Venice and Florence in Italy are the two cities which most people admire the most. They truly describe serene beauty. Here is an insider look into Venice and Florence.
Venezia (popularly known as Venice) is beautiful city surrounded by water, and you feel nothing but nostalgic to reach to a destination which you had come across only in English literature.
Bridges, Gandolas, towers, heritage structures add to the charm of Venice -the water city. But like any other European city, the pattern is same. City center, royal palace, cathedral or basilica, a big tower, churches. When you understand this pattern, each city starts to look same.
What differentiates Venice is the canals,bridges and narrow roads while roaming in interior areas of the city. There was recent flood in Venice because of which most of the city was under water. Though San Marco (city center) was surrounded by water, the view was amazing.
Even restaurants were flooded with water. Once in a while,Venice experiences such flood which renews the water in its canals.Otherwise there is peculiar smell of water which surrounds the city.
Talking about Gandolas, one automatically remembers the famous song - Do lafzo ki hai dil ki kahani. Well, the gandola ride is super expensive and the cost of romance with Gandola can make a big hole in the pocket :-)
Venice is also the town of bridges. Realto bridge is one old famous bridge. The view from the bridge is stunning!
But nothing matches the view of the city from Chamomile tower. Absolutely spectacular play of water, land and buildings!
There are three islands near Venice- Lido, Murano and Burano. Lido has got wonderful sea beach. The beach is filled with lots of sea shells. But sea water is kind of slippery and if you look closely the water looks filled with foam. May be due to pollution or may be due to volcanic eruptions in Italian area.
Anyway,there is artificial sea walk stone structure which gives you feel of entering the sea. If you feel hungry roaming on the beach, Lido also has Budhdha Indian Restaurant (run by an Italian person) which serves good Indian food.
Murano island is famous for glass making furnaces. You can enjoy live show of making of glass articles. All over Venice, beautiful glass articles from Murano are sold as souvenirs.
Unique island is the island of Burano. The tower on the island looks tilted by 30 degrees when viewed from sea water. On this island all the houses are painted beautifully. Hence, walk on the Burano island is quite refreshing. Farming community thrived by tourism live on this island.
The more you travel to various destinations, more you wonder how so many people make a living out of tourism!
Few striking features of Venice:
They serve vegetarian pizza only with Eggplant (Baingan) and Tomato. So if you have hopes that you will get good pizza in Italy (the land of origin of pizza), most probably you will be disappointed.
Desserts served in the restaurants are too good. Mouth relishing one must say!
You don't get hot coffee over here unless you specify. The coffee is mostly lukewarm.The ear of the cup is so small that you cannot hold it with your fingers.
Then the picture of unique dust bins ;-)
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Florence - The serene beauty.
Florence is real serene beauty! One feels the calm in the air..
The cathedral is so big that one cannot capture it in one shot. Quite remarkable architectural beauty.. But the long queue will deter you to enter into the cathedral. Old square has various historical monument...
There is one audio visual depicting the interviews of heroes of Florence who saved many lives in the 1967 floods..True heroes who saved lives of others by keeping their own lives at stake..! In return, they got life long fulfillment!
Florence has one fort which is closed now, but the look from the top (again!) does freshen you up. If you are lucky enough, you may get full view of a rainbow from the top.
At the end, one must say...
Italy, you are beautiful! No wonder.. big shot Indian couples tying their knots in the romantic country!
