Beautiful sunny day here in Venice.
Just sitting on this little patio at our Airbnb.
Got a really good deal on a pretty central Airbnb.
But the most beautiful thing about Venice is just all the little back streets
and the side canals and just wandering and getting lost.
It's going to be pretty hectic over in the Piazza San Marco,
which is where all of the festivities for carnevale will be kind of culminating later this afternoon.
But until then we're going to walk around.
We're going to get lost.
We're going to talk a little bit of history,
kind of feel out the city, and then we're going to take it over to the Piazza San Marco.
As you may know Venice is full of tourists,
but people do still live here, even though the population has been steadily falling for the last 50 years.
There still are Venetians
But the practicalities of daily life in Venice are pretty mind-boggling.
Even something as simple as taking out the trash,
as you can see, is quite the operation.
People have to go door to door.
You give your trash to the trash guys.
They wheel it over to a main canal where it's basically
craned onto a boat, like a trash boat, and then taken back to the mainland to be processed.
It's little things like that that make living in Venice difficult,
but it's also what makes it so cool.
The story of Venice summed up briefly is extremely interesting.
After the fall of the Roman Empire people were being attacked in northern Italy all the time by barbarians from the north
So here in Venice, it's surrounded by a giant lagoon.
There were a series about hundred plus islands and
locals escaped to these islands to take refuge.
What started off as a temporary situation became more permanent and
people started to connect the islands.
The locals started drilling wooden pilings down into the mud and
basically, they had to import wood from Slovenia and Croatia
and Montenegro to
build a platform.
So they took many thousands of these wooden poles,
drilled them down into the muddy ground.
And then upon that they put another layer of flat wood and
then stone on top of that, and on that foundation, you could build a city.
The wood that Venice is built on has been down in the mud for so long that
it's actually become almost petrified and turned basically into stone.
Venice, the floating city, is actually built on wooden pilings just like this.
One of the reasons things in Venice are a little bit more expensive is because everything has to be shipped here.
The vast majority of the food that comes into Venice is brought here by boat.
So I wonder, you know, these guys are probably up very early in the morning
bringing the fresh produce in.
But it's pretty cool that you can just walk up, pick your produce from
the supplier who literally brought it straight in here from a boat from the mainland.
Ironically with climate change,
Venice is kind of in a predicament.
As you can see, there're lots of boats going around back here.
They've been forced a strict five kilometers per hour rule that nobody follows.
But the wakes from the constant boats are kind of eroding the foundation of the city.
So the reality is.. yes, Venice is sinking.
Nobody really knows how much longer it's going to be around.
There's a lot of different theories that they've put forward
for ways to try to slow or stop the
sinking, including a series of
levees that would stop the storm surges that come in and occasionally flood the city.
Just coming here now. It's definitely worth it.
The question is how much longer is it going to be around?
All right ladies gentlemen, it's the middle of the day, and it's time for lunch.
One of the things about Venice, like I said earlier, because everything has to be imported by boat,
prices are a little bit more expensive.
It's also extremely touristy.
While there's lots of options for places to eat,
most of them are overpriced and not that great.
Although I would like to thank all of the followers out there on Instagram
who have given so many awesome tips,
and one of the tips is to come here to the Punta della Dogana, which is just opposite
Saint Mark's Square and so Carrie and I are here.
We made a little lunch.
We have our little sandwiches,
and we're just going to sit down, take a breather, and take in the beautiful view in front of us.
Thank you Vagabuddies for the recommendation.
Budget travel hack: if you want to do the quintessential
Venetian experience of riding on a gondola,
be prepared to spend some serious cash, but there is a little known hack...
You can actually get a taste of what it's like for a fraction of the price.
Usually, it's 80 euros for a half an hour.
But you can do as the locals do and use the little gondola ferries from one side of the Grand Canal to the other.
They cost two euros, if you're not a local,
seventy cents if you are and
it's really a good way to get a taste of the quintessential Venetian experience if you're on a budget.
Grazie.
Budget travel hack for the win.
I feel like...when in Venice you got to do it.
And when in Rome... when in Rome, you've got to go to the Colosseum and the Fountain of Trevi
and all that good stuff.
When in Venice you've got to go on the gondola ride, you know what I mean?
Disneyland for adults.
We're doing it; we're in here. Super romantic.
We're going to make it as romantic as possible.
Ready? Ready. "Dammi un bacio."
So if the canals were roads, the Grand Canal is a freeway.
This is like a backcountry road.
This is beautiful.
Yeah, it's so nice.
Oh my gosh. I'm actually really happy that we did this.
Look how beautiful that is.
If you want to be a gondolier, you have to pass two tests.
And then you're going to study a little bit the laws of the navigation.
A little bit English, French, the history of Venice.
Then you just pick your route?
No, no, no. They decide for you what you have to do.
Yes, not my job.
You will learn from our family, father, grandfather, uncle.
You can learn also from your friends
if you don't have parents or your family like a gondola driver.
But there's not a school where you go there
and they explain you how you can know. It's a tradition.
But it's very on the job, yeah.
Little secret, yeah. It's very nice.
Oh...premando.
Premando means left in Venetian
Okay e` tutto. It's worth it. Totally. Grazie mille.
Prego. Grazie mille.
Piacere. Prego.
Venice has a super long history.
It was once a republic, and the history of Carnival is a little bit muddled.
Nobody really knows, but supposedly
it began when the Republic of Venice won a big battle over the patriarch of Aquileia in the year 1162.
People gathered in Saint Mark's Square
and started dancing and having a party and that is how the tradition
supposedly began.
In the Renaissance, it really came into its own.
It became this fashionable
opportunity basically for the nobility to
hide themselves and to do licentious acts.
Basically to get buck wild and not have anybody judge them.
And that's still kind of how it feels today.
Everybody gets very dressed up.
It's all about how you look and
the costumes are very elaborate, including the masks.
The masks in the Carnival at Venice are world famous
And I think that we need to go get a pair before the party really begins tonight at Saint Mark's Square.
It's the last day of carnival, so on the last day everybody gathers at Saint Mark's Square.
They kind of declare the winner of the costume contest and then at 6:00 p.m. carnival is over.
Lent begins and all of the fun is done until the next year.
Carrie and I have found our masks.
We are prepared and now we head to Saint Mark's Square full force into Carnival.
I was running around getting some shots.
I have been very politely interrupted by some viewers,
and introduce yourself.
Hi. I'm Isabelle. Where are you from?
I'm from Seattle. I live in Berkeley.
Cool. You said you're on a month long journey?
I'm here for three and a half months.
I'm doing the Camino de Santiago.
It must be interesting to be one of the people who come here and dress up
because all day long you're just standing there having people take pictures of you.
That is the main attraction here are the people who are dressed up.
It's our 15 minutes of fame every year, and I'm okay with that. I like it.
Well ladies and gentlemen, that is it for Venice Carnival 2018.
Super fun.. really just awesome putzing around town
finding little back-alley ways and then obviously getting the photos at
sunset here in the Piazza San Marco was a little wild, but it was a beautiful experience.
And I think it's one that everybody should do at least once.
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And in the meantime, remember stay curious, keep exploring,
and we will see you on the road.
Peace.