Viva la Venice!

Bismillah.

First Visit to Venice

The first time was when I accidentally ‘drop-by’ at Venice while in Zagreb, Croatia two months earlier. ;p This first time also made us feel how lucky we are to be there in Venice when the city was having carnival.  The famous winter carnival in Venice happened from February 26 till  March 8. You know, it is when everyone is wearing colourful traditional masks, and some in costumes and the city is crowded with people and Venetian costumes parade. Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. The feeling of “Casanova” was felt all over us. ;p

When we were lining up to buy boat ticket, a stranger came to us and gave us his tickets for free. Alhamdulillah. I guess the saying "Don't talk to stranger" is not always relevant. :P

Heading to San Marco

Seeing everyone with masks on, I decided to join the crowd. Looking at those beautifully made mask excites me to have one. Furthermore, during the carnival, the masks are cheaper.

Trying out masks was so much fun. :D

He loves me...

.

...he loves me not..

Oooouuu... Okay, I like this one. 

At Piazza San Marco. The building behind us is the Basilica of San Marco, one of the best known church of Byzantine architecture.

Actually, we had chosen Venice to be part of our EuroTrip. Since we went there without the other five members, the possibility to come back to Venice was very high. Datang lagi sekali pun datang la :)

Second Visit to Venice

We started the journey as early at 4am or so in the morning from Sarajevo and headed to Venice. The journey took 10 hours and we arrived Venice around 3pm and right away checked in at Villa Dori. Nice place.

At the entrance of our villa. Simple. I like it.

View in the room

Then, we hopped on a mini-bus provided by the hotel to go to Venice which is located at saltwater lagoon stretches along shorelines. Well that explained why the city smells salty and somehow stinks. ;p

My favourite view of the building

I still can't believe that I finished the whole pizza by myself. It was my first time. 

We took the evening lightly as we were just arrived. We walked and saw loads of stores that sell masks, souvenirs and even you can find Chanel store there. The small booths can easily be found on the street and to our surprised, we can say that most of the booths were held by Bangladeshi. Some even asked us, “You are from Malaysia?” and spoke Malay with us. Funny.  J I wonder how Malaysia has been recognized in the eyes of Bangladesh people. And because of that, I got a discount for an Italian bag which I bought for my sister. :D Yo, thanks!

Moreover, Venice would be perfect if you are looking for some place romantic.

The next day, our mission in Venice was to ride the famous boat in Venice, the gondola. We tried to search and bargain for a cheaper price to ride gondola. But then, if you want cheaper price then they will reduce the time. We bargained for 70 Euro and all they could offer is for 40 minutes ride. Fine. We took the offer and sailed through the city. 

Venice has been known by so many names, some of which are, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “The Floating City” and “City of Canals”.

When we woke up this morning, it was freaking freezing. Upon the stroke of 11am, the sun started to show itself and the air gets warmer. I felt much better just the sun was too bright. So it’s time to put your shades on. I have got to understand the four-season weather now. In the morning it would be very cold but yet it gets better and warmer as the sun shines through the day. But, it will get colder again when the night falls.

I can say that you can complete touring the city just in one day if you start from morning till dinner time.

As to be expected, most of the restaurants serve their Italian specialty. Pizzeria is everywhere. I went into a pizza restaurant once which only serves pizza. I was overwhelmed just by looking at the menu booklet.  There are like seven pages just merely for pizza toppings. I didn’t know that they could come up with such variety of  toppings. We can also choose what kind of tomato sauce we want on our pizza, with cheese or without, thick or thin crust. Well, for us Muslims, there are not many choices we have. Always go for something veggie and fishy. J

Whoa! What a huge pizza! 

In the afternoon, we dashed out from Venice city, heading to our next stop, Switzerland. :)