Italy: Gondola Ride In Venice

Venice, August 2013

Finally I've made it to Venice!
Even though I've visited Italy for couple times before, somehow I had always failed to put Venice on my itinerary. So I was excited to tick 'gondola ride in Venezia' off my bucket list.

"Gondola ride?  That's too touristy! We're travellers not tourists." One snobbish traveller laughed at my idea.
"What's wrong with it?" I replied and smiled. " I love being a tourist sometimes. Also, I'm not going to limit myself about what to do and should not do as a traveller. I just want to experience as much as I can. My own way."

So shall we start our gondola ride now? I have some empty space here, in case you want to hop on and join me :)

floating through the canals

a boat in one of the canals

Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges^. In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot. This city has a rich and diverse architectural style, the most famous is Gothic style.

I've always love old or vintage buildings. And while having a gondola ride I had a great time admiring those decayed wall with the paint peeling off wall and exposing the red bricks underneath. I find it very beautiful. I was excitedly taking pictures and without realising I kept moving to get the best angle which caused the gondola swaying. At one point I almost toppled off to the water and the gondolier (gondola driver) scolded me. Whoa, such a cranky gondolier!, that's what I thought. Turned out it could be dangerous because a week after that, I saw on the news one tourist was killed on a gondola ride in Venice.

the Grand canal

the famous Rialto bridge

passing through Rialto bridge

vintage building

gondola parking lot in Venice

Did I enjoy the go gondola ride in Venice ? Absolutely! It's quite expensive though, you have to fork out about €80 to €120 depends on whether you choose a short or long route. But it's worth it, really. To me, Venice has stolen a piece of my heart. It's very crowded and touristy nevertheless has its own charm. 
Ciao, Venezia! I will definitely come back one day :)