After the incredible ‘high’ of Kranjska Gora, we moved
towards the ‘low’ city of Venice. We were to camp just outside Venice, in the
town of Marghera, at Camping Jolly. This was the first “Camping Village” that
we were going to stay at. I was looking forward to it after the glimpse I got
of camping at Camping de la Treille in Cavalaire-sur-Mer, France, earlier on in
my trip.
A Camping village is set of row houses with the bare
necessities – a few beds, dining table, kitchen with utensils & gas and
bathrooms. They’re quite cramped on the inside, but with ample place on the
outside – usually a sit-out area with a wooden floor, tables & chairs. I noticed
several families completely setting up shop at these ‘villages’ as though they
were going to stay there for weeks, if not months. And that’s how they usually
go, I suppose, like a holiday home away from home!
Camping Jolly also had a supermarket, restaurant and pub in
the premises – so one could do shopping for veggies, pasta & such for
cooking themselves a good lunch, and then have a glass of wine & shake a
leg in the evening. We bought a ton of stuff as supplies for the next few days
that we were going to spend there. (In hindsight, these were low quality &
expensive, so we actually shopped for supplies at supermarkets in the city
instead).
The drive down from Kranjska Gora was quite eventful, with everyone
agreeing at some point that we’d clearly crossed over into Italy – with drivers
driving appallingly (in comparison to Austria & Germany of course; compared
to India they were still angels!). We had stopped at a fueling station and I
decided to check the tyre pressure. Turned out we had lost pressure so Hari
& I went about filling some more air. Half way through we realized that we
were actually seeing all readings in the wrong unit, so we had to release some
pressure to get it back to where it was, which was normal to begin with!
We reached in the evening and were happy to have dinner at
the restaurant in the village. The waitress at our table was in a particularly
sprightly mood and danced in with the menu, and our subsequent order. The food
was just about alright and we were ready to have a good night’s sleep before we
set out to Venice in the morning.
There were regular buses from the village to Venice and we
took one around mid-day. The weather was quite warm and our hats and shades
were put to good use. The bus dropped us off just outside Venice and we were to
take a train, the ‘Tronchetto’, to the other side, into the floating city of
Venice. The train went past a port terminal where several luxury cruise ships
were docked. As the mini-train rolled into the station at Venice, there were
glimpses of a bustling city teeming with tourists. We didn’t really have much
of a plan for Venice, apart from just walking around, having gelato &
pizzas and getting lost!
And that’s pretty much what we did for the next couple of
days… The idea for Day 1 was to go in the general direction of Rialto &
then San Marco. There were several instances of us veering off track thanks to
a promising looking street, but over the course of the afternoon, we did make
it there. The big, expensive restaurants were overpriced and the food wasn’t
all that appetizing. It’s the little ones tucked in alleys, that typically don’t
have place to sit, that we figured served the best food. You can see a lot of
people just streaming in and out of these joints, picking up food (usually
pizzas) and leaving in a jiffy. We tried out one such place, with pizzas at
just 1 euro a slice! For 10-12 euros, the five of us were a nicely ‘fed up’
bunch!
On the way, we picked up Vodafone connections from a proper
Vodafone store that promised some 100 minutes of free calling to India. But over
the course of the trip we realized it was a scam as we ran out of minutes with
just 20 minutes of talking! Didn’t read the fine print, I suppose!
After walking for over 4 hours, we made it to San Marco, a
large open square with a tower and church on one side. It was well worth going
on top of the tower to get a glimpse of Venice in the setting sun! The views
were to die for and the weather was perfect!
We headed back to the village for the night and cooked
ourselves some nice pasta before retiring for the night. The next day, we were
back to walk around a lil’ bit more and do the famed Gondola ride in Venice’s
waters. 80 euros for a 20 minute ride in rather suspect, dark, smelly water,
was a bit steep. It’s a usual bucket-list item, nevertheless, and I was glad I got
that out of the way!
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Life seems to slow down when in Venice. Nobody’s in a hurry.
Everyone’s just meandering through and has a smile on their face. It’s a place
stuck in time, without any large, imposing, shining modern buildings. It’s also
a place where everyone’s an equal. The millionaire and the pauper are both on
foot. No BMWs, Mercs or Jags. The sounds you hear are the chatter of people,
heels on cobblestones, sometimes church bells in the distance, and pretty much
nothing else.
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