number route we took but the vaporetto went out to Lido di Venezia and came back.

Thank you Venice for having us! You are clearly one of my favorite places in Italy (:

Europe Travelogue 2014 - Venice, Italy (Part 2)

I had the sudden feeling like I've forgotten how to write. In my daily work, I deal a lot of numbers, to the point that I've lost touch with language. I probably don't even speak English enough - like proper English with correct grammar and sentence structure. This is a far cry from my schooling days where Literature was a large part of my curriculum, and even in University where churning out essays was a daily affair. Now I feel super incoherent when I attempt to write something, and even my speech is incoherent. Should make an effort to write more. Hmm..

Okay end of random ramble.

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For Venice Part 1 click here.

On day two of Venice, we decided to join a free walking tour in the morning. We gathered at a plaza and met with three guides who each made a pitch about what kind of tour route they would bring us on, and so the huge group of tourists that had gathered were split three ways and went on different routes. 

Our walking tour group.

Our guide brought us to the old Jewish Ghetto, an area where the Jews resided as imposed by the Serenissima Republic of Venice in 1500.

 The Jews had curfews and exits of the Ghetto were controlled by the army. And since the area of residence could not be enlarged, they had to build taller buildings, which resulted in them being up to 8 storeys high - which is unusual for the rest of Venice. 

Jewish pawn shop.

This whole stretch leads to some pretty popular restaurants.

I guess this is the local's version of Singapore's "Clarke Quay". Locals and tourists come by here during dinner time, sit by the river and chill. Looks pretty deserted now just because it's not yet lunchtime!

The guide led us to this good photo-taking spot at Campiello del Remer.

I forgot exactly what she said about the wooden structures in the picture, but I think it's something to do about preventing the buildings from slanting towards each other. Venice is sinking after all!

Isn't every corner just so picturesque?

We visited a really unusual bookstore called Liberia Aqua Alta. In the middle of this store is a gondola filled with books, cause apparently during floods (which happens about a dozen times annually) the gondola will float and the books won't be wet. Well, that's what the guide told us!

At the back of the bookstore is a popular photo-taking spot - a staircase made entirely out of books!

Never seen in Europe without my coke. Did I already mention my weird craving for Coke only when I was on holiday?? I don't crave Coke at all in Singapore.

What a gem of a bookstore!!!

So as we walked more back towards San Marco Square, the guide pointed out more arch structures with the purpose of preventing the buildings from leaning too much into each other.

And towards the end of the alley, the buildings actually touch.

The famous Bridge of Sighs - named so because convicts who pass through it on the way to their prison cell sigh as they get their last view of Venice through those small holes. 

After grabbing a quick (and actually not so yummy) Italian pasta lunch, we finally visited Basilica San Marco. 

The interior is super beautiful because GOLD!

Beautiful murals we spent a great deal of time looking at.

Torre dell'Orologio - The Clock Tower. The two figures known as the "Moors" because of their dark bronze color. Yep, there's a lot of history behind this clock tower that Wikipedia can explain. Haha.

View from the balcony of the Basilica.

We got another Asian tourist to help us take this, just because she asked me to take one for her first. (:

You can get great views from this balcony! 

For dinner we decided to try out a restaurant recommended by our airbnb host - it's name I cannot remember for the life of me. lol 

Calamari seemed like a safe choice. Was fresh and came with mashed potato!

Scampi pasta. 

Some fish dish that the wait staff recommended, I think it had quite a bit of small edible bones which I wasn't to happy about. Overall, from what I can remember the meal was decent, very "local". At least it wasn't some tourist trap and the place was full of locals.

That's all for day 2 in Venice!

Next up, Day 3!

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