D1 | Venice

I'm currently watching 冲上云霄 and most segments of the drama revolves around Italy! So everytime they go to Rome my eyes open twice bigger and thinking 'That's where I was!" "I know exactly where this is!" 

I was just there a month ago. It's really crazy how fast time flies.

Honestly I didn't feel the excitement until the moment the captain announced that we have touchdown in Aeroporto Marco Polo. Work has been incredibly taxing and there's not a day I get to leave work on time. 2 weeks before I'm scheduled to fly, I shopped around trying to find a travel backpack. I figured it'd be easier to bring a backpack rather than bringing my spinner Samsonite luggage. I couldn't find any I liked and lucky me my brother told me he has one.

My brother's 10 year old travel backpack. He used it when he was still a student travelling around Europe.

Flew with Emirates and we're lucky we got on the Airbus A380!

Midnight flight and arrived at Dubai 5:10AM.

I have this habit of taking photo of the flight route. I have one for every flight I got onto!

I mad love Pinkberry! I had them when I was in the US and until now I still think it's the best Froyo I've tried. Dubai airport has 1 small Pinkberry counter. Totals up to almost 10 USD though. 

I like in-flight meals. Bread and butter taste 3257634596 times better on a plane. SQ always serve their bread warm, but Emirates' is cold and hard =( The entire journey, I didn't enjoy any of the meal except this one, the Cajun chicken fillet. 

Almost there!

Proof that mum always carries my bags haha.

First view of the great Venice! We took the bus to Venice island, then walked around 20 mins back to the apartment. The only mode of transportation in Venice island is the Vaporetto (water taxi). You can't drive cars or motorbikes, not even bicycles in the streets of the water town!

My first lunch in Italy! We didn't really survey any must-eat places so just picked a random ristorante since all of them sell almost the same things. Pizzas, Pastas and all kinds of bread.

I think I've had Italian cuisine less than 20 times in my whole life. In fact, I dread coming to Italy just because I thought I'd starve to death since I dont like pastas and pizzas. If I had to choose, then it'd definitely be Pasta Carbonara. So I did, for my first lunch. It tasted surprisingly GOOD! It's around €8 to €10.

Hello, my travel companions!

There're plenty of these street-side restaurants. I felt so fucking surreal just sitting there.

Just a random building opposite the restaurant.

We took the Vaporetto from P.le Roma station to cruise along the Grand Canal. There's also plenty of Gondolas but it cost more than €50 so we opted for the less than €10 Vaporetto. Less romantic but exactly same view!

We sat outside to get the full unblocked view.

No words can describe this.

My first view of the famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge along the canal. Can you see the many many many heads on the bridge? The canal is also very busy with all types of water buses, taxis and gondolas.

Sunset!

Beautiful side buildings :)

If I'm not mistaken, this is the magnificent Santa Maria della Salute, an example of the Italy Baroque architecture.

Walked past Bridge of Sigh. It's named Bridge of Sigh because it connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace.  The view from the bridge was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment.

Overlooking Il Redentore (I think. Sorry I suck at remembering building names).

Piazza San Marco, the main public square of Venice.

 Masks everywhere, ranging from €3 to  €500. I ended buying one too. It's sitting there now collecting dusts ;)

This is funny. They bought drinking water for €1 but paid €1.50 for the public toilet behind St Mark's Square. Now we're all confused whether we should drink more water hehe.

Love sunset skylines.

I think my sister and mum really like '饼印'. Now my sister know how she'd look like when she's old hahah.

We sat there for a while and witnessed a mini riot. People were shouting through the loudspeaker in Italian and we didn't understand what it's all about. Helicopters and Venice polizia boats were trying to disperse protestors to make way for the MSC cruise liner.

View from the Skyline Rooftop bar from Hilton Molino Stucky. 

Me and my mum was exhausted and a little jet-lagged so we skipped dinner and went straight back to the apartment after Hilton.

We wandered around the endless winding alleys and crossed countless bridges on foot and I think I can say we almost saw the entire Venice in 1 day and it was extremely relaxing and slow-paced. There're millions of tourists, but still better than going in Summer (Jun-Aug), I think. According to the Paolo our apartment owner, he said there're not many residents in Venice island itself. He used to live in the the island but it's very inconvenient as he can't drive or cycle so most of the locals, including himself, moved back to the mainland.

Great, great first day. Sigh.

"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is -- Venice is better."