Greetings from the City of Canals

                         Greetings from the City of Canals

A blur of people rushing about in a hurry greeted me as I reached the Venezia Santa Lucia train station. Initially it was just the constant flow of crowd and me being pushed towards the exit. I reached. the steps down to the water taxi station and looked at the magnificent view here- the Grand Canals flowing water and the water taxi station. The Canal had several gondolas but it was not crowded there, it just reflected the daily use of water transport here and formed the perfect first view for a grand city like Venice. I was greeted by a drizzle - it seemed like the waters of the canal were absorbing the droplets of water pushing it along with the flow here yet calm and peaceful, airy like.

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It was late afternoon by the time we reached there. We had booked a gondola ride at 5 and quickly rushed towards a square where the guide would take us for the ride. The walk there was beautiful - the Salizadde pavement was wet -not slippery and the weather was cool. It dawned upon me- the walks in books I read. I was never fascinated by walking but I understood the experience shared in books was true- it was memorable. Shops lined the narrow streets- there were no cars here, the streets were for walking and the canals for transportation. As I looked around I realized that Venice was a true bucket list item for everyone including the rich and famous. There were people from all over the world with the single goal - to experience Venice once in their lifetime.

We finally started the gondola ride. It was great fun.The gondola drivers had a black and white striped shirt  and black pants. The weather was cool and the high tide was setting in as we were in a gondola in the centre of Venice. The boats were docked at either sides and the noise from open air restaurants and coffee shops set a perfect mood for our first night in Venice.

The next day we went to the Murano and Burano islands. These island were in the Venetian lagoon and we reached there through the vaporetto - a water bus in Venice. This vaporetto ride gave me a true feel of the Grand Canal as the gondola ride was short and was more in the city than in the Grand Canal. The Murano island was known for its glass making and was great but was not in comparison to the Burano island.

The Burano island had multicoloured fishermen's houses and had shops with a a special lace work. The closely knit houses though did not make it congested- the small canals between lined with boats and filled with turquoise water formed a backdrop for a picture. 

Later that afternoon we went to the Ponte Rialto bridge and the Bridge of Sighs overlooking the Venetian lagoon wrote a perfect ending for our stay in Italy. 

Next up - Switzerland- Heaven on Earth