Part 4 -
Memories of Journey - Paris to Rome by Road
Day - 3
On this day all of us felt relaxed after the complete rest of the previous day . We were again excited to see one of our biggest dream destinations, Venice . I used to read in books about beautiful Venice or see it on screen in movies including the one of Big B and Zeenat Aman while picturising equally beautiful song on a Gondola …” Do lafzon ki hai ye dil ki kahani ….”
We left Pisa after a complimentary breakfast in the hotel . It was approximately 325 Km from Pisa . Baby said we can cover it in 4 hours at ease . Our excitation level rose and rose as we came near to Venice. Baby Parked the car in the parking area and we came to the ferry station . I have heard and seen in pictures of Venice that the roads are made of water here .
We bought three days validity tickets . With these tickets we can ride unlimited ferry steamers . Different sightseeing places can be visited by ferry and there is a particular ferry station for each of them where one needs to board or disembark . Our first need was to get our hands free of luggage . So first of all we went to check in the booked hotel .
Hotel was upstairs and there was a staircase to go upstairs . We saw a long series of steps without any landing in between as is the usual practice across the world . It is usually so in the Venice hotels . We were tired by the time we reached our room, though it was a satisfying and comfortable one .
After taking a short rest , one by one we took shower . We had our lunch and changed our dress to get out of the hotel as soon as possible . We did not want to miss a second to enjoy the panaromoc view of waterlanes and gondolas .
The very first thing we did was to enjoy a gondola ride . Though we had hundreds of boat , ferry and steamer rides over the Ganges in our hometown and other rivers in
various other places too , the gondolas of Venice are something very special and famous around the world . Gondolas are a special type of long Venetian row boats with flat bottoms . They are propelled by gondoliers with a long rowing oar . It is a lifetime experience to have a gondola ride in the Venetian lagoon . We enjoyed ourselves for nearly an hour and got down at a central place where there were lots of shops and restaurants . We looked for Indian food but it was nowhere near . We had to satisfy ourselves with Pasta . We walked on the side path of the lagoon then boarded the ferry for our hotel. As we disembarked on the other side of the hotel we had to cross the channel over the stairs. Several such stairs are made at intervals to allow pedestrians to cross over . We relaxed in our beds wrapped in comforters .
Day 4
We began our morning as usual with breakfast and set for the venetian lagoon.We got in a ferry ,took out a map for the tourist guide ,then got down at almost the farthest end of the lagoon and the famous St. Mark's square . It was a very tiring tour of about three hours . Nobody was interested in walking anymore and decided to go back to rest . On the way back we had our Italian lunch , though not very pleasant or tasty for us . We had some garlic bread , cheese salsa and coffee .
In the evening we came out and walked along the side way of the lagoon . Several restaurants had set dining tables all along the sidewalk of the lagoon and they displayed their menus on a blackboard with the price of each item . It is not easy to get vegetarian foods in the USA or Europe or usually anywhere outside India . We ordered veg. Pizza and that was all for dinner . But after all Pizza was better than any other dish , at least for all of us .
We called it the end of the day and went back to our hotel room . Next day was going to be more tiring . We had booked a tour of three islands. We all were tired and fell asleep in no time .
Contd.
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