The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is one of many bridges in Venice. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge), and built in 1602. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells.
When we got to the bridge of sighs we were shocked to see how commercialized the area was. Every conceivable spot was covered with covered with a billboard.
Here is the area. 
Here is the bridge with as much of the billboards cut out as possible. 
A close up of the detail on the bridge. 
I liked the little bridge further down the canal too. 
Here are some close ups of the Doge Palace close to the Bridge of Sighs. 
After we saw the bridge of sighs we decided we better head back across the island to the bus station since we once again had a plane to catch. We started to head it the direction we needed to go, and it was not long before we had no idea where we were or where we needed to go. We had a streetwise map of Venice, but it was pretty useless. It has the canals, streets, bridges, and places of interest broken up by districts or neighborhoods – which really does not help if you have no idea which district you are in. Not to mention many of streets are not listed on the map. As we were trying to figure the crazy island out, we decided that someone needs to map out the island by painting colored lines on the road between major attractions – much like the pink line in London taking you from one tube line to another. We thought we would be prefect for the task and added it to our list of things to do next time we visit Venice. To this day I still have no idea where we were.
As we were wondering around, we stumbled upon Casanova’s house. 
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (April 2, 1725 – June 4, 1798) was a Venetian adventurer and author. His main book Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life), part autobiography and part memoir, is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century. He was so famous as a womanizer that his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction. He associated with European royalty, popes and cardinals, along with luminaries such as Voltaire, Goethe and Mozart. He spent his last years in Bohemia as a librarian in Count Waldstein's household, where he also wrote the story of his life.
That was not on our list, but a fun find in our endless wandering.
After about an hour or so we made it back to the bus station to find out that we had just missed the shuttle. So we decided to take a public bus back to the airport and take the same bus to the campground we had taken the night before. We went to the ticket booth to buy a pass and it ended up being a whole lot more than it should have. Then we saw a bus that said it was going to the airport and so we got on. Once we arrived at the airport we were notified that this bus did not take the bus pass we had purchased, and had to pay another fare. At the airport we discovered that once again we had just missed the bus and the next one would not arrive for an hour. That bus was the same one we needed to take back to the airport from the campground to catch our flight. If we waited an hour to get back to the airport it would be another 45 minutes to catch the bus on the way back and that was cutting it way too close for our flight. We really needed to be on the bus that was coming to the airport in one hour. So we decided to take a cab back to the campground. Once we got back we had a little time before the bus came so we quickly checked our email and updated facebook. Then we got ready to go back to the airport.
A funny thing about our flight from Venice to Rome… We had originally planned to take the train from Venice to Rome leaving mid to late afternoon, getting into Rome 4 hours later. We were both really looking forward to this – I knew by this point in the trip, after 4 busy days, time changes, lots of sightseeing, I would need the 4 hours of down time. But thanks to a national train strike that day we had to fly instead. Europe has a plethora of discount airlines and you can get some really cheep flights, which is great if you are planning a weekend trip, but due to their restrictive baggage limits, not the most ideal for us. We were able to find a flight on Air One (Alitalia) that was reasonable and their baggage restrictions were not too bad. When I say not too bad, their checked baggage was 20 kg – which is 44 lbs, but their carry on was 5 kg – which is only 11 lbs. For every kg you were over they charged you 10 Euros. I knew I was going to be over on my luggage, but did I realize how over I was. When I checked in at GRR my checked bag weighed 49.9 lbs and my carry on was about 22 lbs. Uh Oh!!! That put me at 72 lbs about 17 lbs over, which is almost 8 kgs, over. UGH!!! I was totally stressed out about how much my luggage would cost me. So when we got to Venice I totally went through my stuff to see what I could get rid of to make my bags lighter. Thankfully I had packed some food, including 2 lbs of trail mix which we had eaten, and extra toiletries I could get rid off. I also brought a towel to use at the hostels in London and Venice that I had intended to leave in Venice. I actually had quite a pile of stuff to leave, about 7-8 lbs. Which was great, but I still needed it to be less. As I went through my stuff, I came up with a plan. Since you check in before you go through security, I decided I could layer up on clothes and wear all the heavy stuff. I also discovered that some of the heaviest things were my jewelry pouch and my umbrella which would fit in my pockets. I also thought I would be tricky by wearing my purse under my fleece and put my little backpack on my back, filled with heavy stuff hoping they would not see it when I checked in. My plan was to have my carry on pretty empty at check in to be weighed, and in between check in and security I would take off all my extra clothes and empty my pockets etc. and put all that in my bag so that I could get through security. I was pretty happy with my ingenious plan.
My getting ready to go the airport included putting my plan in action by layering up and stuffing my pockets at the campground, I was trying to not raise suspicion in the airport. I looked ridiculous and knew it, and I didn’t care. I figured I just looked like one of those elusive gypsies. I wish I had a picture of it, but I don’t. Once we were ready to go, we had to cross a busy road to get to the bus stop. We waited a little while for the bus and then road the 5 minute ride to the airport. Once we got to the airport we waited in a long line to check in at the Alitalia counter. As we were in line I was watching the people a head of us checking in. I was looking to see if I saw them charge anyone for heavy luggage and if they were weighing the carry on luggage. I didn’t think I saw anyone weighing the carry on bags, but I was not sure. So we weighted. When it was finally my turn I went up to the counter and presented my passport. I put my checked bag on the scale and it was right at 20 kg – I was pretty excited that I had gotten it down to that weight. I finished checking in and kept weighting for them to say something about my carry on, but they never did – all my planning and layering and throwing stuff away was for nothing. Now it is just a funny story.
After we left the check in area, I need to stop and take everything off of me and repack my carry on bag. We then proceeded to security and for the second night in a row, my backpack with my meds got pulled aside to be tested. Again it came back negative and we were through security. We had some time before we needed to board our flight, so we grabbed something to eat. We then waited at the gate. They started to board our flight and lead us out to this shuttle were we all crammed in. The shuttle took us out to the tarmac to board the plane, but evidently someone forgot to tell the driver which plane we were to go to. The driver drove past our plane and went over to a different plane and then circled around again. Finally it brought us back to the correct plane. I was pretty excited, this was the first foreign tarmac I was on.
Here is our plane. 
As we walked around the shuttle we noticed that people were boarding the plane from both the front and the back. Now I have been on a lot of planes, but I had never seen a place board from the tail before. Here is a picture. 
We just went in the front since our seats were near the front. The interior of the plane was totally green and white – it looked like Michigan State had thrown up all over. We had to get a picture of that as well. 
Once we got settled in our seats I was pretty tired and still didn’t feel great, so I pretty much fell asleep before we even moved.
Next stop Rome….
No comments:
Post a Comment