Water buses and Venice

One of my biggest attraction I find living in Germany is the connectivity. Yes, you heard it right. I don't have to travel 7 hours or so, just to reach one part of the same country. In just 4 hours, I find myself in a completely different country, who speak, dress and eat different than the Germans! The best of all - most of the dream locations of any Indian - are closeby or atleast reachable - Switzerland for example - even a layman knows of Swiss beauty. And the World Wonders. There's Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa (still, it was a World wonder na?) Yeah ofcourse there's dazzling Taj Mahal back home in India. <Brags>

Duh, why're you giving such an essay? Come to the point. So yeah, I had a Bucket List of places to visit - mostly inspired from Foreign-location songs in Indian movies. The first of the list was of course Venice! and Swiss. This May, my fil and mil had come to Germany for a 18-day vacation.  It turned out to be such a fun-filled amazing experience - Period (well well, what's not fun if you don't fight with your mil? Happens to ever girl ;) isnt it?)And so this Venice visit happened when we drove all the way down to Venice with my in-laws.
So, from the mainland, there were Buses that reach the inner lagoon island of Venice. Now, this was new : I thought Venice meant waters - never knew there was mainland - and islands spearate. We soon got down at "The Venice". Looking around me, I noticed it was small, compact and had double-arm distanced, traffic-free streets (No vehicles are allowed). That made it a great place for walking down the streets and sight-seeing. Or so did we think. The streets were all interconnected and maze-like. We had thankfully bought a map that located us to the church and the palaces etc., Even with the map, it looked like my head was spinning reading its miniature fonts, finding the direction and ofcourse locating them live infront of us. Lol. We got lost a couple of times, returned to the same places, couldn't find the water boats and when we finally were right on track, we were dead-tired. Weird why there is no reviews stating about this in any of the Travel forums - we could have been prepared a little - atleast carrying food and water -lol.


Soon, we got used to the maze. <Cunning face> We were now going on track - we came to the prime photography spot - The Grand Canal - where people could get the best possible view of the Venice canal and the colored buildings. Most of the buildings here date as old as the 13th century. Uhmm.. this canal forms the major public transport-corridor in the city. The canals in and around Venice seem to have an intrigue and mystery, just around the corner and so they are. Seems public transport is provided by water buses, water taxis and tourists also explore the city by the famous gandolas. The Gandola is a tradional rowing boat in Venice. It is believed to bring closeness to newly-weds who are about to start their new life together. It is also one of the charismatic ways of spending one's time in the city. Gandoliers are usually good singers and many a times sing while the gandola glides along the canal. If you visit Venice, make sure you do this.(Even if you are not newly-wed, lol) There was also the Bridge of Sigh in Venice. Legend says it was the last view that the prisoners saw of the beautiful view of Venice and 'sighed' through their window before they were taken into their cells. 

Huh?Water buses? I never knew such thing even existed! We chose to take this water-bus (!) to come to the mainland on our way back. It was a dazed experience - and also the fact that there are stops in between and people actually get down and up in these stops - just like if it were on roads. Here's a picture of one of the many water-bus stops - that truly baffled me. I still remember how hurriedly my mil and I were to get down at a wrong stop, because of a misread in the map. And how hard S and his dad laughed at us... beautiful memories.

The main square was so huge, that we stood just staring at the stature and how majestic its mere height was. But there were certainly some, who were not-so-pleased with the 'selfies' and 'groupies'. And oh, there were humpty pigeons (or doves - I really don't know to differentiate these - or is it just American English/ British English? <wonders>)
Not to forget the best part of all. We nibbled  (or hogged) finger-licking pasta and pizza, after endless walking, posing and shopping. My fil loved the pizza and kept on saying of its taste even after he went to India! And oh the espresso, My God - you can die for the Italian Espresso. Whatever coffee you had had so far, is nothing - literally nothing before it. We would have had countless cups of Espresso in Italy - especially my in-laws who are Coffee-lovers. And so I boast of the Italian food we had, for you to drool over.

 
This was a Cream-sauced Spaghetti with basilikum and other Italian herbs. Perfectly loaded with cheese, chicken and olive oil.




I really don't know this Pasta's name - I call it the Ribbon Pasta. It was for my fil - with mushrooms, chicken and Italian herbs. My mil had Penne in a tomato sauce. Never could such a normal dish - taste so delicious. 

And then the pizza - it sunk into your mouth, with the cheese and aroma and most importantly - you could eat the crust also - No burning, no charring. Simply Ultimate.

Hmm .. I have heard approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for the Carnival celebrations. And the best event would be the competition for the best mask. No wonder the shopping streets were filled with ravishing masks! - So people, if you are ever planning for a must-see place, take Venice into your list - It has everything - love, food and beauty. <Notes down: Gandolas and Carnival - are still pending - We need to go nochmal S - chuckles>

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