First anniversary in Venice

Hey Lovely people,

So during our first anniversary, I decided to do the most cheesy thing any husband can do ... I planned a surprise trip for me and Shan to Venice to see an Opera! It also turned out the the famous Venice carnival was going on at the time of our anniversary. So I made a weekend trip. We flew to Venice from Amsterdam on Friday afternoon and flew back on Sunday evening. Easyjet has direct flights from Schipol to Marco Polo Airport. You would expect flights to Venice at the time of carnival to be very expensive but they were surprisingly cheap, not sure why. Anyways, good for us :)

Waiting to board @ Schipol Airport

Venice is a short 1 hour flight from Amsterdam. We were lucky to have booked a day flight. We flew over some of the highest mountain peaks of the Alps. After landing at Marco Polo Airport, we walked to the jetty to take our water bus to Venice town. There are different water bus lines going to different islands of Venice, so you have to select the right one. Ours dropped us around 10 minutes walking from our hotel. You will find more details about the water bus from airport here: http://www.alilaguna.it/.

Flying above the snow covered Alps ...

Staying in Venice can be extremely expensive. Hotels are all over priced in the city. You expect it to be expensive but when you realize that there is not even a single hotel below 100 euros a night, its a bit of a shock! I had to spend some time to figure out a place to stay for us, after making a compromise between location, price and quality, I booked our stay in Hotel Villa Rosa. We were quite happy with our choice. It was located near the main train station of Venice on a quite street in a monumental building (like every other building in the city) and our room had balcony and high ceiling.

You can cover the entire town of Venice on foot. But then there are also boats! No busses run in the city as there are no roads... Venice is just multiple small islands connected by foot bridges. So you either walk or take a boat to move around. There are multiple ferries taking you to different parts of the city and they work with high frequency and till late in the night. From the jetty right in front of the Venice train station, you can catch a ferry to almost anywhere.

So we checked-in in our hotel, took some rest, got dressed up and were on our way to experience Opera. We decided to go for Rigoletto by Verdi at Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto. You can read about the act here: http://www.musicapalazzo.com/event/rigoletto-en/. And about the venue and the artists here: http://www.musicapalazzo.com/association/. It was a special experience. Artists were singing and performing amidst the audience which is a totally different style that usual opera where everything happens on a stage away from the people sitting. At times, we had singers next to us singing ballads at the top of their voices ... it was mesmerizing! Between acts, there was a break and we were offered drinks. Each act was in a different room of the building, so the audience was moving around. I am not someone who has a lot of knowledge about western music and theater but I can tell you that it was an experience that I would not forget for the rest of my life. The entire act was in Italian. But it didn't matter a bit. We bought brochures which had the entire text in English and read it before every act (during the act the light is too dim to read and you will miss out on the performance). I specially recommend this place because for mortals like us, it was one of the only opera shown which we could afford. We payed 80 euros each for tickets. The state opera costed 600 euros each (I guess because it was carnival time?), something most people reading this blog would not be willing to pay i guess.  

We at Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto in Venice, all suited up for watching Opera :)

The tickets and the brochure explaining the act in English ...

After the show, we took the ferry boat back to our hotel. Its hard to explain how Venice feels like at night. It was dark and quite. You have to go around in extremely small alleys to go anywhere, there is water, mist, darkness, silence and 500 year old houses everywhere around you.

A glimpse of Venice at night ...

Next morning, we immersed ourselves in the carnival. First things we did was bought masks. This is what you are supposed to do as tourists. The masks are everywhere ... in the shops and on the streets. As like most touristy places in Europe, the shops have more authentic, local made and expensive masks and costumes and the streets have more Chinese made and cheap masks sold by Bangladeshi immigrants (and I guess some Indians and Pakistani's as well). All the locals will request you to buy made in Venice products. From what i here, Venice is a dying city. There are no jobs and almost all young people leave the city for mainland Italy. The local population is aging and dying fast. There is a separate island in Venice that is a burial ground for everyone who dies here. In Venice, you do your last journey on a boat ... 

In some years, there might be no authentic locals left in Venice. It will become a touristic place run by foreigners for foreigners. So there is lot of focus on buying everything that is made locally. We contributed our bit by buying some souvenirs from local artisans.    

My mask for the carnival :D

Wife, carnival mask and Venice ...

The real masks of Venice carnival ... almost unaffordable for normal public ...

The canals, the boats, the crumbling buildings, numerous bridges and the cold mist ...

the main promenade near San Marco square 

One of the main roads in Venice!

The Venice carnival is special and different then most carnivals around the western world. There is a classy vibe to it. Most other carnivals are about wearing popular/shocking/cheap costumes and getting drunk with other revellers on streets. But not in Venice. Its all about mesmerizing costumes designed by decorated designers. For renting these costumes for a couple of days, you will have to pay something like 1000 euros. Most common people wear just simple masks and walk around the town enjoying artists and locals in elaborate costumes. People wearing elaborate costumes are like celebrities walking on red carpets. The are often mobbed by paparazzis like us :P.

Your truly with some models in elaborate costumes

A couple posing at San Marco square

She decided to pose for us :D (zhuki zhuki si nazar ...aha!)

Someone with moony costume on the high end shopping streets

This one seem to have some influence of east

Just two another woman strolling through the streets of Venice during Carnival

Shan found her sparta (though he was shivering with cold :P)

This one was my favourite costume ... so bright and beautiful ... and look at her mask!

Posing with walking Mona Lisa sisters :D

Shan with Mario and Luigi :P

The entire Saturday, we walked around the town, explored different islands, took pictures and tried local food and drinks. We were spellbound by the beauty of the city. Its just like no were else. There are many great cities with canals (like Amsterdam) but Venice is something else. 

One of my favourite pics of us ... 

On Sunday, we had our flight back to Amsterdam in the afternoon. So we just had enough time to do the classy Gondola ride. To be honest, I was having second thoughts about it as its an expensive ride and until you are on that Gondola, there is no way you can feel how special it is. We pays 80 euros for a 30 minute private ride. So it is normal to have second thoughts about it. But you realize its charm after it starts moving and you are on it. Its like sliding thought history at a very slow pace. It is a really romantic feeling.  

Beautiful views like this all along the Gondola ride ...

Ye kashti wala kya ga raha hai?

Holding hands and soaking in the views :) 

Happy first anniversary to us!

Below are some funny videos we made during our Gondola ride. You might need to open the blog on your computer to see them as sometimes the videos don't work on the mobile browsers. 

So overall it was a great weekend trip. Two days is enough to see Venice. We were lucky that the carnival was happening at  the time of our anniversary, so we got to see all the special costumes that you only otherwise see in Hollywood movies. Its a highly recommended city trip (I am not telling anything new here i guess) and definitely a place which you can enjoy with your partners. 

Until another story ...

Karan