4 seasons in 1 day

My plan to visit Venice in one day, as I travelled between Croatia and Switzerland, may have been fairly ambitious but not unlike the majority of my previous '2 birds with one stone' journeys. Having been saving my final must-see Italian destination for a romantic getaway I finally gave up being patient in fear of the city sinking before I got chance to see it. 

So realising that Venice lay on the direct line from Pula to Lausanne I booked my ferry (in order to arrive with a chance of seeing the city's  fabled rise from the water) and high-speed train out of the city towards Switzerland well in advance. Between these pre-booked journeys I had a mere 5 hours to soak up as much Italian charm as possible. 

The first season of the day was caused by some unseasonal heavy rain as the ferry arrived into the famous city. The only rain I'd seen in weeks that certainly put a dampener on what was supposed to be a magical first sight of the architecture emerging from the sea. This mild disappointment was quickly overtaken by a brief moment of panic as I was reorganising my bag on the floating vaporetto platform and my packed up raincoat rolled underneath the seat and into the water as a boat went by. A millisecond of resignation to the fact my coat was lost was followed by a surge of motivation as I saw it still bobbing about on the surface. I quickly climbed over a barrier, lay flat on my belly in order to reach the floating pac-a-mac. Disaster averted! 

As the sky brightened my mood briefly picked up as I enjoyed the Venetian alternative to the tube - the vaporetto boat service. What a great way to get around a city, I mused! Unfortunately I would soon learn the downsides to the novel public transport - but first a lesson in why one should not try to see Venice with limited time on a Saturday in August! I planned to drop my bag at the train station left luggage in order to enjoy the city without backache and potentially knocking people into the canal. After racing to find the left luggage counter pure shock arrived as I saw the Disney-esque queue of people waiting to drop their bags. The free EU 3G came into its own as I quickly googled another place to leave my bag and found it with only 15minutes of my precious 5hours wasted. The bag-drop queue was nothing though, compared to the throng of passengers waiting to board the next vaporetto service to Piazza San Marco. After another 30min wait I jumped on the next boat to Rialto bridge and decided to walk from there to my first sight-seeing spot. 

Meandering through the well-signposted streets brought back my sunny disposition, with only a few showers of disgruntlement as I saw the queues for the main sights of the campanile and basílica and subsequently got told off for sitting down on St Marks square - clearly the only acceptable things to do there are stand in a queue or sit at an extortionately priced cafe. Saying that, the architecture is pretty spectacular, even whilst standing. I met the guides from my ferry as they were doing a free explanation of the city - held up by millions of wooden posts sunk into the sea bed - and then a trip to a Morano glass workshop. I watched in awe as the artist shaped an intricate horse out of molten glass in about 60seconds without getting burnt. I was very impressed. 

My last few hours in the city were certainly the brightest, as I walked from St. Marks to Academia bridge and from there back to the train station. Making my way through the pretty alleyways, over the myriad of canal bridges and in between little shops, cafes and art galleries I was taken away from the crowds and into the real essence of Venice. I watched plenty of gondolas gliding along - mostly carrying tourists but a few also doing daily deliveries, spent a while trying on the most ornate Venetian masks in the most friendly of shops, stopped to appreciate a street performer playing classical music on the water glasses and admired so many beautiful balconies, churches and piazzas along the way. I bought very reasonably priced multi-coloured snacks (bright green cookie and bright red slushy) and was able to sit quietly to enjoy them with my legs dangling off the canal-side pavement. It suddenly all felt decidedly pleasant! 

At the end of the day as I sat outside the train station, admiring a waterside cathedral dome, I felt thoroughly thankful for having had the opportunity to marvel at this beautiful city, even if only for a few hours. Despite its obvious downsides, characteristic of all touristic meccas, come rain or shine Venice is still one of the most uniquely stunning places one could ever visit - even if just for a second.