Venice Tourism

This past weekend I was a tourist to the extreme. With large ambitions of seeing the most I could during my last travel time here in Europe, I choose to travel to two of the most frequently visited countries by tourists: Italy and France. During my last weekend here I managed to see some of the most iconic monuments and images within Europe. Going to Rome, Venice and Paris, I tried to see everything those cities had to offer, in a very short amount of time. My overall favorite city I went to had to be Rome, but I’m extremely happy we stopped in Venice even if it was just for the night.

We took the train from Rome to Venice Friday morning, which is about a four hour-long train ride. This was an experience all its own; little did we know we were getting on a fast-train and needed reserved seats so the whole four hours we kept having to find new seats, since no where did it say where the reserved seats were. So, words of advice: make sure you buy tickets before getting on the train to avoid seat hoping for four hours.

Once arriving in Venice we unintentionally did what everyone told us to do, get lost. We quickly found out that our hotel was located on the island part of the city and the only way to get to it was by boat or foot, so we took off walking. The city of Venice is made up of 117 islands, formed by 177 canals and connected by 455 bridges. The city is also divided into six main areas known as: Cannaregio, San Polo, Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, San Marco and Castello. Are hotel was close to the train station and the main taxi area in the Santa Croce region. During our visit we mainly stayed in this area, but I would have loved to have more time to explore the city.

During our mere twelve-hour or so visit we did what most tourists do, we took a gondola ride, shopped, ate gelato and Italian food. Today Venice’s main economy is based on tourism. In an article from the New York Times called, “Vanishing Venice: A City Swamped by a Sea of Tourists” written by Elisabetta Povoledo, she talks about how tourism is taking over the city of Venice. She mentions that within the last year about 15 million to 18 million tourists have visited Venice within the last year and on some days tourists out number the residents. While in the city most of the people that we saw were tourists all doing the same things we were. The four of us did the number one tourist attraction in Venice and that was taking a gondola ride. Our server at dinner gave us a nice tip and told us that they will say the price is around 1oo to 150 Euros, but to make sure you lower the price to 80 Euros. After doing what our server had said we all had to pay a mere 20 Euros for about a forty-five minute ride down the Grand Canal and through some of the smaller side canals.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/world/europe/01venice.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=venice%20tourism&st=cse

Another main thing we ended up doing while in Venice is shopping. We all knew Italy is known for their leather so most of us ended up buying a purse or a wallet. All of us also bought Murano glass that we found in every shop we walked into. This glass comes from the Venice island Murano and is one of the main things to purchase while in Venice. Another item you will see in every shop are masks. I didn’t understand them at the time but I guess if you go during Carnival these masks will make more sense to you (Carnival starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday).

After visiting Venice there are plenty of other places I wish I could have gone within the city, mainly St. Mark’s Basilica and the Piazza San Marco. However, I think I would have been more upset if I didn’t get to see the Eiffel Tower while in Europe, spoken like a true tourist, I know.