It takes about half an hour to get to Venice from Padova. I undertook this journey with an American guy in my dorm room, Graham. He'd been travelling Italy for a while with a large group of family (about 25 people apparently!) and once this had finished up, he decided to continue his journey backpacking style for a couple more weeks.
The previous night I had spent a couple hours having a drink with Paul at one of the shack pubs known as the "Highlander", one of a series of pubs run by an Irish bloke who moved to Italy some years ago. He happened to be running the bar on this particular night, and we got to chatting. Once I mentioned I was headed to Venice the next day, he became quite exasperated and held back no small opinion on the crowds which he described as annoying obese Americans, albeit in a much more flowery language than I am willing to publish here. Assuring me that upon encountering these crowds I was more than likely to turn postal and throw several of these walking jelly-bowls into the Grand Canal, he wished me luck, and then I had to return to my early closing hostel for the night.
Graham had spent the previous day wandering Venice already, so he had a bit of a feel for where things were. Not exactly knowing what to expect, we arrived at Venice central station about 10AM, and entered into the throngs of people crowding the place. The description that the Irishmen had given me wasn't far wrong, the crowds of people were indeed dense, however it was a bit more multi-cultural than a group of fat Americans. Graham and I began to wander the streets of Venice, and essentially continued to do this the whole day. Except for the main thoroughfares, the streets of Venice are quite narrow, often being difficult to fit even two people abreast, but the buildings and architecture were quite interesting. Most of the houses look quite similar, flat faced buildings of old construction, puncuated by churches and other important and official looking buildings. I had hoped that this wandering would follow the Grand Canal, but unfortunately the canal doesn't actually have a footpath following its route. There are also only three bridges to cross the Grand Canal, one up near the station, another somewhere in the middle, and the final right near the end.
It is said that it is quite easy to get lost in Venice, and this would probably be true if you were trying to get to particular spots. Due to our general wanderings, we didn't ever get lost, per se, but we did run into a couple of dead ends here and there. Something that surprised me was that Graham hadn't seen San Marco's Square, somethind I'd heard about and was quite keen to visit. Luckily the main parts of Venice, such as the square, have many many signs pointing in their direction, so it wasn't too hard to find. Eventually we made our way down through the windy streets into the square, and it was very impressive indeed. There are large, kind of uniform buildings down one side of it, with a very large bell tower known as St Marks Companile in the middle. There is the Basilica which looks quite impressive, however the entrance queue to get in was equally as impressive, and the concept of waiting at least half an hour in the (very) hot Venetian sun did not appeal to Graham or myself, and we satisfied ourselves from admiring it from the outside. I took a bit of a fancy to one of the lion statues on top of a large column, which was one of two such statues that you can see as you look into the piazza from the water side.
Another thing that should be pointed out are the millions (exaggeration) of pigeons that flock to the piazza every day. This is apparently one of the famous aspects of the square, and one they are apparently not too worried about losing. They encourage these rodents of the sky to overrun the place by selling bags of corn to the tourists who either scatter these kernels amongst the pigeons, or hold some in each hand with their arms outstretched, at which point these flying rats will jump up onto their benefactors arms and peck the corn out of their hands. I saw some with no less than 7 or 8 pigeons perched upon their person, and secretly hoped I would see them all expel their white gunk en masse onto these crazy people. Actually, for all of the many thousands of pigeons that were in the square, the place and statues were suprisingly free of bird dung. I'm not sure how this is possible, but someone, somewhere must have either devised a mirical bird poop cleaning system, or the corn they're stuffing these animals with is some kind of special, poop inducing free variety.
After spending a while in the square, we went over a bridge to the left of the piazza to have a gander at the Bridge of Sighs, a monument that Graham was familiar with, and was apparently the last sight that prisoners would see of Venice just as they would be incarcerated. It is a nice bridge, and one that you can walk across (if you can find the entrance). However, it was difficult to get a clear photo, as hundreds of kids managed to trump along the bridge, and every single one of them insisted on putting his or her arms through the small gaps in the walls, and wave out to the people examining the structure.
Graham and I spent the last few hours of the afternoon continuing our wandering through the streets, stopping here and there to chat or grab a drink (I must have gone through several liters of water that day), having a look at the shops, most of which were selling the exact some variety of wares, usually Venetian Masks, and come about 5PM, Graham headed back to Padova. I decided to hang around until the evening, as I've heard sunset in Venice is quite nice. I bought myself a ticket for the water bus, and headed off to the island of Murano, the famous glass blowing island just off Venice. Unfortunately the actually demonstrations had finished by the time I got there, but I spent a nice hour or so wandering around checking out all of the shops selling their blown glass wares. Some of if was very creative, and had I not been required to carry it around for the next couple of months I would have considered buying some of the smaller items. However, I knew that these would simply be ground back into the sand from whence they came in my bag, so I was content to snap a few photos.
I made my way back to the main island, and got the water bus (Vaporetti) to the top of the canal by the station. Come about 8PM, I then reboarded another Vaporetti and took my first trip down the Grand Canal, just as the sunlight was starting to fade. This turned out to be timed extremely well, and seeing the buildings in the twilight was quite picturesque. Also, it was at this point that I understood why there were no footpaths along the canal, as having throngs of people in the way of the buildings would really have detracted away from their natural elegance. The boat made its way along, under the famous Rialto Bridge, and eventually deposited me back at San Marco's square. I spent 15 minutes or so snapping some photos of the square in the evening light, and quickly reboarded the Vaporetti to go back up the canal to my waiting train. Seeing the canal in proper night was also quite interesting, with many of the larger buildings and churches lit up well. I chatted to an Australian couple that were spending the night in Venice, and once the boat reached the station, I helped a lady work out her train ticket to Rome (she looked very confused in front of the ticket machine), and headed back to Padova.
Venice was quite nice, but I don't think I need two days there. I was able to see everything I wanted (except perhaps the inside of the Basilica and maybe some glass blowing), and after walking around for 8 hours, many of the buildings begin to look the same. The place doesn't smell at all, contrary to what I had heard, save for a slight ocean scent, and aside from the huge crowds of people, the whole place is very cool to look at. San Marco's square is definitely the highlight, though the canal ride in the twilight would come a very close second.
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