Venezia

Hey all, 

Despite what I said in the last blog, it was another mad rush for Radicchio at the end of the week, (and although we were behind) after working solidly over the weekend we're done. Time for some R&R. 

3 days of doing nothing woop woop. 

Monday was a good day to veg out and do a lot of nothing - I managed to catch up on two episodes of The Walking Dead in  between washing clothes, drying clothes, eating and trying to get tickets for things on Tuesday.

The day finally came where Giusi headed off to Roma for a TV appearance and I headed to Venice for the day. YIPPEE!!! Google had been telling me all week long there would be sunshine (finally) and as I descended the stairs to fill my belly with some hearty grub before the two hour train journey Michele says to me "Ho visto il tempo?" 

Naturally I answered "No" I had definitely not seen the blizzard that was swirling around outside - uh-oh! By 7.30 I was on the train at Ponte Nelle di Alpi-Polpet and the snow had begun to lay...Deep Joy.

Brutto Tempo per un viaggio a Venezia :/

Thankfully, the closer I got to venice, the warmer and sunnier it became - crisis averted - and by 9.30 I was standing in front of Santa Lucia train station, sun shining down and ready to explore. I went to buy a map and a ticket for the vaporetta - €20 fizzled away already. 

(Image reused from first blog because I accidentally deleted the new one)

On the steps of Venezia Santa Lucia train station.

Having just bought a map, I did the sensible thing and chose not to open it until I really needed it! Naturally, I just started walkingl; walking with the intention of finding some bread to go with my lunch and the location fo the Ponte di Rialto. After about 15 minutes of dandering (occasionally going up a dead end) I managed to find my way to the Mercato di Rialto which is a string of indoor and outdoor market areas filled with all sorts of fresh fish, meat, fruit and veg. yum yum!

FISH!

MORE FISH!

MORE FI- wait...no just fruit.

I almost relapsed after encountering the Radicchio here haha!

Herbage

Not exactly cheap to shop here, even though it's a market.

This is pasta for tourists and is on every street - a waste of money.

After barging my way past several locals (barging is normal here and not considered rude) along with a load of mildly disgruntled and overly enthusiastic americans, a cornucopia of people from the orient (ALL with beautiful L-lenses, I might add)and some Germans with very stern faces I had successfully made my way to the Ponte di Rialto - WIN! 

I've got to be honest: The bridge is beautiful, the tourists are bearable but the worst part is the shops that sell the same old shite on every corner and now at the apex of this icon of Venice. Not to mention you're guaranteed to see a homeless person on *EVERY* bridge. Why does the venetian government allow this? bleh. 

Damn those tourists!

Me, atop the Ponte di Rialto.

My next destination was the Piazza San Marco, which according to my deep albeit vague knowledge of venice was somewhere to the front-right of the other side of the bridge along with a few bashes of the X-button while holding the Right Shoulder button... (this knowledge comes from Assassin's Creed 2). This is indeed 100% geographically accurate. Unfortunately for me, the network of bridges and several closures made this near impossible, and to make matters worse I came across one of those disgustingly sweet bridges adorned with "love-locks"...pretty sure this is just romantic littering. 

Doesn't this just make you want to puke...BLURGH

Another 20 minutes passed. As I bumped into yet another church, I made the decision to look at the map because regardless of the fact that I had solid bearings at the Rialto bridge, I was now completely lost. As I was fumbling around trying to open the maps packaging I came across the main gate to L'Arsenale, so away the map went and out came the camera. 

Oh it's me again...

For the first shot (which was near perfect if I do say so myself) someone decided to stop directly in the middle and I was unable to get the right light and framing again - I may upload said photo to facebook at some point so that you all know why I was so annoyed. Either way,  I now had my bearings again and knew that if I followed the path by the side of the canal and turned right I'd be on the main causaway towards Piazza San Marco. RESULT. 

Campanile di San Marco

Generic shot of gondolas

Il palazzo Ducale - The Doge's palace.

SUCCESS! I'd made it to my next destination still unaided by a map - turns out venice is stupidly small. It was also stupidly full of tourists (why do they always feel the need to come out on the same days as me? bastards!) I'd tried for the last few days to get last minute tickets for the Secret Itineraries tour of the Doge's palace which lets you go into all of the secret rooms - unfortunately this is incredibly limited and needs to be booked in advance. Next time I should be able to get in so keep your eyes peeled for another Venice blog around June time. 

 I began to make my way around the square but due to residual flooding and tourists not investing in decent foot attire, everywhere was blocked by raised walk ways blocking my passage. So again, that'll have to wait for summer. After having a look at the Basillica, Campanile and the outside of the Doge's palace it was time for a change of scenery. Lunchtime was fast approaching so thought it best to escape the pressures of inner city life and hop on a vaporetto to the nearby island of Murano, famous for its glass ware. 

 
















I boarded the 4.1 to Murano and it took about 45 mins to get there. I'd not managed to find a free toilet since getting off of the train so top priority was to find a loo regardless of whether it charged an extortionate amount or not. Within 30 seconds of getting off of the boat I spotted a sign for WC though it cost €1.50 - needs must. What a relief. 

Many of the photos from Murano are...well they're pretty crap because I'd changed the settings on my camera to make the most of people blowing glass and just as I'd got the settings right it was time for lunch - sod's law. I headed outside and carried on snapping away at life, while trying to find a bakery. There were lots of images of glass shops and the canals but they all came out over exposed and blurry - sorry guys. The image of the church is the only one that survived from Murano - At least i'd managed to see some glass blowing even if you haven't. SORRY! *maybe* in June. 

After asking some locals I'd learnt there was one bakery near the centre of the island but I'd have to be quick if I wanted bread... thankfully the bakery caters for tourists and they were happy to serve me a nice olive bread to go with my Prosciutto crudo, formaggio, chocolate chip muffin and orange kindly given to me by Michele in the morning. Also bought a cheap bottle of plonk to go with it and settled down in front of the church pictured above.

 

As much as I wanted to wait around to take a few more pictures, I had other places to go and see so it was back on the vaporetto to where I started at the train station. Jumping off, slightly inebriated at this point, I headed in what I thought was the direction of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari but I infact ended up near the University of Venice. I should have probably started to use the map at this point but no, no, no - I didn't need a map. It wasn't all bad, I saw some snazzy graffiti ...

I finally sat down, and pulled out the map...I'd completely bypassed where I was meant to be going just by crossing one silly little bridge. Che un imbecille!

On the way I met this guy, he's holding some fresh caught leeches.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

 As I emerged from one of the many back alleys in the vicinity I was greeted by the great campanile of this cathedral and a good old downpour of rain - time to find somewhere to go inside methinks. Instead of going into the church, I found a museum full of working models of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines - unfortunately you couldn't touch them which was a bit pants but here's some pictures. 

Where am I?

One of the earliest life preservation kits for people at sea.

An emergency bridge that can be constructed without string and teh more weight you put on the stronger it becomes.

A large scale model of one of the earliest ball bearing designs (to be used with Leonardo's helicopter)

Leonardo's design of an "Ideal" City.

It worked out to be quite expensive and not entirely worth the money but at least it was warm and dry. As I emerged the rain had ceased and I could carry on wandering around. By this point I'd seen pretty much everything I had wanted to but was gutted when I found out that the day before had been the festival of the patron saint of the city (St. Mark) 

...Bollocks. A day too late.

I headed back to the station to check train times for going back home as the trains aren't exactly reliable. I had an hour or so to kill until my train was ready to go so I walked in the only direction I hadn't been and, once I'd finished barging my way through tourists I came into a completely  residential area full of normal people...locals. I got a couple of dirty looks but for the most part it was so much nicer than the other parts of the city. 

On the way I saw a couple of newlyweds going for a gondola ride...

BANG TIDY!

Another strange thing happened; throughout the day I'd constantly been walking past the public water fountains and then when I wanted to find one I couldn't. Half an hour later and I managed to find one! woo. 

Then it was back to the trainstation for a boss battle with TrenItalia. I know you're all poised, on the edge of your seats just waiting to know how much of a shit time I had - well I'll tell you...

Santa Lucia station (from the other side this time!)

I'll tell you after this piece of light humour because well...I'm still quite juvenile:-

Did you see what I saw?

 So the direct train to Ponte Nelle di Alpi-Polpet was cancelled, and so instead I got the next one. This train happened to break down at a place called Conegliano so it was an hour and a half of waiting around in the freezing cold. The train after THIS was direct to Belluno but was delayed by a further half an hour...I wasn't having much luck. I bought a coffee and bummed a cigarette off of a local because I had nothing better to do. Finally the train arrived after having stood around in the freezing cold for over two hours. GOOD TIMES

I'd fallen asleep and woke up just as we were pulling out of Ponte Nelle di Alpi-Polpet, where I was meant to ring Michele and tell him to leave the house to come and pick me up. This didn't work out so well because Michele thought I wanted to be picked up from there and not Belluno. Another 20 mins in the freezing cold at Belluno station and Michele rang wondering where I was. We laughed and he apologised (so did I) for the confusion and he just said "oh dio, sorry - Arrivo!" (oh god, sorry, I'm coming). 

It was now pouring with rain but the warmth of the car was bliss. When I got in Michele kindly made some tea and we talked about my adventures and the state of Venice. Somehow we ended up having a very deep conversation about Leonardo da Vinci and how he was born too soon and had he been born today, would have been the equivalent of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. I renamed this alternate version "Leonardo Jobs".

Wednesday was another quiet day of doing nothing. I layed in and then watched some more shows that I've been missing out on - I'm now up to date with The Walking Dead - looking forward to the season finale AND up to date with Top Gear. All is right with the world. 

Thursday was pretty standard - we started to clear another bed of old strawberries ready for more peas. The hard part isn't the strawberry plants, but the Dandelions whose roots go stupidly deep. Giusi left early, while myself and Michele discussed the tax system, medicine, food, cancer and a lot of other things incredibly thoroughly despite our lack of knowledge in each others language. Good times. 

That's all for now, I'll give you an update after easter weekend! Hope you all eat enough to make yourselves sick. 

  For those of you that don’t know or have just stumbled upon this blog, my name is Luke and I’ve recently sold almost everything I own and moved out to Italy to experience a bit of La Dolce Vita (should probably try and avoid those sorts of clichés) through an organisation called WorldWide Oppurtunities on Organic Farms – more commonly known as WWOOF. It was set up in 1971 by a couple of people  from England who wanted to escape the stresses of inner city life and get back to basics with farming organically and away from the general hustle and bustle. Their friends heard what they were doing and wanted to join in and it sort of spiralled out of control from there. It’s now a global organisation promoting low impact living and each country has a specific website. You pick a country, pay a membership fee (about £25/€30/$30-40) and you get access to a list with hundreds of farms. You contact them directly and tell them why you want to volunteer on their farm.  In exchange for working on a farm or small holding for 6-8 hours a day, you get to meet wonderful people, gain experience regarding organic farming techniques, eat delicious food and have a bed/caravan/ tent for the night.