Day 18.2 - Arrival in Venice

American writer Truman Capote wrote that the city of Venice was "like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go", suggesting perhaps that Venice was too much. I prefer travel writer Jessica Zafra's view of Venice, which focusses more on what individuals can take from this magical place: "I cannot write about Venice; I can only write about me, and the sleeping parts of myself that Venice has shocked into wakefulness."

While I could easily imagine any one of our boys eating a whole box of chocolates, after having spent well over two weeks with them I like to think that they are hungry for experience and knowledge and will thus discover Zafra's Venice rather than Capote's.

We got on our first train at 12.20 and off our last one at 6.40 - over six hours of travel brought us to Santa Lucia station in Venice. After navigating the station we emerged on to the Grand Canal. The mind always takes a few seconds to process that first sight of Venice; it looks for something familiar to hang on to like streets, roads, cars but doesn't find them, instead finding water and boats and trying vainly to substitute them. But it quickly recovers and then has the chance to take in the beauty, spleandour and glorious decay of Venice.

We stood in silence taking this in before organising transport on a vaporetto, the water buses of Venice. The vaporettos (roughly translated as little smoker, from a time when they were steam driven) are the buses of Venice, the most efficient way of getting around Venice other than by feet. Given that our hotel was on Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), at the opposite pole of Venice, the vaporetto journey gave us a wonderful first look at the city.

Aboard the vaporetto, Ryan approves of Venice

Winson enjoying the vaporetto ride

Coming up to one of the many bridges of Venice

Travelling on the Grand Canal, we were able to see so many of the grand old buildings of Venice, te water splashing at their front doors. We passed under the famous and iconic Rialto Bridge which was unfortunately scaffolded for restoration (something is always being restored in Italy) before heading out into the lagoon. We caught a glimpse of the famous Piazza San Marco, but only a glimpse, before the vaporetto pulled into our stop.

It's a special kind of bus ride where you see something like this outside your window.

Waiting for our rooms to be assigned at the Hotel Casanova

At the Bridge of Sighs

After settling into the Hotel Casanova, our home for the next three nights, we went for a walk to Piazza San Marco. Even by twilight the enormity of this space was evident. Flanked by the Basilica of San Marco, the mint and the Ducal Palace, and facing the famous Lagoon of Venice, it was easy to see how this was the centre of power for the Venetian Empire of the Renaissance.

Yum

We went to dinner soon after, enjoying one of the finest meals we have had in Italy, a three course dinner at Kiro. Another visit to Piazza San Marco, including the sight of the famous Bridge of Sighs was followed by an early night to bed.