We landed at Marco Polo airport before 8 o'clock in the morning. It was good because there wasn't much activity there yet.
After running around to see if we had more than one options on getting to Venice and finding there was none, we were heading straight to the boat dock which is a short walking distance away.
There are many options on how to get to Venice from here, all by boats of course.
For the rich and famous, they have their own yacht waiting for them there.
For the rich and not so famous, they can rent a beautiful and luxury yacht with its own crew for themselves. It's pretty expensive ... upward to a grand.
Then there are taxi boat, the smaller version but you can get a pilot, a bottle of champagne and a small speedy boat for yourselves, and it's still quite expensive ... upward to a couple hundred bucks.
Finally, there is a public version of the bus on water ... It costs less than twenty Euros for one ticket. These vessels are designed not for speed nor sea worthy but for ... public transportation.
They are super slow and they stop so often just like buses to pick up and drop off their passengers. It takes more than two hours to get to Venice by this.
A nice Taxi boat anchored at its dock.
Another fancy Taxi boat anchored nearby.
One of the Taxi boat to get you in and out Venice for around 200 bucks one way. It does come with a pilot and a bottle of champagne :-). This one will take a mere 30-35 minutes from shore to Venice and vice versa.
This is a form of public bus on water in the background. It's a lot cheaper but crowded and slow. It takes more than 2 hours to get there and another 2 hours to get back for around 20 bucks one way.
From a short distance, Venice is a complete city built right on top of the water. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. The sea that Venice was built on top called Adriatic sea, and it is a part of the Mediterrenean Sea.
It was very hot and humid when we got here in late July, but the ocean breeze helped quite a bit. There were not a lot of tourists landing at the dock around this early time yet but around noon and then on, they came in wave, hundreds and hundreds arrived in every 15-20 minute interval.
They dropped us off at Piazza San Marco or St. Mark's Square, the biggest gathering place of this city. The first thing we saw, was the great Clock Tower and the beautiful St. Mark Basilica. The sad part was we couldn't see much of this basilica due to its restoration. It was built 5-6 hundreds years ago and always in need of repair and maintenance.
St. Mark's Square viewed from the boat dock.
St. Mark's Square viewed from one of many inlets. Restaurants have outdoor dining tables and chairs set up right in the middle of the square. The prices between non-seating and outdoor seating are quite different. It costs double if you wanna sit out there enjoy the views. The foods here are pretty expensive to any standard.
This is one of the many beautiful artworks surrounding the basilica.
St. Mark's statue standing on top of one of the entrances.
One of the beautiful painting of Mary and Child.
The main entrance of the basilica was in repair and blocked out to the public.
No comments:
Post a Comment