Venice, the floating city

So yeah, heading to Venice for 5 days in January for a mates birthday. Anyone got any suggestions for places to visit, stuff to see, food to eat etc.


Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, couldn't find a travel forum so thought this was best.

 

Sorry to bump, but thought I'd share some of my thoughts about Venice.


The first thing I have to say is just how different it is. I've never encountered a city as strange as Venice is. It's completely unique among the cities of the world that I've been to (not counting here in the UK: New York City, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hanover, Paris) in pretty much every single way. From attitude, geography, politically, structurally, economically. Everything.

Venice is a very laid back place and the Venetians are amongst the friendliest types of people I've met. There's no sense of being "busy" there, nor any real set routine of when nor where you should do 'stuff'.

The only real negative thing I can say is the nightlife is completely nonexistent in the main districts of the city. There's no nightclubs like Brits or American's would think of them. But there are small outlets selling booze that only open at night.

It's also a very 'old' city. Not many young people about during the day, but you can't walk five foot without seeing some wizened old people having conversations in the street.

The layout is completely mindblowing too. Once you get off the coach from the airport (I flew into Treviso, which is about an hours drive away from Venice. Marco Polo airport is closer to the city though) at Piazzale Roma you're not going to see a single road/street for the rest of your time in Venice. I can't really describe how weird it is to not see a single vehicle, other than boats, for days at a time.

It's also very hard to navigate the place, because there's no streets as most people think of them. All there are alley ways and slightly larger alley ways. I can't count the number of times we had to backtrack because the alley we were going just ends at someone's front door. The city is literally a maze. My group spent the first few hours of our time there desperatey searching for a shop, only to eventually be taken to an entire 'street' of them a very short distance from where we were staying.

The buildings in the city have to be seen to be believed. They're old and they look it. But they're beautiful, there's an amazing piece of architecture to be found pretty much everywhere.

It's also amazing to see just how much grafitti there is. But it's not just graffiti art, it's political messages. Pretty much everywhere you look you're going to see socialist artwork. Which makes a lot of sense, the Italians are one of the few cultures we have who have actively lived in an overtly fascist system and most of them who remember it are still alive. Highlight of all this was seeing a massive Occupy! rally.

It's also a very romantic place, definite honeymoon material.

I really can't recommend it more, it's an incredible city.