Don't!. Review on Venice

The last time I was in Venice (Italy) is 38 years ago. I was twelve then and really don’t remember much, except a tiny little restaurant where I had the first spaghetti Bolognese of my life, because Italian food was not yet so fashionable in Germany.

This year I went there with my husband and parents-in-law from our holiday apartment at Lago Maggiore in the utmost North of Italy, right at the Swiss border. My parents-in-law have never travelled much (grown up in rural Silesia – too poor to travel, then World War II, then displaced and living in the GDR – not allowed to travel, now 84 and 82 – too old to travel alone) and enjoy our annual holidays together, provided it’s not too far away.

So we made a day trip to Venice. The way there took us about 4 hours, first curves and serpentines and curves around the lake to Milano, then 350 km of the most crowded highway I have ever seen. Three lanes for each direction, so narrow (by German standards) that you feel you have to hold your breath, millions of trucks, bumper to bumper at a speed which exceeds by far the legal 110 km/h. (Up to 180 km/h) And the Italian way of driving! We Germans are a law- and rule-abiding people (;-)), the Italians seem happy only while breaking every traffic rule (with the possible exception of a few parking rules!). No, seriously, those were some of the most unnerving hours of my life.

At our arrival in Venice we were sent up to the eighth floor of an eight-storey car-park, where we had to leave the key in the car because there were already three times more cars than spaces and the guys there had to move cars whenever someone wanted to leave.

On exiting the car park we took a boat to Piazza San Marco, at 10 Euros each for a five-minute-ride. To make the long story short, there we were among 1,000,000 people. Obviously, all those cars that had crowded the highway had now arrived here at the same time. I have never been to a more crowded place in my life! On the Rialto bridge alone there must have been hundreds of thousands of people. Later I learned that the Venetians had to reinforce their foundations with tons of concrete to prevent the city from simply sinking into the ground. No wonder!

Well, we had some ice cream and decided to walk back to the car park. This way we saw all the famous sights, but it was exhausting. The streets are full with shops, all very glamorous and very expensive, we bought some pieces of the famous Murano glass, which was the first coloured glass in the world and contributed largely to Venice’s wealth in the past (and probably today) and I think I recognized the tiny little restaurant from 38 years ago. We watched many of these gondolas and overheard one of the gondoliere sing (I was rather glad we had decided against a gondola-tour, or else we would have had to listen to him for hours!) and then we released the poor old Toyota from the car park. (20 Euros/4 hours).

So that was the day trip to Venice: 4 hours strenuous driving, 4 hours being trampled to death, 4 hours strenuous driving.

My advice: Watch Venice on TV.