A travelogue: Carnival weekend in Venice

The Plan:

It was Wednesday evening, when thoughts of the weekend came into the lonely soul of mine. To be honest, I was tired of being tied inside the four walls of my room. I needed to breathe some fresh air and I needed to see some light .

Then I went online and discovered an inexpensive last minute offer to Venice for the Carnival weekend. I pinged Sai and Nilesha and to my surprise, both said "yes". On Thursday I booked the tickets and on the Friday evening we were on our way to Venice!

The Journey:

It was  a long journey, with many breaks. The travel operator had chosen the longer way via Stuttgart, Munich and Innsbruck (Austria) to fit in more passengers.

 

                                                Image: The route our bus follwed.

"Mira Mirano" was our first stop early in the morning in Italy. Then we took train to Santa Lucia, the main station in Venice. (Our small group had increased from 3 to 5 people by this time. New additions were Mayur and Pushpak from Mannheim, strangers by morning, they were friends by evening)

The experience:

Venice captured us from the moment we landed at Santa Lucia (To keep it cheesy, it was love at first sight). A wonderful sight awaited us at the entrance to the city along with the Carnival mask sellers and face painters. After a short breakfast and a shot of Cappacino, we decided to head for St.Mark's square, the most happening place in Venice.

                                    Image: The first view of the city of Venice in the morning.

The route was supposed to be simple; head to Rialto Bridge to cross the Grand Canal and head to St.Mark's Basilica. But once we headed through the most beautiful tiny canals and bridges spread all over the city, we just lost our way and started enjoying the beauty of the city.

                                           Images: A wonderful walk upto Rialto.

It was supposed to be a 30 minute walk to St.Mark's square, but it took us more than an hour just to reach Rialto bridge and the Rialto market. Then again, we were lost in the bridge and the market at Rialto, famous for it's fishes, shrimps and crabs.

Images:
Rialto bridge and fishes for sale in Rialto market

Finally we were at St.Mark's square, two hours after we reached Santa Lucia. The Carnival spirit was in the air and there were masks everywhere. Venetian Masks are very famous and the carnival is the best time to visit the city if do not mind the crowd.

After a brief visit to the Basilica, we spent most of the next hour just sinking into the Carnival mood and observing the mask and costume clad people grabbing attention of tourists and professional photographers all around the St.Mark's square.

A stage was constructed for the Carnival performances at the square, with the tower to one side and the Basilica to the other and all the carnival crowd in between, I was just awed by the whole atmosphere. (Coming from sub-zero temperatures of Germany, I was also enjoying the relatively warmer weather of Italy). In between, someone borrowed some rice out of nowhere and started feeding pigeons on their hand.(I did it too, pigeons are generally friendly, but here they were "extra" friendly. May be they are used to the tourists and the free food)

I saw they were selling some Venetian pancakes right in the centre of the crowd and decided to grab a bite. Also, to our surprise we had ignored the giant "wine fountain" right infront of us. They tap the wine straight from the wine fountain and sell it on the spot. (Cool thing! See the video)

Video: Wine being served directly from wine fountain

After the carnival fun, it was museum time and we headed for Doge's palace. 

(Info: The ticket covers the Palazzo Ducale and all of the museums in Piazza San Marco: Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sale Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. The ticket is valid for three months, but may only be used once for each museum).

Though we didn't have enough time to see all the four museums. We did enjoy the Doge's palace,  thanks to the audio guides, which I had downloaded onto my kindle in prior. (Info: Click here for Venice audio guides)

                                                      Image: Stairs to the Doge's palace.

Interestingly just after we heard about the legendary escape of Casanova from the prison of Venetia, we lost ourselves and kept running in the same circles of the prison from which he escaped! One should have seen our faces when we finally found our way to exit from those prison cells!

After running around, we were so hungry that even though we knew Pizza from Venice was way worser than Pizza from Southern Italy, we decided to give it a try anyway. After walking for a while and deviating ourselves from crowd and the main streets, we found a calm, narrow street to eat.

Pizza was bad (as expected), pasta was good and the coffee was excellent (Being a huge Coffee fan, I have to acknowledge the Italian coffee).

Next up, we had our return journey in the evening and we had to make most of the time we had left with. We decided to take a Gondola ride. On the way to find a Gondola, we came across a street performer trying to juggle on a monocycle. (Watch the video for the full act)

                                                    Video: "Maria!" ~ Street Performer

The Gondola ride:

Gondolas are the beautiful boats, the best option to explore the canals of the venice. They are the boats you see in every other movie shot in Venice. Like you do with a taxi driver or a rickshawalla in India, you have to negotiate the price. (Only difference is, if you turn off the Gondola guy, he may deliberately skip nicer parts of the ride).

We got a deal for 80 Euros (price per Gondola, not per person), which is expensive but the experience is certainly worth the money. It is an entirely indescribable experience when you enter the Grand Canal from the smaller Canals in the Gondola. May be pictures can solve the indescribable part!

                                                            Through the Narrow canals

  The Grand Canal: Our driver worried over something from phone

 (A text message from his girl friend to be precise)

                                                 Newly weds waving at us in Grand Canal

(Strange theory: Nilesha suspected, they might have "just dressed as newly weds" for the carnival)

Phew! It was evening already. We still wanted to go up the main tower, and we could have also taken an island ride. But we came on a short trip on a short notice, so it was time to run back.

On the way back however, we saw some performances on stage and kids skating and falling on the ice.

 

Video: St.Mark's square in the evening

                                            Kids skating (and falling at 0:21 and 0:37)

Small Shopping and "Made in PRC" impact:

Most Venetian producers are worried of cheaper made in China goods affecting their businesses. They also complain many of  these goods escape customs. Almost every product I saw had a small "made in PRC" sticker on it. (For those of you who do not know, PRC=People's Republic of China).

Selling special Venetian masks during Carnival is a profitable business with tourists willing to shell out extra bucks to keep a souveneir in the form of a mask that too of such a glorious old tradition. The local sellers try to grab attention and exhibit their "authenticity" by the following display boards. (See images).

Most of my fellow travellers decided to buy souveneirs in form of key-chains, t-shirts etc. Being a fan of Italian coffee, my shopping option was clear. I bought a Bialetti moka-express for myself.

The Journey back, An epilogue and An observation:

                                    Image: Journey back (From Santa Lucia to Mira-Mirano)

We literally ran to Santa Lucia train station in the last minute and got into our train. Due to Carnival it was very difficult even to get into the train. It was as packed as a regular Mumbai local  (while, I watched the annoyed American tourists, I said to myself, "looks like Ghatkopar is the next station,  home sweet home!")

After the a long journey back, I somehow found the spirit to invite everyone to a traditional South Indian breakfast: Rava Dosa and Sambar. (Yes, that's what I decide to cook after a journey of 12 hours back home)

The tour officially ended when Mayur departed to Mannheim. But before that, all of us sat together and went through the photos of the tour and were simply amazed to see in the pictures, what we had all experienced . 

It was a wonderful experience and it was very nice to have the guys from Mannheim to be met on a trip and to have gelled so well together in a short span of time. 

What was even more amazing was, all of us communicated with each other in Hindi through out the trip and never realised that, it wasn't the mother tongue of even one of us! (Mannheim folks -Marathi, Nilesha-Oriya, Sai-Telugu, Me-Kannada)

Damn, I felt so happy about my country when I realised it!