Italy Trip – Parte III : Venice (1)

Before arriving in Venice, we actually had no concrete plan of where to go, what to do… All we wanted to do was to stroll around the city… and relax…

Through much looking (and luck), we managed to get lodging at Oceano Mare in Castello… I will do a separate blog about Oceano Mare (which rightly deserves one for its own) later. We had such a pleasant stay!! The neighbourhood was also one to greatly enjoy. Castello is the largest of Venice’s sestieri, and one of the oldest. Home to San Pietro di Castello – once Venice’s official cathedral until Saint Mark’s Basilica took over in 19th century – as well as the Arsenale – the single largest naval complex in Europe prior to the industrial revolution – Castello has its wealth of history, and is widely considered one of the most Venetian parts in the archipelago. The area gives a friendly, local and casual non-touristy feeling, you would hardly see the presence of crowded tourist shops as you may do near San Marco, there are just local markets for food and groceries, trattorias along the small streets, and distinctively, clothes hanging outside of windows, people sitting outside of their houses in the afternoon, leisurely chatting away… that certainly was a wonderful break from the rush of London.

People say that only the ones who live in Castello are the true Venetians….

In front of our lovely “Venetian home”

We often pass by this guiding Angel, who shows our way back every night….

My mom

A Venetian house…

Where the locals live… you can see people hanging their clothes outside…

The Arsenale, the grand naval structure minutes away from Oceano Mare. It is a pity that we are not allowed inside this historic complex due to its operation by the navy. Gallileo Gallilei was once the consultant to military engineers at the Arsenale.

View from a bridge midway from Arsenale to San Zaccaria…

Piazza San Marco, the heat and the long queue deterred our getting in to the buildings around here, so much to see, and we wished they also had some sort of a Venezia card…

too crowded I have to say…

Gondola ride… you pay from 80-120 EUR for a gondola for a 45 min ride… Don’t pay more than that!!

…and along the canals we started, the lovely gondola…

The famous Bridge of Sighs which leads to the prisons in Pallazo Ducale. Reconstruction has really destroyed the view, unfortunately…

I got myself one mask from Venice as well, so expensive!!!

(to be continued….)