Venice (13th May 2010 - 14th May 2010) | His Thots? Her Thots? My Thots?

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Venice (13th May 2010 - 14th May 2010)

extracted at 7:47:00 am Labels: Travel

The French novelist Marcel Proust said of his first trip to Venice, "My dream became my address."

Psst, and I still have not started his In search of lost time. Sigh, how appropriate the book title is as I cannot find any time to read it even.

Anyway Venice, is a place I felt if I cannot afford, I can consider going Macau for. Unfortunately I never been to either... and so today I have to drop by Venice for the real thing first, then my next planned trip to HK, I will pop up Macau for comparisons.

My expectations:
1) A free Gondola ride? K I should stop dreaming, so probably a photo of the Gondolas like this photographer

By: Flackjack / www.flickr.com
License: Creative Commons License (By ND 2.0)
2) Get lost.. afterall there have been advices that..
"In Venice, there are beautiful things on each path. Take one. Do not worry about the path taking you to your destination. Your destination will find you."
3) Find traces of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (Much tougher this round). It is afterall one of my favourite literary works with a very strong feminist theme.

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?
Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his
sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.
The villainy you teach me, I will execute,
and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
- Shylock, (Act III, scene I)

Although Portia is the female protagonist (and only protagonist in my humble opinion), Shylock's famous speech on fairness towards the Jews is equally memorable to me.

***** Butterflygal's Trip Update *****

Venice was raining when I visited her.But because of the rain, one could take lots of reflection shots especially at night which you will see later.

And being a water city, Venice is indeed lovely in her own way. Just a tad too touristy.

Anyway the moment upon reaching Venice, immediately board the water bus to its 2 nearby islands...make that 3 because I accidentally alighted at an earlier stop and ended up in...

Isola di San Michele which is a place for cemetery. No wonder it looks kind of weird.

Hmm can only say, well being lost is mandatory in Venice haha!

Credits: Pwnstar

Anyway first stop is to visit Murano as..

it is a must to visit the famous glass-making Sessuo for a glass making demonstration.

The demonstration normally lasts around 15 minutes and will give an idea of how a furnace is used to melt the glass, how the glass is blown, and normally how a typical ornament is made by working the glass with the prongs.

Then is a visit to the colourful Burano which I loved a lot due to its colours.

Credits: Pwnstar

The day was sunny at Burano and it seems a good day for some canoeing.

Even the cat seems to love the weather in Burano :)

Back to our hotel, while checking in, I saw our TV brand is from...

NOKIA! Geez can it act as a handphone too?

More water sport activities in Venice too due to the good weather I suppose.

Venice being touristy, does have a wide variety of souvenirs though I'm glad i did not buy much keychains because when I reached Florence, I realised the keychains got a lot cheaper!

You can also spend the evening cruising in sunset.

Hopefully you will pass by the pretty Rialto Bridge
Check out how to go here

It is highly recommend to take the slow vaporetto Line 1 for a leisurely river cruise. Or you can also pop by it during morning days to visit the Rialto Market.
Check out how to go here.