Day 56 - Wandering around Venice

I am increasingly happy with my decision to stay in Treviso. This morning, I was able to have a leisurely breakfast at my (reasonably priced!) hotel, and easily make the half hour train trip (included with my Interrail pass). There was a slight delay and the train was both busy and warm, but nothing too bad.

As soon as I got off the train, I was struck by just how many people there were. I then noticed the water and that, even from the station, it looked very pretty.

My first ‘mission’ in Venice was to find a very specific geocache. The boy who, with his mother, had organised the geocaching event in Budapest was from Venice, and I had promised him that I would find his cache. The problem was that, after a considerable search, I could not actually find it! I messaged him, and he told me he would investigate if it was missing and replace it if needed.

My next intended destination was the Banksy mural in Venice, along with another cache nearby. Sadly the Banksy is no longer there as it is being restored, and neither was the cache! Not a great start, but at least I was getting off the Venice tourist trail and seeing lots of the less busy, yet still beautiful side streets, including some lovely shops, churches and pretty bridges.

After a bit of wandering, I realised that I should probably cross the Grand Canal, but that the nearest bridge was a way away. Pleasingly, there were gondolas providing crossings, so I not only got to ride on a gondola (for about 3 minutes!) but also got to the other side of the canal.

I continued my wandering, and found a fairly quiet but lovely square for some dunch. There was bread, and cheese, and ham - it was gooood! It also gave me time to regroup with my caching plans, having only actually found one physical find so far in the day.

Pleasingly, the next one on my list was a virtual, and took me to ‘the snail’ - a spiral staircase at the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo. As it was a tower, I obviously wanted to climb it, and luckily enough it was open and I could! The views from the top were nice, but it was the tower itself that was the main attraction.

I braced myself for the tourist hub that is St Mark’s Square next. I knew I wanted to see it, but knew it would be busy. There was a really nice atmosphere there, with lots of music, but it was a bit chaotic with lots of the square flooded. I would have liked to go into the Basilica, but sadly tickets were sold out for the day, and I did get scared off some of the other sights, including the tower and the Doge’s Palace, by the huge number of people around. Instead, I enjoyed learning more about the James Bond scene filmed in Venice, and generally just taking in the views.

I continued my wanderings, finding many treats such as another Duck shops, a particularly cute shop window, and the only bridge in Venice from where you can see St Mark’s tower (apparently!)

After a stop in a quieter area for a drink, I next went to the Rialto Bridge. Again, it was busy, but it was easy to see why!

By this point, I had heard back from my geocaching friend that the cache had gone missing, so he had replaced it. Obviously I then wanted to go back to find it, so that is what I did. This time, the cache was soon in hand. Phew!

It was getting into the early evening and I was keen to get back to quieter Treviso. The train back was wonderfully air-conditioned and was a double-decker - hurrah!

It’s an early-ish night for me tonight now, as I am hoping to find Treviso parkrun in the morning.