When We Went to Europe: Day One - Venice, Italy

Our travel plans changed so much in the last week we actually ended up landing in Venice, Italy instead of Milan. We flew Turkish Airlines to Venice via Istanbul from Terminal 2 in Mumbai, India. Taking off at 6 AM on November 01, we heaved a little itsy bitsy sigh of relief knowing we were actually going to Europe.

We had a quick two hour layover at the Istanbul Ataturk airport in Turkey which passed without incident. The only notable culture shock was in the first couple of hours on our flight to Istanbul.  My mum played safe and made sure she booked vegetarian meals for all of us on board a week prior to the flight. "You never know what these Europeans eat, let's be safe da." she said and paid Rs.600 odd per meal. What we got on the flight was atrocious. We got tofu paneer, made into a kebab of some sort. The freaking airline thought vegetarian meant vegan, and took out the cheese from our breads. I have never had tofu paneer in my life, and why should I- considering we get the best milk paneer in the world here in India.Culinary disappointments aside, the aircraft was super comfortable. The only thing worse than the tofu paneer kebab was Sandra Bullocks acting in Ocean's Eight - my in flight entertainment pick. I could have done better.

The in-flight entertainment was top class, and the journey extremely comfortable for a 11-hour haul across continents. 

Security at the Ataturk airport took forever, and we almost missed our connection to Venice. We had to run the last mile to the gate (I think it was gate 48, which was in the absolute opposite corner of the airport), and got into the really small aircraft. The aircraft resembled our own Indigo, both in size and service. They didn't switch on the AC till we were cleared for take off. By then, the Italian next to me, previously cuddling with her boyfriend, had already removed her jacket. Because of the heat. Istanbul, after all, was only a pleasant 20 deg C.

The only picture of Istanbul I managed to take - while running to catch our connection to Venice.

Flying into Venice, we were scared how the ground conditions would be in the island. The previous week had seen extreme rainfall, and more than the normal flooding on the island. I say more than the normal, because Venice is used to a decent amount of flooding during high tides. The locals call it the aqua alta. The locals are always prepared with a pair of plastic covers to wrap around their boots in case of high tide.

But the news we were subject to in the last week before flying out was truly scary. People were eating in restaurants almost fully dunked in water, bridges had been setup to help tourists, and the local government had put Venice on alert. I reached out to our hotel to inquire, and was told it was truly under water. But our tickets were booked, and we took the risk.

As we approached the Marco Polo, we waited with bated breath - not knowing how the ground situation was.

As the aircraft passed over Bucharest and Budapest, and the shores of Venice could be seen, I peered out to check if anything could be made out from the air. I hoped things were at least a little better and we could see some parts of Venice if we were lucky. The Marco Polo is an extremely small airport, and Venice was under fog when we landed at 1 PM. We couldn't make out the situation from the aircraft. The aerobridge was drawn, and we made our way into the airport still without an idea of the ground reality. It took us almost an hour to navigate the crowded immigration hall, convince the border security agent we were not Syrian refugees fleeing to Italy, and collecting our luggage. We even managed to witness some racial tension between an Argentinian woman and a local Italian.

As I put some of my reading to good use and purchased the bus tickets from the Marco Polo to our hotel in Malcontente, which was in mainland Venice, I was hit by the change in weather. Venice was an extremely cold 11 deg C. Especially so for a Madras boy. We were freezing. We were also astounded by the normal foreign experiences - the clean road, the bus left on time, there was no traffic, they stopped at red lights even when the roads were empty and there was no mama (MAMA: Policeman) in sight.

The clean, green Venetian countryside. The overcast skies scared us as we boarded our bus to the Piazza Roma.

We had to switch buses in island Venice, in a place called the Piazza Roma (oddly, a popular bus stand in Venice was named Roma, or Rome). We waited for close to an hour for our connection to Malcontente along with another Indian family. My dad did the usual information collection- took a picture of the time table for further use, spoke to everyone with a plastic boot. The whole while we forgot we were in island Venice, and there was no water in sight. Were the Gods favoring us at last? We wouldn't know till the next day.

Our bus came at last. It was the bus 23B to this town on the outskirts of Venice called Padua. Halfway to Padua was Malcontente, and our hotel. Using a mix of sign language and the limited Italian I knew (Grazie and Senor), we managed to get off at the right stop.

It was close to 4 PM when we arrived at our hotel, The Hotel Palladio. It was in a beautiful and old three-storey building. We planned to quickly change and go back to the island to catch what little of Venice we could at night before turning in. It had been a long day of travel, and flying. Oddly enough, none of us were jet lagged.  The helpful (and pretty!) receptionist told us we could buy the bus tickets whenever we wanted from her, and the bus stop would just be outside the hotel. The opposite direction, though, because Europe, like the USA had people driving on the right - contrary to India where we drove on the left.

Malcontente - this very pretty, quiet town in mainland Venice. this is where our hotel was - the Hotel Palladio.  

Malcontente was an extremely quiet town, sometimes even lonely. I didn't like it one bit. I was wondering how I was going to manage 21 days in this weird continent when Day One itself made me miss home. I missed the hustle bustle of Madras, or dare I say, the traffic in Bangalore.

Everywhere we went in Europe, we saw the awning glass ceiling that we could open - for light and heat.

That evening in Venice was truly spectacular. I was in three layers already, and this was only Italy. It was the warmest part of our trip. I fell in love with the city right away - especially its canals and draw bridges. We got our first taste of Italian pizza and calzone. At a dirt cheap price too. I was already loving Italy. The extreme loneliness that had hit me was long gone. I got my local sim, a Vodafone for 10 EUR, took more pictures of the night scene and enjoyed a long walk through the Rialto Market  on the island. People were smoking like chimneys, lovers were walking hands in hand, kids playing around, and a Tamil man video calling home showing them the sights they couldn't afford to see for real.

The very pretty Rialto Bridge at night. 

The Venice St. Lucia. Only station on the island. 

When we reached the hotel at 11 PM, just managing to catch the last bus, Day One had ended and I was looking forward to the next 20 days. My first impression of Venice was this really cold, beautiful place. The people were extremely friendly and the cost not that expensive. It was completely contrary to everything I had heard about Italy in general, and Venice in particular. Italians were supposed to be loud and brash, and Venice extremely expensive. Travel really does open our eyes to the real world.