Can you hear the church bells ring? Welcome to your next virtual tour! This week’s stop: Venice, Italy.
Walking alongside the canals is an experience in and of itself, truly. Despite being such a hotspot for tourism, Venice still manages to keep its culture from being interrupted. Make sure to be aware of your surroundings, as the only effective way to transport goods from place to place in the city is by having delivery men pushing or pulling carts loaded with supplies around. They’re not afraid to bump into you, either, so if you hear “Attenzione!” (“Attention!”) from behind you, make sure to get out of the way as soon as you can!
Didn’t have a chance to finish your Rosetta stone lessons in Italian before you arrived? Not a problem. While the merchants of some countries (France especially, as I’ve discovered in my personal travels) are irritable upon discovering an American only fluent in English, the Italians really don’t seem to mind too much. Most of them know a bit of English themselves, in fact. Several of them are even nice enough to nod and smile if you as a tourist try to thank them in their native language and butcher the attempt entirely.
Naturally if you’re in Venice it is an absolute necessity to take a ride on a gondola. Take a tour of the city by the waterways to see it from an entirely new perspective. Chat with the gondolier while you’re at it, usually they have several stories to tell. If you’re lucky, you might even convince them to sing for you!
Anyone who enjoys a good museum would certainly enjoy a tour of the Doge’s Palace. The Doge’s Palace was home to the Doge of Venice, who was the ultimate ruler of the Republic of Venice several centuries ago. It is a place of architectural brilliance and lavish décor. There is also a great deal of history to be found within the walls of the palace, so be sure to take your time and really soak it all in.
If you happen to be an early riser and want an experience incomparable to any other, then I truly suggest you find somewhere within the city to stay overnight on a Saturday. That’s oddly specific, isn’t it? However, come eight o’clock in the morning on Sunday-the day of Catholic church service-you would awake to the sound of roughly 140 church bells at once. Venice a relatively small city, and since it has so many churches in such a little area you can usually hear the bells from dozens services loud and clear in almost anywhere in the city. Waking up to the sound of bells sounds incredibly charming, doesn’t it? Native Venetians will usually joke and say that there is no such thing as sleeping in on a Sunday.
Well, that’s about it for this tour, thanks for joining! Join us next week for a look of Bern, Switzerland, a city of bears. Happy travels!