The Trip To Western & Central Europe 2017

By: Shoubhik Bose & Debanjana Maitra

Shoubhik and Debanjana, senior engineers in software companies of repute in Bangalore love travelling in India and abroad. They take time out to share their experiences through their travelogues.

Venice, Italy

Venice ( aka Venezia ) is on the other side of the country — we took a train from La Spezia to Venizia Mestre, which took us 6 hours. We had booked our AirBnB at Venezia Mestre, which “is the territory of the city based on continental land instead of islands”.

We didn’t get much done on day 1 other than taking a tram around the city and understanding how the public transport works.

Day 2

We took a tram from Venezia Mestre to Pizzale Roma from there we got a waterbus pass

 

The waterbus network in the Venetian islands is very elaborate — so much that one would need a good 10-minute read to understand how it works.

The waterbus map of the transport over water, which connects all the islands.
We started off by going to the Venezia Lido beach, followed by Murano and Burano.
The 30-minute journey to Venezia Lido
The Venezia Lido beach

From there we headed to the Burano, which was another 20 minute journey by a waterbus.

“Burano is known for its small, brightly painted houses, which are popular with artists. The colours of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot.”

Murano on the other hand was an island which is famous for glass-making,

“Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and the destruction of the city’s mostly wooden buildings, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291. Murano glass is still associated with Venetian glass.

Murano’s glassmakers were soon numbered among the island’s most prominent citizens. By the fourteenth century, glassmakers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice’s most affluent families. While benefiting from certain statutory privileges, glassmakers were forbidden to leave the Republic. However, many of them took the risks associated with migration and established glass furnaces in surrounding cities and farther afield — sometimes in England and the Netherlands.”

Venezia Lido and Burano

The sun sets at 8.30pm in Venice and the 1 hour journey back to the Venice Mestre by waterbus from the island of Murano showed us a different Venice altogether.

The view from the water

To Be Continued…..

Related posts