Venice : The long, long walk

A picture that is so quintessentially Venice

We went to Venice for 3 days. And we basically just stay there. Which is a shame, as we could have gone to the other island, but the the thing is Venice is quite a nice place itself so on the other hand we gotten spectacularly lost and seen a lot of Venice.

In Venice you can walk everywhere. So that is what we basically do. We didn't have anywhere else particularly we want to go to (except for the Museum of Music or in Italian Museo della Musica, and we wasted a day trying to find the damn place ).

However we departed from Istanbul around 9 am and reached Venice at 11. I think we arrived here around 1pm and took to walking the island and familiarizing ourselves with this tiny island.

We mostly traipsed and gawked around the San Marco areas. Surprisingly this took a long time. But most probably we just like to sit around and people watch.

And of course walks around and enjoyed the view.

You can really pass the time standing over the bridge and watch the gondolas passed you by.

Stopped by many, many shops including this which is kinda like Venetian lace showroom/ shop. Venetian lace are exquisites and very expensive. But I swear I'd seen the same one in Vietnam. Heh.

Since we opt out of the whole gondola ride (too expensive), we decided on watching a violin concerto concert from here:

Venice was the home of the renowned violinist and famous composer, Vivaldi. So when we came here, I think there was some kind of a music festival, thus a lot of these performances are going on. ( Or it is just ongoing and we feel like it is a festival ). We chose the one just beside the Basilica of San Marco, bought the ticket, went back to our B&B and came back again at 8 pm for the performance.

We didn't take any pic of the performance. Not allowed. However it was quite wonderful. They played Vivaldi famous The Four Seasons and the lead violinist was insanely good and throw an entertaining performance that capture the audience. The audience asked for an encore 2 times. Or maybe we just want our money worth. However I would rate it as a money well spent. It took about 2 hours, and afterwards I just sat at the Piazza San Marco shivering, while my husband took pictures.

The next day we decided to just walk around, and look for the Museum of Music. Fucking internet direction. A lot of times the internet can do wonder, but trying to look for direction for this museum was a phail.

So we basically just walk and walk and walk and walk enjoying the sights such as

Bottega Veneta. Handbag yang bisa buat air liur meleleh

The high end boutiques ( I would advise against shopping at Venice, but if you got the money, go crazy! )

Beautiful cathedral and churches.

And of course the lovely canals. While a lot of people seems to be saying Venice is kind of smelly due to the canals, I can't say I smell the stench. The only unpleasant smell is when I came across some shoddy looking alley where of course smells strongly of piss.

Dalam-dalam sesat itu, we just goes in any free exhibits ongoing on such as these one while looking for that museum.

In the end, we didn't find the museum after walking a day.

Tracing our step again

In the end we just gave up and just bersiar-siar aje lah. Venice is a wonderful place to get lost to, and as many tips on how to travel to Venice is : Get lost while walking around!

Like enjoying the view at the famous Rialto bridge. I don't really recommend hanging out here. It is crowded, it smells of piss and people are always jostling one another. If you want to hang out and look at the view of the Grand Canal, go to the wooden bridge near the Accademia. More serene-feeling. After all that is the point of enjoying the view, to have a serene feeling to it. ( I think that is the worst sentence ever ).

On the way back, there was a demonstration regarding the Syria situation. It was a small demonstration where I think the main objective to educate others on the atrocities that is happening there at the moment.

One of the posters lying on the street for others to see. I didn't take the picture of the dead children. Those kinda images haunts me. 

The next day, after my husband got the required PROPER direction from the owner of the B&B we head out again ready to conquer!

We went through this lovely park

and we came across this lovely statue on top of a pond

Near the pond there is a sign warning people to not buang their pet turtles or any exotic pets here. Teehee.

How do I know this is a sign warning to not abandon their turtle pet? Penat aku google translate okeh. 

We head first to the San Marco Basilica. Entrance is free, however I'd paid online for the express ticket ( 1 eur per pax ), so I don't have to queue up. The line is insanely long, so I rather pay.

Exterior of the San Marco

We didn't take any pic of the interior. It was beautiful inside, but it so dark and to take good picture will require a flash, and like most places that uses mosaics flash photography is strictly forbidden.

While entry is free, to view like the Treasury room you have to pay 4 euro I think, per pax. 5 euro if you like to go upstairs. 4 more euro to view another thing. We only forked out more for the Treasury, where it is interesting to see artifacts that used to be in Constatinople ( Istanbul ) and old Jerusalem.

Afterwards we went to the Museo della Musica yang kami cari bagai nak rak semalam tak jumpa2. Walhal dekat aje. LOL.

Not too much people, but perhaps it is early.

There is a lot of old violin, music sheets and a mock workshop (where we can only peep from the door),

Afterwards macam biasa we just walked and walked and stumbled upon some outrageous exhibition:

This particular one is not outrageous enough, but there was one painting where Batman is fingering Wonder Woman. It is pretty hilarious, the painting is made in a vintage style, so it is lovely and cute to look at. And what underlying message?

We also  enjoy the Grand Canal view for a while before deciding upon to go into the Accademia, which housed a lot of famous Venetian paintings.

That ceiling have tiny baby faces looking down on us. 

We basically just walked that day on Venice. Heck, we just walk all days on Venice. It was quite a peaceful ( yet very exercisey ) way to appreciate Venice beauty.

I stopped in front of this building because I hear somebody playing quite a magnificent piano piece and the sound kind of echoes there which gave the air such an unbelievable feeling. It is a school I think so no tourists allowed inside.

We then just sat on top of the platform ( the one where people step on if there is a flooding ) and enjoyed the San Marco view while eating snacks and ice cream. I think we did this every evening there. Kinda like the closing chapter of the day and of our trip.

Eiiiii.... gambar ni sengettt