Venice 1: The Arrival 19th March 2007
Venice, I thought, would offer the best of both worlds, even if you arrived by air. Marco Polo Airport is on a reclaimed spit of land on the mainland, and, to reach the city, you need to take an hour-long ride on a water-bus, or vaporetto.
There is a more conventional airport shuttle bus, which will take you to the island, and drop you at the rail station, on the western tip of the island. It’s impossible, it not illegal, for it to take you any further. You must take a water-taxi, or a far more expensive gondola.
The vaporetto, on the other hand, will call at various points around the island, and can usually drop you within a few hundred yards of your destination.
I was expecting excellent views of the approach to Venice from the boat, but it was not to be. There was too much spray for that … and it was mixed up with a light drizzle.
The boat station at St Mark’s Square is, it says here, only ten minutes walk away from the Nicolo Priuli Hotel, where we were staying. But, we had trouble finding it among the narrow alleys, till a friendly waiter at a trattoria around the corner showed us the way. We appreciated this so much that we went back there for dinner afterwards!
The Nicolo Priuli hotel was the former palazzo of the Priuli family; there’s a painting of ‘the man himself’ in reception. It stands at the junction of two canals, and dates from the late 14th Century. You can, in fact, access reception directly from one of the canals. And, although they’ve since installed luxuries like electricity and running water, the furnishings and décor reflect the days when Venice was an independent republic, which controlled the trade of most of the known world.
You can see pictures taken on this trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31258795@N00/
Posted in Uncategorized
