The Queen of the Adriatic

Its a pity if you go to Venice without your soulmate ... The definition of this word, though, might be somewhat debatable; but, you don't have to debate in Venice... you just have to (or at least try to) bring forth the romantic side of yours! Every single structure: the bridges, the canals or the centuries old buildings, speak of romance, romance which is as lively and melodious as the singing of those gondola-men; and as eternal as the sparkling green waters of the Adriatic (too cheesy, is it??)!

For centuries now, the rich and the famous round the globe have taken pride in getting married in this city of dreams. Even now, when the 700

years old buildings of this charming town have decayed, couples still flock those old cathedrals and beautiful gondolas to make this moment special for ever. Merely cribbing about what was missing for me in this trip will certainly piss off the few regular visitors that this blog boasts of, so I would try to be a little more positive!

We reached Venice in the morning, by a night train from Paris.

The first view itself bowled us over, and Jatin started paying more attention to the city itself, than the girls ;) Since we were a bit short on time, we decided not to take a map and get lost in the alleys and old streets of the town. This turned out to be a great idea and it let us explore every nook and corner of the city on foot!

Venice has no roads or vehicles, just canals and boats along with a lot of walkways... There are more tourists than the locals, and hence it is more common to hear English or Japanese than Italian... Beautifully coloured houses, flower-filled windows and floating markets, it all seems so unreal. In the center, there is the Saint Marco's square, where it is worthwhile to admire the

architecture or play with the hundreds of pigeons that seem to be the only native inhabitants around! Other interesting sites include the Rialto bridge and the islands of Murano and Burano. Personally though, I loved getting lost in the city and exploring its hidden corners and water-fronts ...

The only obvious let down is that Venice is very expensive. So, unless one stays strictly like a backpacker, it is easy to spend much more money than Rome of other Italian cities!

Some take-away Italian pizza seemed to be our best bargain and we concluded the visit by befriending some of those ugly fat pigeons that had followed us from the Marco' square :D