Venice: The Worlds Biggest Tourist Trap

Venice is Italy's most expensive city. This is what we have been told, and this is what we experienced right off the bat. We arrived early in the morning and found much to our 'jubilation' that our hostel wasn't on the main island, but on an island called Giudecca just to the south of the city centre. This obviously meant that we were forced to take a Vaporetto, or water taxi, every time we want to go back to the hostel or go to the main island. Each ride on this Vaporetto costs 6.50 Euros! Almost 15 dollars! We couldnt belive it. Luckily we were only staying in Venice for one night. Most of the main 'sites' to see in Venice were all churches. We decided to take advantage of a Choral Pass which let us into most churches in the city. We ended up saving a few Euro in the process so it was worth it. Our first stop on our whirlwind tour of Venice was the Piazza San Marco. The piazza is Venice's number 1 tourist spot, and the Basilica San Marco dominates the square. It is a Byzantine building that consists of a mish mash of domes, mosaics and marble columns. It wasnt really much to look at from the outside but it was still impressive in its uniqueness. It is so named because it allegedly houses the remains of St. Mark under its central altar. Quite a boast to make! The story behind his remains coming to Venice is certainly ammusing. Apparently his body was smuggled out of Alexandria in a barrel of pork. Now, being the medieval times, I cant imagine that they would just let the pork go to waste. So I think 1 of 2 scenarios must have happened. Either St. Mark is buried alongside pork innards and the devout in the Basilica are paying hommage to beatified pigs or that barrell of holy pork found its way onto the markets of Venice. mmmmmmmmmmm. The inside of the Basilica was much more impressive though. EVERY nook and cranny was covered in ancient golden mosaics, and the treasures on display were staggering. It was one of the richest churches i have ever seen, and the dark interior of the romanesque basilica added a feeling of mystery and magic to the whole place. The stunning alter piece contained priceless jewels, and of course the saint himself.
the Piazza San Marco also contained the Palazzo Ducale which was the formal residence of the Doges of the city. It also served as the prisons for Venice and the famous Bridge of Sighs owes its name to the sounds prisoners made when being transported over it towards the prisons. Apparently it has a massive romantic element to it because Casanova languished in Venice's prisons. I dont know whats so romantic about swooning over an ancient pick up artist but whatever. The rest of our day was spent exploring the city and making stops at 10 other churches. Thats right ladies and gentleman you read right. 11 CHURCHES IN ONE DAY! Venice has a lot of churches... The narrow streets and maze of canals were awesome to wlak around in though. Inevitably we got lost, but how can you not!? I think even the posties have trouble. It was fascinating to watch the people go about their daily business in the city. I definitly couldnt live there, but it is something that we both enjoyed watching. We struggled to keep under budget in Venice, especially once we found that our hostel didnt have a kitchen so self catering was out of the question. We were forced to go try and find some cheap food and eventually stopped at a corner pizzeria where we managed to get a HUGE family size pizza and split it. Probably the most satisfying meal I have had in MONTHS! It was at this place that the Italy Pizza Challenge was born. Me and Rishi decided to eat Pizza every day while we were here in Italy. We wanted to conduct an experiment. Can you really get sick of eating Pizza? Results pending :p It also had the added benefit of being cheap so it helps us stay on budget.
That concluded our stay in Venice. We were only there for 1 night and our wallets were glad of it. We thoguht we did a good job of knocking it off though, and there wasnt really much more we wanted to see. We took our final Vaporetto to the train station in the morning and hopped on the train to Florence and even warmer climates! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!