Venice The Disneyland of Old Europe

A tale of a rather sad and neglected city that is disappearing into the sea. The trip to get to the crazy tourist attraction is not bad, I got my train ticket to Venice at 7.15am and was told the first train with a seat was at 9.36 am. This pissed me off right away as I was so excited about going I was awake at 5.30am and was eating breakfast at 6.45am. So I sat about and walked about the station until the train arrived. There were literally hundreds of people at my station and when we got onto the train my reserved seat was occupied by some upset and sweaty Australians. There were about 25 teenage girls from the USA who were also trying to get into their seats and frightened to tell anyone about “Your sitting in my seat”. So I finally got into the carriage and pointedly said to this man and wife, “I’m sorry but these seats are all reserved and you’re sitting in them”. He tried to complain that he had bought a ride anywhere ticket. I agreed that it was a great ticket but still not in the reserved seats, this also meant that he had missed his chance at getting in the free for all seating at the back and probably had to stand all the way to Venice. The train was full and the ride was not bad, we passed through a series of tunnels that were immensely long, maybe 20 km long. This is far longer than anything in the UK and I was impressed by the standard of the trains and stations and lines. The trains were well kept and very clean and quite modern, the only blot was there were lots of illegal immigrants begging on the trains, I wish you would be allowed to physically throw them off the train out of a window, could be a new sport, that would be a deterrent. So I got to Mestre where we all had to disembark, this is where the ticket was poor, it meant I now had to go to the ticket office again and buy a ticket to go the 10km on a local commuter train, this is poor planning, I should have been able to buy that at the same time and have it on my ticket, so I got the quickest train in as they go every 5-10 minutes. The train goes over this marshy lagoon over a giant bridge system, quite impressive, passing little islands of trees that were full of nesting egrets and herons (just thought I would mention birds again somewhere). We pulled into a giant station with 18 platforms a huge modern building which doesn’t fit into the renaissance architecture of this really old city.

A big bridge over the grand canal in Venice




I passed over the Grand Canal on one of the huge old bridge and I bought a guide book of the city which contained a map, an essential in this crazy maze of an unplanned old place. I was heading for Saint Marc’s square that contained the Doge’s Palace.

A gondolier on one of the many canals in Venice, very strange to see them like taxis




I was walking along with maybe another 100,000 tourists mostly from the USA and Japan, well that is the same the world over, it was very busy but once you got lost amongst the old walkways streets the crowds got much less. The city is much bigger than I thought it was going to be and the walk to the square takes maybe 1 ½ hours in total. It is easy to get lost as the streets are narrow and there is millions of them and the maps are not that great.

One of the many very grand Churches in Venice




There are some fantastic churches amongst the houses. But the houses themselves are looking very sad and unloved and rundown, it looks like a city that no-one actually lives in anymore and is just a tourist spot, that was a major disappointment that it looked so empty.

One of the man very run down looking houses




Let's face it why would anyone want to live there. Flooded in winter and millions of tourists in summer, there are much nicer places to go and live rather than a damp place with crappy winter weather.

St Marc's Square very nice but millions of Pigoens




The Doge's Palace, a really rich dude who had the power of life and death in his hands, doesnt that sound nice. He was a bit like a king but didnt have any land, just the canals and the sea




A big church across the grand canal from the Doge's Place, great for a party




Some fancy houses that lined the grand canal, they must have been really rich to live here, i wish i had been that rich in those times or that rich today




So when I get to St Marc’s square there are billions of pigeons and millions of tourists and three nice buildings, again I don’t want to sound like a miserable old fart but I have been to nicer places with equally nice buildings, it just left me feeling a little deflated after the immense build up from all the things I have seen and read about Venice over my life. Yes it is impressive but that lasts about 5 minutes, what else do you do after the 6 hours it took me to get there. Personally I like old family homes, which actually could be huge mansions or palaces, but if they have the contents it feels like I am going back in time to what it was like, but Venice didn’t give me that feeling like going back in time. I immediately started my return walk and got lost very badly, my map was OK but crossing one little bridge was the same as any other little bridge and I ended up amongst the crappy cheap housing of the local workers and into the dock area, so far from where I wanted to go the railway station. I had to walk along a roadway and basically out of town to get on the road into the town and to the railway station, perhaps adding another mile onto my journey, all through my walking the temperature was about 35-37C, very hot and humid, I took along 2 bottles of water and 1 bottle of some fizzy sugary soda, this was a mistake, as after each drink of this thing, I felt more thirsty and my throat became all clogged up with some crappy product from the drink, it was nasty and I was glad I after I finished it up. I was drinking like mad and my packed lunch of a giant ham and mushroom pizza was perfect it filled me up and saved me from buying some very expensive crappy food in Venice. I did get a giant smudge of pizza grease on the lens of my new camera, I managed to wipe it off with my sweaty shirt, and I will have to give it a proper cleaning when I get home to Costa Rica. I finally got back to the station and slumped into a seat and was happy to be going home, I had to change train at Mestra again and waited for the Eurostar train ignoring the first possible train as I wanted to go fast. The Eurostar train arrived and it was a nice impressive train, very luxurious actually and the ticket inspector came along after about 10 minutes, I handed over my ticket to him and he handed it back saying, “where is your return ticket”, I looked at him in disbelief and pointed at the one in his hand and said “that is it”, “no, this isn’t it”, he retorted, I then explained, “the woman in the ticket office gave me that one after I asked for a return ticket”. “You will have to buy the return ticket now from me”, he then said. I nodded in agreement feeling pretty silly with everyone looking at me. He came back with his credit card machine and said, “That will be 51 Euros ($65)”, my jaw must have dropped open at this point, “how much” I must have screamed at him, “well there is a fine of 25 Euros for not having a ticket, I complained that it wasn’t my fault and the woman in the ticket office is to blame and that it isn’t fair and that the pope is wonderful and that I don’t support George Bush and the Queen is a relative of mine. He looked at me and said with an air of finality, “You will have to leave the train at the next station and get a ticket there”. I assured him that is what I was going to do. I have never been thrown off a train before and never been accused of not paying and this after seeing the illegal immigrants begging on the trains knowing full well they have no ticket either. So I left at the next station and got my ticket and realising I had actually saved 3 Euros on the ticket price so I went to the bar and had a big cold beer, it was heaven but not worth the 1 ½ hours I lost from my train journey home. Man I was angry at the silly woman not knowing what I was asking for, serves me right for not speaking Italian. So the weekend before when I went to Pisa I had got the wrong ticket again, I could have been thrown off that train also. So the trains are not as cheap as I thought, so the fare for the Venice trip far from being about $25 was actually $50, and Pisa was more like $15 and not $7. there are some lessons to be learnt for travelling around on the trains, read the ticket you get, it is actually very easy and I just didn’t do it, it tells you on each ticket like a flight boarding pass, from where your leaving to and where you're going. Make sure you have the correct number of train passes for your journey. Always take a packed lunch with you and lots of water, this will save you tons of money as Italian tourist prices are probably amongst the highest in the world. Never give the beggars any money, they are professional beggars and work for gang masters who skim most of the money. In summer in Italy wear sun block as you will burn very quickly and without knowing that your burning and can be very bad if your pale and from a cooler climate like New York or Japan. These tourist destinations are never like you expect and therefore don’t build your expectations as you will be disappointed about it and the amount of money you have spent getting to see it.
My best trip ever and most satisfying ever was my 3 month drive across the western half of the USA, I drove from Denver Colorado through Colorado springs had a few weeks there working, and to Las Angeles after driving past the grand Canyon. I was working in Palm Springs of all places. I toured all the major tourist destinations in California, like the Giant Redwoods in the Sequoia national park and Yosemite, Lake Taho, Sea Word the entire coastal road up California, Monteray bay, the Getty Museum, Seattle, watching the Killer whales in Puget Sound, all 3 pods, total 85 killer whales. After all that I drove back to Denver to fly home, going to see old Faithful the geyser in Yellowstone park in early winter with snow on the ground, what a crazy trip and I even saw a mountain lion cross the road in front of me while driving along, magical, once in a lifetime trip and all paid for by my employer, he didn’t realise what he was doing but he made money out of me anyhow.