Top 5 Cities To Go For Your Europe Tour – Part4 – Venice

Sorry for waiting… After ….. err… 9 months I wrote about stories –Top 5 Cities to travel in Europe, London and Top 5 Cities to go for your Europe tour, Rome, and Top 5 cities must visit in Europe, Paris, let’s continue our 4th city of Europe, of my choice. Before I continue on the Part 4 of the stories, I’m listing out the full top 5 Europe cities list to travel, at one glance. Only 1 of them you could read in full here, and she is Venice. You could click the links to read more on other cities as well. The Top 5 Europe Cities To Travel are:-

1. London – read more here;
2. ROME – read more here then;
3. Paris – read more here also;
4. Venice – read more below, and
5. Prague – read more later;

Venice is an island compo consisting of 118 small islands separating each other by canals. It is sited along Adriatic Sea in Northeast Italy. According to scientific research, Adriatic sea level is 33mm higher than what it was 50 years ago. On top of that, Venice itself is sinking 5mm each year! By year 2050, most of the Venice buildings would be underwater! In fact, many parts of the city are already sunken into water and long vacant. When I was there during summer, St. Marco Square, the most famous landmarks in Venice, was partly flooded in the morning during high tide. Yes. You have to go to see Venice during your Europe tour, at least once in your lifetime. There is only one single fact to support me: Venice is sinking!!

We went there backpacked. It was summer and we planned to look for a B&B once we reached there. It was not a wise decision at all as all of those B&B were fully occupied. We had to settle down with more costly option, budget hotel. It cost us USD25 per person and it was our final choice before the sky turned dark (bear in mind, the sky in Venice only goes dark at 9pm during summer!). We were still lucky enough to be able to get a budget hotel at that peak season. So, Travel Tips: Book your accomodation especially when you are in a budget before departure from 1 of the online booking engine… it saves you an extra meal at least.

Venice is one of the popular UNESCO World Heritage city. How should I describe Venice? When we arrived to the island(s), we immediately stunned and amazed by the beautiful scenic view of the city. The whole city is surrounded by sea and splitted by canals. The main mean of transportation there is by water way. Most of the great architectures are not new. They were constructed centuries ago and half of them are already partly sunken into sea water!

Tourists attractions are mainly concentrated along the main waterway, Grand Canal of Venice. You could find hotels, restaurants, shops and pubs over there. But if you like to explore further on the local lifestyle, like we do, you have to walk, walk further in, away from the tourists spots. Don’t worry, you won’t get lost. There are always signboard showing you the direction back to St. Marco square. Spending at least a day on city outskirt , you could see and experience how the local people are doing every day. Drinking coffee with Venetians in a local coffee shop definitely exciting and rewarding. We even went into a local wine shop to buy red and white wine, like what Venetians do, with 2 emptied mineral water bottles! And I have to tell you that those wines taste real damn good (and damn cheap also)!! 🙂

Off course, we still went to see the main tourists attraction in Venice, St. Marco Square. Make sure you bring enough memory SD cards and snap, and snap and snap not less than 1000 photos when you are in Venice. The sky is so blue and clear. The sunlight is so colourful and your photos, no matter how you shoot your camera, will all turned out fantastic and wall paper ready! Unfortunately, I went there before the digital camera was  popular and was still using Nikon F70 film camera. I have to limit myself to number of rolls of film I have bought at that time (I was on a budget tour to Venice with limited budget on films).

We have coffee at outdoor seating of the famous “Florian coffee bar” at the square. If you have good budget, dine at one of the fine dining restaurants, listening to live violin music and witnessing the sunset lighting in front of the historical St. Marco Basilica is a real enchanting experience.

You could also spend more money (couldn’t remember the exact price but definitely out of our budget) on a gondola, a water boat and sail right under the famous “Bridge of Sigh“, the last passage bridge death sentenced prisoners will have to walk across and sigh for their mistakes, before being sentenced!

Click here to view my latest photos in Venice and in full resolution vi a Flickr

After all, shop around to buy some souvenirs before Venice is dissappeared. Venice is a romanic city. The environment there will make you fall in love with whoever travel partner you brought along! So, be careful who your are going to Venice with! 🙂 – Travel Feeder.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.