Venice - beautiful but not in August

Can someone please remind me why I decided to come to Venice in August? Not a good idea! It is almost standing room only here and the 35 degree heat doesn’t help. Getting from the train station to our hotel was nothing short of harrowing. It was so busy with travellers pulling bags, criss crossing each other in the terminal trying to get from one place to another that we were frightened of losing Benji. We all had our hands full with our luggage so he just had to hang on and stay with us. Even Leo had his own Beetle bag to pull along. Outside was even busier because we were at a vaporetto station as well. Sarah’s case broke on the handle as she was dragging and bumping it down the stairs so that added to her problems, along with her headache.

Sarah inquired about getting a water taxi to our hotel but they wanted €80 for a 10 minute trip, so we decided on the vaporetto with the 5 min walk at the other end. The vaporetto pulled in, absolutely chockablock with passengers. Many got off but we could barely squeeze on with our luggage. We then found out we were going the wrong way and had to get off at the next stop and catch a No 1 or 2 vaporetto back the other way. Rialto was our stop and we scrambled ashore and counted everything and everyone. Yes we still had Benji! Next thing was to find the Santa Maria Formosa Hotel. We didn’t even know if we were on the right side of the canal! Sarah used her I-phone as a GPS and it marked out a route for us the follow. Well we went along streets, down lanes, into squares, around corners and up and down the Venice bridges which have about 8 steps up and then 8 steps down. They might look pretty but are a curse when you are dragging a heavy suitcase and feel like a grease spot because of the heat. What a motly group we must have looked – Sarah leading the way with her suitcase banging into her legs, Benji handing onto a shirt tail and crying to be carried, Leo doing the best of all of us, Mary, the Sri Lankan Nanny with one bad hip struggling with her case and Barry with 2 bad hips trying to help her and manage his case as well, and me bringing up the rear because my knee was killing me when I had to walk up and down the stairs. We got lost a couple of times and after 20 minutes I said ‘This is it Sarah. I am not moving from here until you know where the hotel is. Leave your luggage with me and you go on and find it and come back.’ This worked, and she returned in about 10 minutes to say she had found it. We followed her to the hotel and it was such a relief to walk in the door and know we had arrived. We checked in and then Mt Everest appeared before us – 2 flights of narrow stairs (35 in total) up to our room. I just didn’t think I could make it! Fortunately the man at reception carried my case for me and when he opened the door and I saw the bed I just collapsed on it and asked if we could drink the water from the tap.

We are close to Santa Maria Formosa Square which is about 5 mins walk from St Mark’s Square (San Marco) and it is a lively area with gondolas and water taxies going past all the time. Our rooms look right onto the canal, so it is pretty good.

Next morning we walked to San Marco. It was fairly warm by 10.30 am but most of the streets were narrow and the sun could not reach us. The shops were wonderful, especially the ones with masks and fancy dress costumes for the balls. The gondolas were out in full force and most gondoliers still wear the traditional navy and white striped shirt and the straw boater, but we saw many who didn’t. The cost for a ride is exhorbitant. It has always been expensive but now it is €100 ($130) for 45 minutes and extra if you want a singing gondolier.

One loses direction very quickly once in the narrow streets and laneways and even with the aid of map we didn’t really know where we were. We tended to be guided by which way the majority of people were walking. The noise was another guiding factor and soon we found ourselves in a street about 8 feet wide almost unable to move because of the number of people. We were packed in like sardines and it was not possible to pass someone. We were literally shoulder to shoulder. Not surprisingly this street led right into San Marco, and what a sight that was when we came out into it. I barely recognized it because there was so much scaffolding. It seems that everything is getting an overhaul. The church was shrouded on the left side and the campanile was encircled by scaffolding. You could not even see the centre of the square. Added to that was the milling mob of people. I am not talking about a small crowd either. This was a dense crowd like people waiting to get into a Grand Final. There was a very long line of people waiting to go into the church (150 mts and 4 people wide) a line for the Doge’s Palace (100 mts) and a line for the tower (30 mts.) Added to that were the many, many Tour Groups led by guides holding up flags. The sun was beating down here and there was nowhere to sit, unless you paid to sit at a table. Not surprisingly there were hundreds of vacant chairs because they charge about $12 for a small can of coke!

From this post you will be thinking that I hate Venice, but not so. It really is a wonderful city to visit but just don’t come here in August. I am sure my next post will be much more enthusiastic.