Chapter 4: Europe’s most well kept secret

14 December 2013

We are leaving Venice today after spending one night here. We were eager to explore more before we leave so we had a quick breakfast in the hotel.

 We wanted to explore the rooftop. As usual we did our favourite activity of playing with and in the lift on the way up.

This was what we saw at the restaurant at the rooftop. It looks like we are in the clouds!

It was so cold so obviously no one was sitting outside…..except the crazy us.

The view from the rooftop. Its still foggy in the morning. There is nothing we can do about it.

You know what this means? We need to come back here next time and enjoy the full view!

On the way back down, a pigeon got lost and ended up indoors. For some reason, it actually walked all the way to the lift and eventually entered the lift. I think the pigeon was scared of us so I was not sure if we were going to scare it more by entering the lift.

I mean, what if the pigeon panicked and tried to fly away when we are all still trapped in the lift on the way down to the lobby?

 We tried to shoo the bird out of the lift but it refused so we entered the lift anyway. Thankfully, it stayed calm throughout the whole trip down to the lobby. Haha.

When we came out of the lift, the pigeon was still inside. Haiz. Silly bird.

So good luck to the next person who tries to take the lift!

Hotel Danielli is so pretty, we decided to walk around and take photos like typical tourists.

The whole design and infrastructure of the hotel somehow reminded me of old castles in fairy tales that I used to read as a child.

This was actually like a ‘taxi stand’ for guests to wait for the gondola to get to their destinations.

We were excited so we played there.

Trying hard to not my be my normal clumsy self because if anything bad or clumsy because if anything bad happens, I cannot swim. I wonder how deep are the waters. 

Time to go and spent the remaining time in pretty Venice! Look! Still foggy!

We decided to make our way to the ‘Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World’, this time together with Bon.

The place looks different in daylight. In fact, it looked so much prettier and rustic in the bright light of the sun. This big cat is too adorable but it was anti social.

The place was still cold, mainly because of its open concept.

In daylight, you can actually see how old the books were. It was simply magical to be around old books like this. As a book lover, entering this shop was like entering Disneyland.

The stairs that was made up of books!

I decided to climb it up again since it was already dark when I climbed it last night and I could not see any view from the top.

The view from the top. So nice! I almost did not want to come down. Haha.

This is the owner of the shop. I recognised him in one of the postcards. Some of the postcards were photos of the shops when it was flooded. I am not a postcard person but the postcards were too pretty that I decided to get some for myself as mementoes. I also got some for my cuzzie who loves to read like me.

Finally we are here and in broad daylight, we were able to capture this corner of the shop! The famous and pretty corner!

Even the entrance of the shop looked pretty! If you are in Venice, you must visit the most beautiful workshop in the world.

As we walked back, I was trying my best to capture as many photos as possible with my phone.

The fog seemed to have cleared up slightly.

Some of the walkway were this narrow! When we were searching for the bookshop last night, we were walking in one of these walkways. I mean, no fat person can get through this.

We also had some time to shop for souvenirs. Venice’s trademark is these type of masks and there were a lot of shops selling these masks. They were all really pretty too and some of the masks businesses were family businesses that has been passed down from generation to generation.

 The views are too pretty. We could hardly see anyone in a gondola, perhaps its too cold to be outside for too long.

Capturing our last photos in beautiful Venice.

Finally, we can see the gondolas and small boats!

Time to leave. We could not stop snapping photos even as we wait for our boat ride. That was how beautiful Venice was.

On our way back, the fog seems lighter and we could see the buildings across the waters. We must have passed by this same route yesterday but we due to the thick fog, we could not see anything.

Passing by Rialto Bridge again, this time in a ferry!

Leaving Venice with a heavy heart. One night in Venice is certainly not enough, there were still so many places to explore. We did not even had the chance to travel to the nearby island Murano and Burano. Perhaps, we can come back next time?

I was happy that we still managed to enjoy the views on our way back as it was not as foggy as yesterday. Back in the train and this time to Milan! After the unpleasantness of train rides in Rome, I was not really looking forward to take the public trains again but did not really have a choice.

We finally arrived at Duomo. Check out the huge cathedral! There were a lot of people feeding pigeons in front of it and one of the indian guys just shove a few bird seeds into my hand without my consent.

I was pissed. The pigeons are going to fly to me now. I shoved it back to him and walked away.

Irritating.

Anyway, Duomo was crowded. There were so many shops around!

The street food stalls look amazing! I feel like buying it all!

Finally nice dinner! It was our first proper meal of the day but we were wondering why they were serving us cold bread. The weather is already cold and the bread is tasty but can’t they heat it up? In fact, it was the same in Rome. Everyone ate their bread cold. Weird.

I think I discovered Europe’s most well kept secret. They don’t have microwave ovens.