Is Venice really sinking? I say yes - and have proof for you! Arrived in the evening to a flooded city. Raised boardwalks were put up all over the place to allow walkers to wander through streets.
I wrote down very detailed instructions on how to get to our hostel - a very important thing to do in Venice as it is one of the places where a map is not entirely useful, and getting lost is quite a reality. We navigated through tightly wound streets and came to the last instruction on my paper "at the end of the road, take a right and it is the first door on the right". We reached the end of the road, looked right, only to find that the first door on the right was blocked by two meters of foot deep water. Great. Not only to the door was it flooded, but the entire main floor if the building was flooded as well. So we took off our shoes, hiked up our pants, and waded our way down the street, and through the building to our first floor hostel - safe from the floods.
We were in Venice for 5 days - in that time we roamed the many convoluted streets of Venice, got lost, took the boat to Murano, the glass blowing island, and Burano, the colorful building island, and experienced the opening week of Carnival.
The whole weekend, masses of people flooded into Venice, adorned in the beautiful masks sold throughout the city. Some were dressed head to toe in beautiful old dresses, or bizarre costumes.
Saturday night, we were told that to toast the start of Carnival, we could go get free wine in Piazza Saint Marco from the "wine fountain there". In my head, I pictured a large, ornate fountain pouring out wine, much like one you would find spewing water. I then however thought that what I was imagining was so far fetched, and that a giant "wine fountain" was a little ridiculous to become a reality. We arrived in St. Marks square, and to my surprise my initial image of wine fountain was in fact not so far fetched! A rather large, elaborate stone fountain was pouring out red wine to elegantly dressed people. Opera music was blasting out of large speakers, and the beautifully dressed people by the fountain were ball dancing to it. Behind the gated - off fountain area were thousands of visitors pushing and nudging their way to the front of the gate to get a mini cup of wine. Quite a scene, but it was a really amazing experience!
The next event was Sunday morning, and was a boat parade down the Grand Canal. Hundreds of boats, filled with people in costumes rowed down the canal to the cheers of the spectators.
Venice was wonderful. It is really a beautiful and magical place.
