Revisiting Venice

Four years ago, I started my cruise vacation in one of the world most renowned European city. It is not a populous city with excellent connectivity, good infrastructure or magnificent architecture. Instead, the charm of this small city lies in its uniqueness, its simple and isolated way of life which is the complete opposite of the big buzzing city which we grew up in. This city is non other than Venice in Italy, the Queen of the Adriatic. According to history, Venice came into existence in 421 AD when large number of people fled to this lagoon from mainland Italy to avoid invasions of barbarians from the north due to the decline of the Roman Empire. For over a thousand years, the shallow waters between Venice and mainland Italy had not only effectively protected these inhabitants from the barbarian invaders who were lacking in ships and sea knowledge but also from the Italian political life. Venice is also the birth place of Marco Polo, the famous Italian merchant, explorer and writer who was the first European to reach China. In fact, it was believed that Marco Polo came to know about noodles when he visited China and subsequently introduced it in Italy which led to the invention of spaghetti. He was buried in the San Lorenzo church in Venice after his death.

As there was no direct flight from Singapore to Venice, I flew directly to Milan instead. After an interesting three days tour of this fashion capital of the world far up north in Italy, I traveled southwest to the Port of Venice via a private hire mini bus. Before reaching Venice, the weather forecast on my iPhone indicated sunny weather with a high temperature of 30 degree celsius in this city which was perfect for sightseeing especially in Europe. Upon reaching the Port of Venice, the weather was indeed sunny. The moment I stepped out of the mini bus, I could feel the chilly gust of sea breeze blowing at me. I felt a hundred times colder than being in an air-conditioned room despite a supposedly warm sunny afternoon of 30 degree celsius . After checking in to my cruise ship and settling down in my room, I proceeded to sign up for a three hours tour of Venice. As I was queuing to step out of the cruise ship at 6 pm in the evening, the weather became colder and I sneezed several times and started to have running nose. An American lady beside me asked whether I was not adjusting well to the weather. My dad who was accompanying me replied her saying that we are from a tropical country and not used to such chilly weather. To my surprise, she said that such weather was not considered cold to her. Both my dad and I were dressed in thick jackets while she wore only t-shirt and jeans.

After stepping out of the cruise ship, we were ushered into a small boat which took us from the Port of Venice to the city centre where all the excitements began. As the boat traveled along the way during sunset, our tour guide, a young Italian gentleman introduced to us the various landmarks visible from our boat and spoke briefly about their history. When darkness fell by the time our boat reached the city centre, the heart of Venice city was brightly lit with temperature dropping even further and accompanying persistent chilly winds. Before we were dispersed to tour the city centre on our own, the tour guide reminded us to be back at the same location on time for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. Failure to do so would require us to take private water taxi which would likely cost as much as 70 Euro dollars for a mere 20 minutes journey.

The city of Venice has no roads for vehicles to travel. Even bicycles do not seem to be allowed either. Due to the narrow streets and vast network of canals, the only and most practical form of transportation is boat which makes this city so unique. Retail shops, cafeterias, bars, restaurants, service apartments and luxurious hotels line the streets of Venice. From my observations, souvenir shops are everywhere throughout this city and visitors could expect to find a wide variety of souvenirs not found elsewhere in Europe. I only realized that Bata is a European brand until I saw a Bata shoes shop in Venice. I had always thought it was a Singaporean or Malaysian brand. As I walked along the streets in Venice looking at the various shops and taking photos of the various landmarks, I was shivering and trying to withstand the bitter cold which was getting more unbearable even with my thick jacket. When the weather became too cold, my dad and I with two other tour group members decided to find a cafe to sit down and have a drink. We ordered two glasses of beer and two cups of Cappuccino which cost about 50 Euro dollars. The other reason why we decided to visit a cafe was because we wanted to make use of the washroom. Similar to other European cities, finding washroom is always a big issue. Even though there are signboards showing the direction to the nearest public washroom, they are often very misleading and not worth the hassle to figure it out. After consuming our drink, we proceeded back to the pickup area for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. The atmosphere in Venice at night was so vibrant and romantic that I had decided to come out again if I have the chance. While walking to the pickup area, I walked pass by this hotel which I found to be extremely cozy and luxurious. In fact, I stopped by and took a second look at the interior which looked pretty much English style. Perhaps that was the reason it was named "Londra Palace".

After the small boat took us back to the Port of Venice, I actually ran a short distance of about 100 metres back into the cruise terminal building to take shelter from the bitter cold. When my cruise ship departed Venice at midnight, I took a final look out of the porthole in my room as it passed the city centre. Along the way, I saw some high end apartments located facing the sea which is similar to those in Sentosa. Although it was a torturing experience because of the cold weather, Venice remains an extraordinary place for me and I have always wanted to revisit this place.