If Rome enthrals, Venice enchants.
Its a city unlike any other.
Imagine having canals for roads and waterbuses for public transport.
And to spice it up, you have a main 'road' running all through town called the Grande Canal as well as taxi rides where speedboats are your taxis.
When you have your first glimpse of the city, you can be forgiven for underestimating its uniqueness.
It initially seems like any other city in Europe with a lake all around.
However, Venice is absolutely a different species.
First of all, you would struggle to find a land transport option in the actual town coz there are none.
There are buses which ply in certain areas but those are not places a tourist would be much interested in.
The waterbus-stops are themselves floating on water and can be really shaky when a berthing bus disturbs the water currents.
The waterbuses are similar to ferries but the view of the route is something to gape at.
The main square of the city is Piazza San Marco.
When you alight from the waterbus there, you are inadvertently drawn to the Gondolas berthing peacefully in a cluster. Bad weather and astronomical prices meant there werent many takers for them and the Gondoliers perhaps attuned to this fact were nowhere to be seen.
Now ofcourse this gives an Indian like me the unavoidable urge to step into one and make the most of the photo-op and so I do.
When you head towards the main square you are greeted by a huge flock of pigeons and sea gulls gladly jumping on top of any person's head and palms, who is willing to offer them food.
On walking further and viewing the same structure as shown in 'khuda jaane' your instincts take over and you become Ranbir Kapoor and moreso start looking out for Deepika but are pricked back to sad reality soon.
The monuments are stunning but when its -1 degree C, a little flavour is lost.
To restore the flavour, I head to a gelato store, nevermind the freezing weather.
(Statutory Warning - The gelatos at any place in Italy are not to be bunked even by the calorie conscious freaks.)
Its sunset and we head back to locate our booked hostel and after a while set off again, to Rialto, a famous bridge in Venice.
Its a bustling area with activity and life.
Then curiosity makes you wanna explore the lanes and by-lanes of Venice.
We head into wherever the lanes lead us, crossing small canals and climbing mini bridges.
Infact it seems closer home in Venice than any other place in Europe, what with houses and buildings which take your mind back to a quiet day in Burrabazar or Kalbadevi.
The lanes of Venice virtually transport you to an era gone by, with the happy exclusion of modern distracting structures and transport.
We retired early that night due to lack of options and hopes of an early morning stroll before our train at 9.50 am on Sunday.
The next morning brought with it an icy town waking up from a snowy night.
We took off on an uninitiated route willing to explore more of the 'real' Venice and blessed we were.
The quiet lanes and bylanes were a joy. There were small canals at every juncture lined with boats and taxis and gondolas.
The serenity was breathtaking where every human being seen could be described as a rara 'sighting'.
But it was the best hour I had at Venice, evermore wishing for a return trip once in life with a romantic partner.
Venice was a surreal destination, though the experience would have been at another level altogether with better weather and more time.
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