My first trip on exchange was to Venice, from 5 to 7 February. Luckily, I arrived a week or two before the Carnival, and I got a group of people from Bocconi to go look-see-look-see. The prices of accommodation was high on the main island, and we stayed on the mainland in a town called Mestre. We had two Airbnb apartment units which was 10 minutes away from the bus station, but the finer details on how to use Airbnb would probably be for another article. Without further ado, here’s 4 reasons why you should NOT visit Venice (sarcastically, #clickbait).
Random Bocconi students that should really be in school
1. You would celebrate “Halloween” 6 months earlier.
The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in this floating city, and is world-famous for its elaborate masks on display.
To buy or not to buy, that is the question
A common joke is that every Italian city or town would have a Piazza (public square), a Duomo (cathedral), and a hundred gelato shops. The main square of Venice, Piazza San Marco, is where most of the Carnival activity takes place. When we were there, there was a mock amphitheater where plays and performances were held. Random people would scuttle around in their gowns and garbs, presumably to head to the countless balls and dinners around town. For those that didn’t mind posing, they made it seem like Halloween came early!
Kua simi kua: Remember to ask permission before taking pictures
2. You would eat incredible pasta that would make you not want to eat any other pasta forever.
Venice receives an enormous amount of people each year, and it was probably one of the most crowded places I have ever visited. The eateries and restaurants know this, of course, and the meals go for at least 2x the price I paid normally in Milan. Being cash-strapped student tourists, we sought advice from the sagely TripAdvisor, and we decided on a take-out pasta for the first night.
Like a Chinese takeout in New York City
We walked about 15 minutes through winding alleys, from San Marco’s to this joint. Its modern shopfront, sleek decor, and no-nonsense service made it a little New York-esque. For 5 Euros, I had Fusilli with Marinara, which is a no frills tomato sauce. Being the first pasta that I ate in Italy, Dal Moro’s was probably pretty symbolic, and compounded with the freezing Venetian winter-spring, that warm cup of cooked dough was probably the best I ate in my whole life.
3. You would be jealous of the prettiest row of houses you would ever see in your whole life.
Burano is a 30-40 minute vaporetto (waterboat) ride from the main area of Venice via Murano. If you are an artsy-fartsy-designy person, yes, this is the same Murano like in “Murano Glass”. It’s slightly overrated, so we decided to skip the “M” twin altogether.
Warmth: +10, Saturation: +10
Lots of travel pages feature Burano in their “Top 10 Prettiest Places in Italy / Europe / the World to Visit” list, and we were expecting the same flood of tourists that we saw at PSM, here. Fortunately, when we reached sometime mid-afternoon, it was pretty quiet and we could walk around the town with relatively much comfort.
Hello from the other side
They said that Burano houses had no numbers in the past. For the fishermen of old who stayed here, they would remember their houses by their colours! For the rest of us tourists, it was, of course, a very pretty sight. Definitely worth a stop-by, and definitely free if you have bought a transport pass which grants unlimited use of the waterboats!
4. You would forget the idea of public buses / trams / MRTs / subways.
An interesting fact about Venice is that there are no cars at all on the main island because it is sinking and surrounded by water. There are no roads, and commuting around the place is via Waterboat, Gondola, or the ever-reliable Feet.
1/2 of contingent feat. non-singing gondola uncle
We tried riding on the gondola for a nice 30 minute tour of the Venetian waterway. We got a grumpy old man who didn’t sing to us like we saw in the movies, but still, it was pretty nice to sail into someone else’s longkang and also see the Grand Canal on the water. The fee per person was quite expensive, but since Venice is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, it was well worth it!
One word: Lel
All in all, Venice was a check off the travel list, and an amazing 3 days of my life. This was a trip that kickstarted the amazing-ness of exchange, and showed the wonders of Italy to a greenhorn. Would I visit here again? Probably no, because it is actually quite expensive and rather inaccessible from the major airports of Europe. Still, it is a place worth visiting once in your life, and I would recommend it to anyone that is around Northern Italy / Switzerland / Croatia to check this historical city out!
For more pictures, checkout my full album at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153848442367412&type=1&l=3257c56079
Outdoor clubbing: Keeping it real (Disclaimer: I did not participate)
