A Day in Venice (with F1 of course)

The next morning we woke up early as it was time to explore Venice. However, first things first - breakfast. We found a lovely little place called I Dolci Sapori which is a bakery, as well as a confectionery, a pasta shop, a butchery and a winery. The owner of the place didn't know any English which apparently is quite common in Italy. Only 13% (!) can speak English. 13%! No wonder Ferrari's language on the grid is still Italian and they have such insightful radio conversations like "Must be the water" (if you know, you know). Anyway, my bit of Italian (thanks to Duolingo) got us some coffee and croissants. And oh my word the pistaccio croissant... I could die for this shit but honestly, I'd rather die in this shit. It is so freaking tasty! It's like Nutella but with pistaccio and so creamy and sweet but not too sweet. It's just perfect. I will forever cherish the taste of it. Okay, enough saliva inducing thoughts.
After paying only 14€ for 2 croissants, one latte, one espresso (because this is the normal coffee here), one fried calzone thingy for Marv and a sweet pistaccio kinda cake/biscuit, we drove to spend a lot of money for parking in Venice. 35€ for a day, not even a day. It wasn't even 8hrs we've been there. But it's the normal rate there, it's actually quite insane. Anyway, the parking house had 10 floors and we had to go up to the ninth, so we had a good look from above at Venice for a first impression. Making our way down the stairs, we arrived in a bulk of tourists flooding the city. Honestly, I hate tourists (and yes, I know in this situation I'm one as well) and I hate crowded cities. So Venice was off to a good start... Not. We crossed bridges upon bridges, came across smelly canals and alleys and found the famous Basilica. We had booked a free walking tour at 3pm, so we had to get over the Grand Canal rather quickly to be at the meeting point in time. Therefore, we hopped onto one of the many vaporettos, the water buses that drive all around Venice. There was a sign suggesting it only costs 1,50€ and as we only had to drive one stop to San Marco, we thought it would be alright when we tapped our phones against it. However, the scam of Venice doesn't stop at the parking lot. In the end, we had to pay 9,50€ each for this one stop. Because apparently, there weren't one-time tickets, there was only a ticket for 75min in which you could use as many vaporettos you liked for 9,50€. So it was our "fault" that we only used it for one mere stop. A day ticket would have cost 25€. What these 1,50€ were, I still don't know. But I do know that this might have been the most expensive one-stop bus ride of my entire life. Anyway, we made it to the famous Piazza di San Marco which actually looked rather sobering. The old Palazzo that was creating one half of the Piazza looked rubbish. Old, faded white, not looked after nor cared for at all. The charm that might have once been there was lost behind construction site fences and masses of tourist heads. Only the archway was kinda cool, but again spoiled through the masses (can you see that I really hate people?). We made our way to the meeting point to meet Annachiara (yes, spelled together), our tour guide. She showed us around the less touristy parts of Venice but other than having less people around, it looked rather the same. But at least we've learned why the hell people had the idea of building a city in a lagoon, 2km away from the shore. Apparently, the ancestors of the Venetians were always attacked by... Attackers (I honestly don't remember from whom, I'm sorry. I'm sure there are documentaries about it, please just educate yourself). And because of these attacks, they someday figured "if we move into the lagoon, they won't attack us anymore, because honestly, who'd be as stupid as to move there?" And they were correct. They founded Venice on 124 islands of marshland and figured out a way to not only build little huts on it but a huge stoney city. They put billions of tree trunks beneath the water surface. These did not rot away because no air reached them, but they were rather petrified over time, becoming solid as stone. And the Venetians built the city on that. They must have had a lot of trust in their architects back then... Anyway, in the beginning, Venice could really just be navigated by boats as there have hardly been any bridges. So lots of fishermen and vendors were living in Venice. The fishermen eventually moved outside the "Old Venice" and to another island called Burano (right next to the island cluster of Old Venice). It's naming compadre is Murano where the famous glass is made - therefore Murano glass. They also have a whole island only to be a cemetery, overlooked by the hospital of the Old Venice. Isn't that a nice view when trying to heal? Maybe it's actually motivating for some. Like "Oh my God, this looks horrible, definitely not going to end up there, duh!"
The bridges for pedestrians were only built way later when Venice became part of Italy and they then figured "Now we won't get attacked anymore" (because they've been attacked but it was kind of a forever overtake, so their plan of avoiding attackers eventually just died). So they built 423 bridges alone in the Old Venice cluster of islands. And the rather impressive one for cars, buses and trains that leads for 2km from the Old Venice to the mainland.
Other than that I only learned that most of Venice looks so shitty because of the salt water. Obviously, everywhere in the city, there is salt water coming from the lagoon in which Venice was built in. The water sinks and rises with the tide which sometimes ends in whole areas not being walkable because they are just flooded (brilliant...). However, when the salt water gets into the bricks of buildings, walls, etc. due to the capillary effect, and eventually dries, the salt crystals grow 12 times in their size and crack up the bricks, destroying the houses. But what I'm thinking is "When they know this, why not use different materials for their houses?" I guess they do nowadays, and before they just didn't know. But anyway, it doesn't make Venice look any better. Nor smell any better. Honestly, I didn't see as many dogs as I've smelled the piss of them (hopefully, but maybe Venetians -or tourists for that matter - can't contain themselves either).
Honestly, the best part of the day in Venice was, when the Bahrain Grand Prix started and I put one earbud in and watched the whole thing, whilst Marv was navigating us through the city back to our car. I was functioning only on autopilot, and the way back is just a blur, as I was concentrating fully on the spectacle in my hands. This race was one hell of entertainment - way better than the over romanticized and over crowded Venice!Okumaya devam et