Warm, sunny weather was just around the corner, but as the weather became lovely in Skopje, Dan and I made plans to go to Venice--for the weekend. I never thought I'd be able to say, "Let's go to Venice for the weekend," but Venice is one of the few destinations we can get to on a nonstop flight out of Skopje. The flight, via Wizz Air, takes only 1-1/2 hours and was less than $200 round trip total for the two of us.
For travel tips/advice I turned to the Lonely Planet site and found this "advice" about flying to Venice:
"Low-cost airlines are a benefit to travellers, but a burden on the environment and Venice’s air quality; to travel with a cleaner conscience, consider a carbon-offset program."What arrogance!
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| Hotel Palazzo Abadessa |
Thursday evening, March 15, we took the new airport shuttle bus to Skopje's Alexander the Great Airport, and disregarding Lonely Planet's new-found elitism, we flew with clean consciences directly from Skopje to Venice's Treviso airport. In Treviso, we took the ATVO airport shuttle bus to Venice. In Venice, we took a boat to the stop nearest our hotel (Ca d'Oro) and walked through the narrow streets to the Hotel Palazzo Abadessa.
Friday morning we prepared ourselves to visit museums and sights we hadn't seen before. But as we began walking around, it felt more important to just be in Venice than to visit museums. We walked and walked. The weather was beautiful and the city even more beautiful. We did visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and beautiful St. Mark's Basilica
View from the Peggy Guggenheim Museum
Sculpture (boy with frog) at the tip of La Guidecca
Beginning Saturday, we explored Venice from the water with our 36-hour boat pass. While we were waiting for our boat, we watched some young boys learning to be gondoliers emerge from the fog.
First we went to the cemetery island in search of centuries old tombstones--we didn't find any. The island has been used for a cemetery only since the early 1800s. Ezra Pound is buried in the Protestant section while Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky are found in the Orthodox section of the cemetery.
St. Michele Island--The Cemetery
From there we went on to Murano and the Glass Museum. I most enjoyed the exhibit of Murano made beads through the ages which fueled my desire to acquire some vintage Murano beads. Lunch was at an outdoor cafe.
Scenes from Murano Island
As we strolled the walkways and canals of Murano Island, we didn't see many tourists. I did find a wonderful shop selling vintage Murano beads--I am now the owner of several necklaces and loose beads.
A small shrine on Murano Island
The Bridge of Sighs and a corner detail from the Doge's Palace
Sunday we did a last walk around the streets of Venice before we caught our boat to catch the bus to take us to our discount airline.
A great mail slot
Good food, great weather, and a beautiful city. I love, we love Venice.
We ate at two wonderful Venetian restaurants near our hotel in the Ca d'Oro area during our long weekend. Friday night we ate at Vini da Gigio and Saturday we were ate at another small restaurant, A La Vecia Cavana, recommended by our hotel.
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