Rtw Day 33: Venice & Verona

I'd not meant for all of my RtW posts to be on days divisible by 5, but it would appear that fate has other plans for me.

I'm sitting on a map kiosk for tourists roughly 5minutes walk from my shitty hotel. I wanted a chance to write and frankly, the dim-lit "common room" in the building I'm currently staying just doesn't lend itself to light-hearted storytelling.

First of all, I would like to point out that my writing style seems to have been affected by reading so much Harry Potter. As I read my own text now, I hear a polite English woman's voice... it's rather disturbing. Incidentally, I'm currently on book 7 (can you believe I paid 27.50€ for the hardcover? I can). I just got to the point where it says:

The [omitted] has fallen. [omitted] is dead. They are coming.

It's really quite exciting. Seriously, if you haven't read the books yet, you should. I stand before you a man converted. The movies just don't do it justice. I have felt fear and longing reading Rowling's pages like I could never have imagined watching a movie.

As an aside, a neighbourhood cat just tiptoed into the bookstore nearby. They seem to do that here -- cats I mean... dogs too. People just seem to let their pets wander around and no one seems to mind where they go. I guess it's the fact that there's no cars around to hurt them.

So yeah, Venice. It's pretty cool -- if you're here for 2days. Stephen was right, this city is easily doable in two nights. Any more and you risk boredom and repetition. I however, due to my mad skillz of not planning my trip, ended up bunching everything into Italy and so this means more time here in Venice. But what to do?

I did the usual tourist thing and made the long, round-a-bout walk from the train station where my shitty hotel is, to Piazza San Marco. You might recognise it as the place in all the movies when they do a shot in Venice. It's where all the pigeons are. There were people paying 1€ for a small bag of dried corn that was then fed to the hordes of pigeons. They would swoop down from everywhere and land on the poor victim, waiting patiently for their dehydrated diet. It made for some funny pictures, but since I had no one with me to take pictures of my coated in birds, I decided not to participate. It was yet another example of why travelling alone can suck.

The bar down the street is full of people, spilling out onto the street. You see, there's a football game going on (England vs. France) and this is a really big deal. Somebody just scored because the street just filled with cheers. I'm not sure who Italians would prefer though, so I can't tell you who's winning.

Navigation

Venice is small, but incredibly complicated. The directions to my hotel, though really simple to follow, had me wandering for about 30minutes. What I hadn't realised, was that in Venice, as there are no cars, bikes or any land-based motorised transportation anywhere, the "streets" can really be as wide or as narrow as you like. My hotel for example, is situated on a narrow strip of cobble stone no wider than 2m. It looks like an alley from the wider, main street. But then, so does nearly every walk way in the city. Most are uneven and twisted, almost all are ridiculously narrow, and they randomly end with brick walls or yet another canal. If you're going to come here, bring a map, and a guide dog, and a GPS locator... you'll need them all.

Unfortunately, the big draw in Venice is really just Piazza San Marco. Outside of that, there's just the "fun" of getting lost in the city and paying the exorbitant prices. Everything from touristy masks (75€ - 500€) to internet (8€/1hr) to food (10€ - 15€ per meal) really puts the clamp on your carefully secured wallet.

They scored again... whomever they are, they're on fire tonight.

Dietary Woes

While I'm on the topic of food though, I thought that I'd mention that I'm going out of my mind. Everywhere you go, and I mean everywhere, the food is not just the same, but identical. For breakfast, everyone eats the same thing: a few cold cuts, some cheese and a dry role of some kind. Lunch is probably pizza or soup, or both and dinner is pasta and or pizza and soup. Occasionally, if you can afford it, some people put in some kind of meat in there, but for the most part, that's it.

Now those who know me, know that I tend to dig simplicity in my diet. I like having the same things for lunch every day 'cause I get off on predictability. But this... this is insane. If you don't want dry crusty rolls for breakfast, tough shit. If you could do with something a little less Italian for lunch or dinner, I wish you luck. There is nothing here. I never thought I'd be so desperate for a Chinese restaurant in my life. I may not want to eat there, but at least the option would be available! Seriously, I'm going out of my tree. I'm just glad that I'll be in Rome tomorrow. I've heard that it's considerably more cosmopolitain.

Where we Lay Our Scene

So, what do you do if you're in a pretty, but kinda boring little European town for too long? Hop a train and go somewhere you've never been of course :-) Remembering Baz's Romeo & Juliet, I couldn't remember if it was filmed in Verona, Italy or in an American city, so I thought: "why not?"

Damn, they scored again. This is crazy. Maybe both team's supporters are in the same bar? I could be hearing cheers from both sides... I dunno

I wasn't sure about what to do in Verona actually. My Lonely Planet book didn't even have a map -- I guess it's not significant enough to bother. So when I arrived in the train station mapless and rudderless, I had arrived with a new quest: find Harry Potter 7 and find it costing less than 27.50€.

Now you already know that while I did find it, I couldn't find it any cheaper than the aforementioned price. The "quest" however made my venture into Verona something with purpose, rather than just blind strolling. I saw the coliseum, a pretty bridge, some nice countryside and I even ended up in the neighbourhood of Juliet's famous balcony. It wasn't until I was shaking with hunger (5pm and hadn't been able to bring myself to eat yet the same thing again) that I broke down and bought "The Deathly Hollows" at full price (I'd seen it in 3 other stores for 27.50€ so my guess is Rowling has a cadre of house elves engaging in price fixing and racketeering or something.)

Ok, I think I've got it, they're not cheering because somebody scored. That can't be the case 'cause goals just aren't that common in football. No, I bet they're just getting excited about every little save etc.

Anyway, Verona was pretty and I had my book. I read 132pages before I got off the train in Venice, went up to my room, got my laptop and came here.

A Last Pigeoning

I just wanted to mention before I close up here though that I did in fact end up going back to Piazza San Marco and bought the pigeon food. They know it as soon as you approach the vendor and will swoop down before you've received your change. It was actually kinda scary, being surrounded by live birds all waiting for you to feed them. Given my less-than-muggle disposition, you'd think I'd dig the whole live animals thing, but I've never really dealt with them well (cats and some dogs a rare exception). It just wigged me out. It's just too bad I didn't have company at the time.

Alright, the game appears to be over and tomorrow I'm off to Rome, where I'll probably be uploading this post since internet in my shitty hotel is worse than the decor. If I have time, I'll also post my Venice and Verona pictures as well.