A birthday in Venice

We didn't have any internet on the second and third day of our trip, so we are posting them all at once. This entry occurred on the third day.

Yesterday was awesome. It was my birthday and Daniel decided that we ought to spend it in style. So we did what savvy travellers have been doing for centuries...we went to Venice!

The day started early. A 6am wake up call in order to give ourselves time to get from Izola, Slovenia to Italy. Of course, as we were doing things in style, an ordinary car drive across to Venice simply wasn't going to cut it. Instead we boarded the Prince of Venice - an Australian-made catamaran - which took the three of us across the Adriatic and Meditteranean Seas. The trip took about two and a half hours. Daniel spent his time hanging out on the terrace looking sexy, Iago spent his time trying not to get stepped on by the other passengers, and I spent my time stressing about whether or not Iago was going to be allowed into Italy.

Fortunately, I worried about nothing. The Italian border control people could not have cared less about letting him into Venice, and we all passed through the checkpoints without even showing our passports.

While the operators of the catamaran had also arranged various tours and activities in Venice, Daniel and I decided to set off on our own and explore the city. And my god, it was fantastic. We wandered along the main promenade for a while, saw a little offshoot alleyway and decided to follow it. One hundred metres later we came to some steps leading straight down into a canal. Okay then. So we turned around and walked back. At the next alleyway we tried again and this time we found a little bridge over the canal. So we kept going, just randomly taking turns that looked interesting and backtracking whenever we came to dead ends. It was like a massive maze.

Eventually we stopped at a little bistro and had lunch (pasta for both of us, of course). It was a great location and we were able to watch a constant parade of speedboats and gondolas passing by. I took this video from our table. 

After lunch we continued our exploration of the city, eventually coming across Venice's most famous public square, the Piazza San Marco. The place was crawling with tourists, but we managed to check out such iconic sights as the Doge's Palace, the clock tower, St Mark's Basilica and the Campanile (which was surrounded by boarding due to reinforcement works necessitated by ongoing water damage). Daniel and I had lots of fun playing with the flocks of pigeons in the Piazza. I like to think that the strange pigeon at the top of the picture on the left is the same evil pigeon swooping in to kill its rival in the picture on the right.

From the Piazza, we continued our exploration of the city, stopping approximately every five metres to ooh and ahh over different things - Daniel liked the strange electric street lighting and ornate buildings, I loved the colourful balconies and the secluded little spots by the canals where people could sit and just soak up the atmosphere. We found ourselves sitting in one of these very spots late in the afternoon after I managed to trip over and badly sprain my ankle. While it still hurts like buggery more than 24 hours later, my injury provided an awesome excuse to sit on some steps by the water and just relax for a while. By that stage Iago was absolutely dying to go swimming, and despite warnings from the locals about the poor quality of the canal water, there was no stopping him from taking a dip. He loved it and I'm sure that he would have swum around the entire city if we had dared to let him off his leash.

Rejuventaed, we made our way back to the Piazza, purchased a map of the city and then negotiated even more laneways to get the the Rialto Bridge, the first dry crossing point of the Grand Canal. While there has been a bridge in the location since the 12th century, the current Rialto Bridge dates from 1591. It was absolutely packed with people, but since it has almost always been a market site, I suppose that made the experience quite authentic. 

By now we were worried about missing the boat back to Slovenia, so with Daniel navigating and me hobbling along behind with our wet, smelly dog, we set off across the city to the port. In spite of the twisty, turny alleyways, distracting shops and hoardes of tourists, we made it back with about ten minutes to spare. Again, Iago was able to pass through the Italian border checkpoint without any issues and we were soon back on board and heading across the sea to Izola.

It was such a wonderful way to spend my birthday.

- Amanda