Since there are too many images from Venice, I have decided to divide the story of Venice into three parts. These will include some Venice travel tips.

Indeed you can stay at a hotel near Venice, or in Venice if your main purpose of visit is to see just Venice. But, since I also wanted to have a beach holiday at Jesolo (see my previous blog), I had to find a way to travel to Venice. There are two main ways of going to Venice by using public transport: 1- Using the bus, 2- Using bus + vapuretto. You can find details about these journeys in the images. Both of them is about 1:30 hours. If you go by bus, you can see the main road connecting the main land and the island. Venice is an island in the lagoon, literally a sea.

If you go into the city from the train/bus station, the first street you will see is full of tourist shops. Indeed the whole city has many ‘tourist traps’. At the end of the road you can see Chiesa di Geremia. This is a nice church which you can visit without waiting for any queues. You can walk in the city by yourself, but I would recommend a free city tour. I walked with Francesco and it was really very nice. You will find the details about the city under the images, but as a general insight about the city: there are only 40.000 inhabitants in the city and tourism is the main income. However, they usually don’t like the tourists. The prices are high and the restaurants are usually not so well. Overall, I would say that the city is over-rated and expensive. I would prefer to visit Florence or Rome if you haven’t seen them. But if you like to see different places in the world, you can give it a try.

The interesting places to see in the city include the Jewish Ghetto, many churches, St. Marco, mask shops, Casanova streets, etc. When travelling in the city keep in mind that the canals are similar to the roads, and the vapurettos are similar to the public buses, gondolas are similar to the taxis. The Jews in the Ghetto came to the city in the middle ages running away from the Spanish king. Since the ghettos were crowded the buildings are higher than the remaining of the city. There is still a police point in the ghetto, but I don’t know if they can still lock the doors of the ghetto from inside.

The roads are very narrow and there are stone supports for the buildings. In front of the doors, there are some protections from the flood which happens frequently. It is forbidden to stop on the roads or bridges for a long time. The bridges are constructed privately by rich people at the beginning, so they can lead directly into the houses. For just 2 Euros you can use the Gondola close to the Rialto bridge. Rialto bridge is one of the bridges on the main canal. It is very crowded, so watch out pickpockets! The older economic center of Venice is very close to Rialto bridge. You can see the house of nobles inside Venice who was saved by Casanova. The masks are another important thing. They were firstly worn by doctors during leprosy epidemic, since the smell was unbearable they put some herbs inside the nose of the mask. Here are the images for the parts I have described so far (to be continued next week.):

Turkce:

Çok fazla resim olduğu için Venedik hikayesini üç parçada anlatmaya karar verdim.

Eger ziyaretiniz ana amaci Venedik’i ziyaret etmekse Venedik’e yakin bir yerde hatta Venedik’te kalmak daha mantıklı. Ancak bizim esas amacımız denize girmek oldugundan Jesolo‘da kaldık. Jesolo’dan Venedik’e gitmek icin 2 ana yontem var: 1- Otobusu kullanmak 2- Otobus + vapur. Bunlar hakkindaki detaylar resimlerde. Her ikisi de yaklasik 1.5 saat suruyor. Otobusle giderken Venedikin anakaraya nasil baglandigi gorulebilir. Ne de olsa Venedik lagunun icinde bir ‘ada’.

Adaya otobus/trenle giderseniz ilk goreceginiz sokak turistlerle dolu dukkanlari olan bir yer. Aslinda tum sehir bir ‘turist tuzagi’. Sokagin sonunda bir kilise var (Chiesa di Geremia). Venedik’te kiliselerin nasil oldugunu gormek icin ziyaret edebilirsiniz, kuyruk yok bekleme yok. Sehri kendi basiniza da gezebilirsiniz ama benim tavsiyem ozgur sehir turu. Ben Francesco ile dolastim ve gercekten cok hostu. Detaylari resimlerin altindaki aciklamalarda goreceksiniz. Ama genel olarak: sehirde 40.000 kisi yasiyor. Ana gelir kaynagi turizm. Turistleri pek sevmiyorlar. Fiyatlar yuksek ve kalite dusuk. Bence sehir abartilmis, imkanim olsa Floransa veya Roma gezilerini tercih ederim. Ancak dunyada farkli yerler gormek isterim derseniz tavsiye ederim.

Sehirdeki ilginc seyler Yahudi Gettosu, kiliseler, St. Marco meydani, maske dukkanlari, Casanova caddeleri, vs. Sehri dolasirken kanallarin caddelere, vapurlarin belediye otobuslerine ve gondollarin taksilere denk geldigin unutmayin. Gettodaki Yahudiler sehre Ispanyadan kacarak gelmisler. Gettolar kalablik oldugundan icerideki binalar sehirdeki diger binalara gore daha yuksek. Gettoda hala bir polis koruma noktasi var. Gettonun kapilarini hala iceriden kilitleyip kilitleyemediklerini ise bilmiyorum.

Sokaklar cok dar ve binalar arasinda destek olarak kemerler var. Kapilarin onunde ise sel baskinlarina karsi yukseltiler var. Koprulerde veya sokaklarda uzun sure durmak yasak. Ilk baslarda kopruler zenginler tarafindan haneye ozel yapilirmis, o yuzden bazilari dogrudan evin kapisina cikiyor. Sadece 2 Euro’ya Rialto Koprusunun yakinindan gondola binebilirsiniz. Rialto koprusu ana kanaldaki koprulerden birisi. Cok kalabalik, o yuzden cuzdaniniza dikkat etseniz iyi olur. Venedikin ic kesiminde Casanova tarafindan kurtarilan soylularin evini gorebilirsiniz. Casanova Venedikin onemli karakterlerinden. Diger onemli bir sey de maskeler. Ilk once doktorlar tarafindan cuzzam salgini sirasinda takilmis. Cuzzamli hastalar cok kotu koktugundan (dusen ve curuyen organlardan oturu olsa gerek), uzun burunlu maskeler takip burun kismina kokulu otlar koyuyorlarmis. Iste buraya kadar anlattigim kisimlarin resimleri: (devami haftaya.)