Venice the Second Time Around

“He who has seen one cathedral ten times has seen something; he who has seen ten cathedrals once has seen but little; and he who has spent half an hour in each of a hundred cathedrals has seen nothing at all.” – Sinclair Lewis

I always say if you don't get to do something, see something or go somewhere do not waste your time on regrets, move on and something special is always around the corner. While I haven't dwelt on it I really wished that we had given the kids a chance for a gondola while we were in Venice back in July. When Rob's mum asked us to meet her in Budapest we were suddenly presented with the opportunity to visit Venice again. Not that it looks like the most direct route from Dalmatia to Budapest, but with Ryanair running a remarkably cheap service from Treviso to Budapest it was certainly the cheapest option.

The original plan had been to catch a ferry from Porec to Venice then take an airport bus to Treviso and then a flight to Budapest. Simple. Well maybe in the summer season but at this time of year there was no ferry from Porec and we would need to have been at Rovinj at the crack of dawn to catch the ferry. Except one of the sailors had hurt himself and could not be replaced and the likelihood of the ferry running was in question.  

And so there we were two days before our flight, sitting in Porec and wondering what we should do. It became obvious that we would need to make some or all of our journey towards Treviso the day before our flight to ensure we didn't miss it.

 Of course our choice was not limited to Venice and we toyed with the idea of a night in Udine or Treviso but interestingly due to the shear number of accommodation options Venice offered greater choice and value. And while I have now visited Venice a total of four times, including this unexpected visit, it would be unfounded arrogance to claim we have even seen a fraction of the wonders to be seen in this intriguing and fascinating city. 

 And so we decided on Venice and booked an apartment in Cannaregio, the Casa Rioalto, which was very close to the Ca d'Oro, exactly opposite to the hotel we stayed for our last visit.  Our trip from Porec in Croatia began with a drive through Slovenia, where the border guards had our cousin Neven pull his car over to the side while they determined if we could enter the Schengen Zone. Luckily their calculations agreed with mine and we were told we had sixteen Schengen days left available to us at this point. When you travel in Europe long term it is very important to understand the rules  or you risk being excluded from large parts of Europe as a consequence. Passports stamped we joined the end of a long traffic jam and thought we had missed our train. Luckily it was running over an hour late and so we  caught it after all.

Once we arrived I let everyone in on my secret surprise, yes here was our chance to make up for our missed gondola ride. Everyone was thrilled by the idea and it was lovely to see the children so excited and overflowing with gratitude, which can make a nice change after the usual day to day grumbles.

 Having never visited Cannaregio we enjoyed visiting its unknown streets and, now on our gondola ride, canals as well. Though Rob and I had taken a gondola ride on our honeymoon with was made extra special by the enthusiasm of the kids and he singing of our gondolier. From memory most of our honeymoon gondola trip was taken up with Rob trying to convince the gondolier that Marco Polo was from Korcula in Croatia.

With not much left of our day we decided on a treat for ourselves, a glass of Prosecco with a view of the Rialto Bridge, followed by dinner and a Spitz at a restaurant near the Rialto fish markets.

We could of course have explored more of Cannaregio but instead submitted to the kids pleading to return to the Stick House for wonderful ice cream and who were we to argue, It has been such a delightful day, one of those special days that stand out and the memories flow easily to my fingertips.

The next morning we had little time before we needed to catch our bus to Treviso from Piazzale Roma. We needed to catch the vaporetto to get there and for some reason forgot that the Ca d'Oro stop was on our side and so instead we took a tronchetto, a gondola that acts as a ferry across the Grand Canal to the Rialto Markets stop. A delightful mistake to make, and extra fun with a heavy suitcase and when an water ambulance came speeding my the gondoliers had us sit down quick smart before the wake knocked us overboard. Priceless memories of one of our favourite place. You know what I can't imagine that this will be our last visit either.