Venice By Naveen Agnihotri

Our train got into Venice at about 6:30pm on January 1st, and it was already dark. We took the #1 vaporetto (water taxi), which took us down the famed Canal Grande to Basilica San Marco, and from there we walked to our hotel, which was only a couple of blocks away.

Ai Do Mori, our hotel in Venice, was highly recommended by the tourguides, and rightly so. The location is super-convenient, and while our room was super-small, it was also super-clean, and the staff was super-friendly. We settled into our room, and then decided to get something to eat. Our first proper meal in Italy was at Da Aciugheta, and turned out to be excellent. We had a great desire to try Italian pizza, and Aciugheta did not disappoint. Now I can honestly say I know what the fuss is all about. After dinner, we went back to our hotel and called it an early night.

The next morning, we started our tour of Venice at the Basilica San Marco, which was only a couple of blocks away, and is clearly the centerpoint of all Venetian touristic agendas. We also went up to the Galeria, where they have the original gilded bronze horses from the 10th century, and where we could also see majestic views of the dazzling interior (sorry no photography allowed). From the balcony, fancily called Loggia de Cavalli (Horses Loggia), we also got spendid vistas of the piazza San Marco, as well as the Museo Archeologico across the way. Once back outside, we saw a traditional band, leading a traditional procession.

Venice is stunningly beautiful. I don't think anyone that has been there can deny that. However, Venice is also horribly expensive -- everything is overpriced: the hotels, the food, the gondola rides, everything. And of course, tourists are as ubiquitous as water. We were there in extreme off-season, it was pretty cold, and yet tourists were everywhere. I can imagine that in the summer (peak tourist season) you can probably barely find the space to walk. We walked around quite a bit, had lunch at Ristorante Trattoria da Gioia on Calle dei Fabbri, one of the many overpriced, bad restaurants along the way. We reached the Canal Grande, and then across the beautiful Ponte de Rialto (Rialto bridge) to San Polo, where we walked around taking pictures. We also made an attempt to have dessert at a pretty restaurant right by the water, and though it was empty, we were informed by the waiter that we couldn't eat just dessert: we had to have some food too. Alas. We left, walked around some more, exploring the scenery.

We slowly made our way back to the hotel, ducking into a cute overpriced store whenever we felt the bite of cold. We took a traghetto ride to the beautiful Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute, where we also had our picture taken by a couple of nice fellow tourists.

Evening brought more beautiful views, including those of Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, and Dogana da Mar, where we had planned to go, but just ran out of time. We had coffee at a cute and not-too-expensive cafe, and walked to a heart's content.

Once we got to San Marco, I used the timer function on the camera to take some night photos around the piazza. They came out surprisingly well.

We went to our hotel, picked up our luggage, and prepared to take the #1 vaporetto back to the railway station. Our plan was to get to the station by about 9pm, and then wait there until midnight, when we were catching the train to Rome. Standing at the vaporetto station, I took a couple of long (10 second) exposure photos, which also turned out surprisingly good. This was my first experience with a digital camera, and I was beginning to like it.

We got to the station at about 9:30pm, and were immediately greeted by closed shops, a closed waiting room, and a closed information counter. And the lone warm place in the station, the cafeteria, was going to close at 10pm. We availed ourselves of the warmth until 10pm, and then proceeded to freeze for two hours in the bitter Venice cold, out in the open, along with about 30-40 other fellow passengers, all of us cursing the Italian warmth and hospitality. Whoever heard of the waiting room being closed!!! The great American philosopher P J O'Rourke says: Italy is not technically part of the Third World, but no one has told the Italians. That night, while freezing our buns off on the cold Venice platform, we got to feel the third-worldliness first-hand. Even in the smallest towns in India, waiting rooms in railway stations are open 24 hours. And our hope that the train might come a little earlier than the midnight departure time---it started from Venice---was dashed as the train finally came about 4 minutes before departure. Our compartment was the smallest we'd ever seen, but at least it was warm.

And on to Rome we went.