A chameleon in Italy
Many families travel in groups guided by agencies that provide transportation. This may be for convenience, security or lack of creativity. I like to plan the trips myself, go at my own pace and enjoy my way. Sometimes, you even save more money. So, I'm going to be talking about my experience, stay, transportation, food, among many other things.
First, let's talk about VENICE:
- Venice is one of the 118 islands in northeastern Italy connected by 400 bridges. It is more or less like the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico or the town of Tampa, Florida in size. You can walk from west to east in an hour.
- Air tickets are randomly found in Google flights, we searched two months in advance for places to spend a long weekend we had. We found the tickets for $48 each person round trip.
- From the airport to the island, we took a bus that came out in $23 round trip each person. There is an airport closer to the island but there were no cheap flights when we did our search and the difference in price of the bus was not much.
- We looked for a place to stay through Airbnb app/website. It cost $300 for 4 days and 3 nights. We knew that the most visited tourist spots were in the middle of the island so we decided to stay in the east corner to run the entire island. It should be noted that there are cheaper places to stay in Italy as such, not on the island, but you lose a lot of commuting time (approx. 1 hour between bus, train and taxi). The apartment where we stayed was simple and we felt like one more resident; camouflaged among the Venetians. The owner of the house pick us up at the water taxi stop or vaporetto and walked with us to the apartment. Also, he showed us a map of the island and gave us tips about many places of interest, food and advice about the area. If you want more specific details, you feel free to contact me.
- The water taxi has different rates. There are 24, 48 and 72 hours passes as well as one-way tickets. We didn't buy passes because we preferred to walk to explore the island.
- We ate gelato like four times a day. The cones are approximately $2, depending on the place. We ate two whole pizzas with a drink for $16 in total. We went to a local supermarket (COOP) where we bought juice, snacks and water for the daily.
- Places of interest: Piazza San Marco, Rialto Bridge, Basilica di San Marco
- We had breakfast twice at Niki Bar because we loved the food and the natural juices. I tried a famous drink from Venice called Spritz and I didn't like it. It contains Prosecco and aperol. We had lasagna for dinner at OKE and everything very delicious for $34 for two people.
- We took a 30 minutes tour in a gondola for $45 with more people in it. They gave us a Venetian serenade. Beautiful. STUNNING.
- Pisa is a city of Italy known for the famous leaning Tower of Pisa.
- We arrived by train from Venice to Pisa. Unfortunately, the train transportation is much more expensive. We also decided at the last minute to take the train instead of renting a vehicle and it came out in approx. $92 roundtrip. We decided to go on the same occasion because they are only 2 hours away.
- We went for a day because there is not enough to do for more than that.
- The first thing we did when we arrived was go eat pasta at Pastamania. Delicious. Then, we walked down the streets full of recognized and local shops until we reached the breathtaking view of the tower of Pisa. There were hours of fun taking pictures in thousands of poses. We ate gelato and went back to throw pictures. In the vicinity there are many tents or kiosks of people selling souvenirs, wallets, etc. It looks like a flea market, literally.
- Places of interest: The baptistery, Palazzo dei Cavalieri, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Ponte di Mezzo, Borgo stress (streets with beautiful architecture with shops) and walk on the side of the river Arno.
INTERESTING NOTES:
No matter what place I visit, I like to observe from the point of view of the citizen who lives there. It is amazing to see how they lower merchandise from small boats to the groceries with "hand trucks" all across the island. Also, if there are stairs in your path, you know what they suffer. So DON'T CARRY suitcases, just bring backpacks. The same with gasoline and trash: boats line up on the edge of the island and there are pumps to pour fuel. The garbage collectors are boats with a mechanical arm that collect the garbage cans that people have to carry to the nearest shore.
I hope you enjoyed my blog, learned something new and motivated you to travel the wooooooooooooooorld!
