Yesterday we left Salzburg and set off toward Venice with
some pretty gorgeous mountains providing plenty of scenery. The first part of the highway mainly took us
through tunnels. I'm no fan of
tunnels. I have a touch of
claustrophobia and being a dark tunnel doesn’t work for me. However I suppose it’s quicker than the
alternative, which is climbing up and then down on winding mountain roads. Greg and the kids think it’s quite funny, so
I’m glad to provide some amusement for them.
Unexpectedly, our GPS seemed to take us off the bigger road and onto a
two lane road – extremely scenic with
snow showing at the top of the mountains.
I commented on how lucky we had been, not to hit ice or snow on our
trip…. and of course, about 20 minutes later we hit both. The trees looked so beautiful glistening with
snow! We passed several ski fields, one
of them already in action with some eager early season skiers on the lift! The GPS informed us the temperature outside
was -2. I did think it was quite cold as
I was regularly unwinding the window as we sped along to get scenery
photos!! Liam, who was directly behind
me, didn't appreciate my fearlessness of the cold in order to get a decent
photo!
We made it safely through the winding roads, back onto the
freeway, and into Italy. Then the GPS
took us off through a small village – again.
This time I checked the settings and saw I had not clicked “roads without tolls”. When I clicked on that box we
were immediately ordered by our bossy GPS to turn around and found ourselves on a very fast and
comfortable freeway. The predicted
travel time was immediately reduced by 2 hours!! It did cost us 16 euro for the privilege.
We couldn’t find anywhere affordable to stay in Venice itself – all
the cheapie accommodation is on the outskirts of the city. I chose our hotel, the Ambasciatori, because
if was very reasonable (113 euro for two nights in a family room with breakfast
and free parking) – but it’s 9km from town in an area called Mestre Venice. Parking has turned out to be the biggest
hassle with the car. It’s hard to find
free parking, and it’s expensive to pay for it.
The bus into Venice goes right past the hotel, so it was
very easy to get in this morning. It was
raining, and a bit grey. We thought the
best idea would be to get on the Vaperetto no 1 (the transit ferry) which goes from the bus station
along the grand canal all the way to Lido, then back again. It was 28 euro for the four of us, and the
ticket is only valid for an hour! In
November and December Venice is often assailed with what they call “Acqua alta”
– a combination of high tides and wind at this time of year mean the lower
lying areas of the city, including Piazza St Marco, are flooded. It was fascinating to see houses with water
half way up their doors on the Grand Canal – they must have some sort of flood
blockage inside the door. We travelled to the end of the line, which was Lido, then back to Piazza St Marco, to join the big crowd of tourists either
walking on raised board walks or wearing gum boots and wading through the
water. The guys selling plastic gumboots
and rain coats were doing a roaring trade!
Bella was wearing her new knee length suede boots (bought in Prague) and
couldn't bear the thought of getting them wet, so she bought some attractive
aqua plastic gum boots to go over her
boots. Watching her pull them on was a
hoot! Liam had to get a pair as well;
he was so keen to walk through the water covering the square! Much cooler than walking on the raised
platforms! We wandered for quite some
time and managed to get a little
lost, which is par for the course in Venice.
The laneways are a maze!! I was delighted to see my new favourite tipple, gluhwein, on sale for just 1 or 2 euro. I opted for a 2 euro one from a wine shop, thinking it might be better quality - and it was truly disgusting, like drinking horrible cough syrup. I hope my next one is better or I'll be put off it for life!! Back at
the main piazza, we decided to get back on the Vaperetto to go back to the bus
station. Another 28 euro, thank you very
much!
By the way a gondola ride is 100
euro for up to six people – outside our budget on this trip! And I don’t think it would have been that
much fun in the rain. Oh and Bella’s
plastic rain boots (10 euro a pair) didn’t do a very good job, on the last wade
back through the square she realised she had wet toes…! Liam thinks his might come in handy in
Scotland, we shall see!
It’s an interesting area, where we are staying – it’s very
close to the port, and is semi-industrial; there are lots of clothes shops,
plenty of chemists, and the odd doner kebab shop, but hardly any
restaurants. We went to one cafe tonight that
Greg has seen was packed with locals. It
was, but it only sold tea and cakes! We
managed to find a trattoria and had great pizza. I remember pizza in Italy being pretty
ordinary (OK, I am talking about 28 years ago) but the ones we had tonight were
fabulous!
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