Me, in Tobago, Nov 2005 |
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Monk-San |
| Gender: | Female | | Lives in: | A Town Near Gatwick United Kingdom | | Registered: | 06 May 2003 | | Last visit: | 08 September 2006 |
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| Saint Marks, Saint Paul Review: Venice in a day - 11th May 2005 | | Written by Monk-San on 04 Jul 2005 about a trip in Apr 2005.
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Canal view in Venice |
View from the Rialto Bridge, Venice |
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You often hear about how expensive it is to stay in Venice (this site excluded, obviously) so we decided to go just for the day and avoid any accommodation hassles.
Venice is very compact, and you can easily wander around the major sites in a day. By going in the middle of the week, we were able to get both our flights there and back for a total of £75.96 including tax.
If you think that day-tripping to Venice could be the thing for you, here is a description of how our day went:
0400 - Alarm goes off. Get up + have some breakfast and strong coffee.
0500 - Leave house and walk to station.
0517 - Train leaves on time!!!
0537 - Arrive at Gatwick, check in (short queue and no bags to check either).
0545 - Head to departure lounge and start browsing favourite shops. Feel hungry. (Why isn't there a Pret at the South terminal??). Head to gate 2 ....
0655 - EasyJet Plane takes off on time. Still hungry, so buy overpriced sandwich.
(local time = +1hour).
0955 - Land early at Marco Polo. Buy bus ticket and wait outside for bus.
1020 - Blue ACTV bus arrives (Orange buses stop en route and take 40 minutes). Cost 3 Euros each.
1040 - Arrive at Piazzola Roma.
1045 - Husband insists that we stop for a pizza, as he is hungry again. Enjoy a Diablo Pizza and some coke at a canalside table in Fondamenta Tre Ponti. Costs 20 euros.
1105 - Start to follow signs towards ponte dell'Accademia.
1115 - Pause to buy chocolate ice cream. Delicious.
1125 - Visit Ca' Rezzonico at the end of Fond Rezzonico. It's a recreated 18th century palace, and very interesting. 10 euros each (I think).
1200 - Carry on to ponte dell'Accademia and take some obligatory photos.
1210 - Visit Peggy Gugenheim museum, and admire the range of excellent sculpture and modern art. Cost 10 euros each plus 5 euros for guide book (guide book not very good, though).
1240 - Head to S Maria della Salute and look at outside.
1255 - Go to cross Grand Canal by Salvati Palace, but discover huge group of tourists have just arrived and decide not to wait. Wander back towards ponte dell'Accademia.
1300 - Locate a gondola and haggle ineffectively for an hour's trip. For 100 euros our Gondolier takes us around some famous and not-so-famous sites, singing "O sole mio" (of course) and whistling cheerfully. It's warm and sunny and very romantic. ah.
1400 - Return to start point and wander about until we spot a nice restaurant, the name of which currently escapes me, where we settle down for a tasty lunch. The food is gorgeous, especially the chocolate souffle and is washed down with a very nice bottle of valpolicella. Sadly, the service starts to drop off and we lose the will to live waiting for coffee. Guide book says that Campanile closes between 3.30 and 7.00, so pay up and rush off.
1530 - Move quickly across the Ponte dell'Accademia and over to St Mark's square, where we are pleased to discover that the Campanile tower is still open. Pay 6 euros each and wait for the lift before enjoying excellent views of Venice and beyond.
1640 - Wander round the corner to see the little Bridge of Sighs before strolling around St Mark's a bit more slowly.
1700 - Stop for a coffee and "comfort break" in Leoni Square.
1720 - Wander towads the Rialto Bridge. Spot nice shoes. Get dragged away by husband.
1735 - Arrive at Rialto Bridge and spend some time admiring / photographing the bridge itself and from the views from it. Have another icecream.
1800 - Overrule husband's objections and buy two pairs of Italian shoes.
1820 - Start to walk back in the direction of Piazzala Roma.
1825 - Stop to buy funky handbag.
1840 - Admire S. Maria Gloriosa at the Campo del Frari
1900 - Arrive at Piazzala Roma and buy bus tickets back to airport.
1905 - Have a light supper at a restaurant in a canalside Fondamenta della Burichelle. Watch some gondoliers pack their boats away.
2020 - Catch bus back to airport from point D2 in Piazzola Roma.
2040 - Arrive at airport and discover that due to a "late arrival" the flight home has been delayed from 2135 to 2305. There are no shops (only a cafe) so check in and go to departure lounge.
2130 - Shops in departure lounge close.
2200 - Cafe in departure lounge closes.
2205 - Start playing hangman on paper napkins.
2305 - Member of easyJet staff finally arrives at gate. Faffs about. Presses button so that monitor reads "Embarking". Does not say anything (e.g. "sorry that you're 90 minutes late").
2335 - Finally take off.
UK time = -1hour
0020 - Plane lands on runway at Gatwick.
0030 - Courtesy bus leaves plane and takes us into airport building.
0034 - Last train home leaves Gatwick.
0040 - We arrive at Gatwick station.
0045 - We go to taxi point and shell out £31 for taxi home.
0105 - Get back home.
So, all in all, a fab day in Venice, taking the sights that we wanted to see, but without having to race about the whole time. We were able to intersperse our sightseeing with shopping and leisurely meals and found the people that we encountered friendly and mainly English speaking. The prices weren't as high as we feared, even sitting at canal side tables (although we avoided Cafes in St Mark's Square itself). Although all I have listed above is the main sights, just walking around Venice is a pleasure, as the buildings are beautiful and the little bridges across the canals are charming. It says in my guide book that the main sight in Venice is Venice itself and I totally agree - it is just lovely. The main sights (St Marks, Rialto and Accademia bridges, Piazzola Roma) are all well signed, and we rarely needed to look at our map.
So far as going in just one day is concerned, the main thing that we missed out on was seeing Venice by night. Because it is so easy to walk round you can see a lot in one day and the price of the flights makes it an inexpensive day out. (e.g. train fare to B'ham at 0600 = £80). Obviouly it helps that we live so close to Gatwick.
The flights should have worked out fine as a day trip, it's just a shame that they were so late getting us back. Having previously found EasyJet good in a crisis (see my trip to Amsterdam) this time the first time that we heard an apology for the very late departure was when the captain made his announcement some 20 minutes after take off. The ground staff didn't say a word (literally) and the cabin crew just went through the standard take-off procedure, then stood about. Very poor customer service. On the plus side, we've had to pay a lot more than £31 for a taxi home from Gatwick after midnight, so it could have been worse.
However, my memories will always be of a lovely day spent in Venice... |
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