Venice Archives - TRAVELIFE Magazine https://www.travelifemagazine.com/tag/venice/ Travel Magazine for Asian Luxury Travelers Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:08:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 https://www.travelifemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/travelife-2-90x90.jpg Venice Archives - TRAVELIFE Magazine https://www.travelifemagazine.com/tag/venice/ 32 32 About a solo dinner and a most interesting vaporetto ride from Marco Polo Airport to Venice https://www.travelifemagazine.com/about-solo-dinner-and-most-interesting/ https://www.travelifemagazine.com/about-solo-dinner-and-most-interesting/#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2018 15:34:00 +0000 https://www.travelifemagazine.com/about-solo-dinner-and-most-interesting/ There are many ways to travel to Venice, and I’ve done most of them, including sailing through the Grand Canal on a Silversea cruise ship, hiring a private speedboat, and sharing a vaporetto (which is a water taxi in Venice) with strangers. The vaporetto ride from Marco Polo airport to the Danieli Hotel, one of the loveliest and most historic hotels in Venice, certainly takes the cake for being the most interesting, Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in […]

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]]> There are many ways to travel to Venice, and I’ve done most of them, including sailing through the Grand Canal on a Silversea cruise ship, hiring a private speedboat, and sharing a vaporetto (which is a water taxi in Venice) with strangers. The vaporetto ride from Marco Polo airport to the Danieli Hotel, one of the loveliest and most historic hotels in Venice, certainly takes the cake for being the most interesting,

Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

Some years back, I spent one week alone in Venice, this hauntingly beautiful lagoon city, in between holidays with friends. I always take one solo trip a year to either a favourite destination or a new one; and although I’d visited Venice twice as a child, I’d never set foot there again. So I thought it was high time for another visit to this beautiful city, one of the most romantic places and popular destinations in Italy.

A VENICE FULL OF RICH AMERICAN TOURISTS

The boats of Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

It was at the height of a European summer and a strong global economy, and Venice was full of prosperous and confident tourists – many of them Americans pursuing culture and other pleasurable diversions. I had flown in from Rome on my own after a holiday on the Amalfi Coast with friends; eager to rediscover this hauntingly beautiful city.

Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

After so long, suddenly the idea of exploring Venice’s maze of canals and alleys called out. I still remember how the inspiration to visit Venice came about. 

I was in Rome, having breakfast at the Hotel Hassler in Rome, when the idea hit me; and within that same day, the concierge at the Hotel Hassler in Rome had booked my flights and hotel in Venice and the next day I found myself landing at Venice’s Marco Polo Airport and waiting for the hotel’s private boat to take me to the Danieli Hotel in Venice proper, one of the best hotels in Venice.

Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy


WEALTHY (OR MAYBE ANGRY?) 
AMERICANS ABROAD

From the start, my Venetian adventure was full of vignettes of the wealthy American abroad.

Upon arrival in Venice, I spent about 30 minutes at the landing station waiting for the Danieli’s hotel boat when an unhappy couple dragged their suitcases next to me. I watched slightly fascinated as the couple exchanged furiously angry glances at each other, and then finally the man kicked one of the bags so hard it fell into the water and had to be retrieved with a stick.

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I guess they’d been fighting either on the plane or just upon landing at Marco Polo Airport. We then spent a wordless 10 minutes together in the heat, until I finally lost my patience waiting for the boat transfer in this unhappy atmosphere. So I walked up to one of the boat porters and asked him in my best travel Italian:

“Where is the hotel boat?”

A vaporetto in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

Of course, this being Italy, he didn’t know. Or he didn’t care and he thought we were just being OC tourists for wanting to check into the Danieli as soon as possible. This was Venice, after all, where time has stood still for centuries. In this context, what’s another hour of waiting for a water taxi, right?

“What time is it arriving?” I continued, already feeling this was going to be a useless conversation. But I persisted anyway. This is very uncharacteristic of me, by the way, because, if you know me, you’ll know that I never indulge in anything useless. Life’s too short.

The Italian gave a shrug. And this was when the male half of the sullen couple piped in, in English: “Isn’t there a schedule for the boat?” I realized then that they were Americans. The Italian boat porter again gave his already predictable shrug.

SHARING A VAPORETTO INTO VENICE


A vaporetto in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy


I then turned to the couple and said, “We can share a taxi if you want. The water taxis can be notorious rip-offs for tourists, but if we split the bill, the costs won’t be too bad and it will be better than waiting around here.”

I could think of better ways of reaching Venice than sharing a private vaporetto (which is a smaller and faster water taxi compared to the public vaporetto, which is more like a bus) with a feuding couple; but I was tired and eager for an aperitif and a proper dinner. I’d booked a table with a view at the rooftop restaurant of the Danieli, and I’d already made up my mind to have a four-course dinner with a bottle of good local wine, and to eat alone with an engrossing book.

Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

FIRST VIEW OF VENICE
After so long, my first view of Venice from afar, with its intricate palace roofs and church spires rising dramatically out of the water, filled me with wonder. I could not imagine why I had stayed away for years.

And the historic and ancient Danieli Hotel, at the mouth of the Grand Canal and next to the Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, was magical.

The lobby of the famous Danieli Hotel in
Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in Italy

The Danieli Hotel is a lovely place with a Moorish-inspired lobby straight out of a fairy tale. Even now, I never fail to walk through the lobby of the Danieli Hotel and catch my breath at the gorgeous spectacle in front of me.

That first time at the Danieli, I got a suite in the main building with French windows and a little terrace that overlooked a canal. I flung the windows open just in time to hear the peals of the nearby church bells and a gondolier’s lyrical shouts from below. It was at this moment that I felt my Venice adventure had begun.

GOING SOLO IN VENICE

Anyway back to my story.

That same evening, I booked a terrace table for a solo dinner at the Danieli’s rooftop restaurant. I could’ve ordered pasta from room service and stayed in with a book, but I figured Venice alone had to be done in style.

I sat down to dine just as the summer sun was setting and ordered a plate of linguine with Venice clams in a white wine sauce and a bottle of local wine. The rooftop restaurant of the Danieli was the perfect place to enjoy views of the city as it settled into its evening routine. In fact, it turned out to be an incredibly long four-hour meal.

The rooftop restaurant of The Danieli in Venice
DEBUTANTES AT DINNER

Next to me was a long table of East Coast debutante-types being chaperoned by an elderly matron, who also took it upon herself to educate the young ladies on the charms of Italy.

She read aloud poetry on Venice and a chapter on the history of St. Mark’s Basilica and the surrounding areas, before starting a discussion on fine dining deportment and good manners.

It was very good entertainment to eavesdrop on this dinnertime lecture, on my first evening in Venice, living a #Travelife. As for the feuding couple, well, upon checking into the Danieli, I never saw them again.





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]]> https://www.travelifemagazine.com/about-solo-dinner-and-most-interesting/feed/ 6 More hotel ghost stories. And about the most haunted hotels in Europe. https://www.travelifemagazine.com/more-hotel-ghost-stories-and-about-mos/ https://www.travelifemagazine.com/more-hotel-ghost-stories-and-about-mos/#respond Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:26:00 +0000 https://www.travelifemagazine.com/more-hotel-ghost-stories-and-about-mos/ This is a continuation of our previous blog entry on ghosts in hotels. Click here to read the previous blog entry on ghosts in hotels Ghost encounters are especially plentiful in Europe. Over there, every other building is at least 300 years old and countless people have lived, died – and even been murdered – within their walls. Lots of buildings in France and England even have plaques on their walls saying something like “XXX died here in XXX,” when a famous person is known […]

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This is a continuation of our previous blog entry on ghosts in hotels.




Ghost encounters are especially plentiful in Europe.

Over there, every other building is at least 300 years old and countless people have lived, died – and even been murdered – within their walls.

Lots of buildings in France and England even have plaques on their walls saying something like “XXX died here in XXX,” when a famous person is known to have died in that house.

It’s very interesting from a historical viewpoint, but certainly not if you’re wary of ghosts.

SOME OF EUROPE’S
MOST HAUNTED HOTELS

Dalhousie Castle
Scotland
Chateau de Brissac
France
Hotel Burg Reichentstein
Germany
Decebel Hotel
Romania

GHOSTS IN THE CORRIDORS
IN BORDEAUX, FRANCE 

My cousin, who claims to have a third eye that enables her to see spirits, recently recalled checking into a chateau-hotel in Bordeaux, France.

She said she saw images of people from the past all along the hotel corridor, as she was walking to her room.

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“They all looked pale and were lined up against the wall expressionless,” she told me.

And this is what I said to her: “If we ever travel together somewhere, and you see a ghost in one of our hotels, please don’t tell me about it.“

Scroll down to read about some of the scariest hotel rooms in the world…

PRETTY NORMAL IN EUROPE

Most Europeans I’ve spoken to don’t seem to care much about having to live with spirits long gone.

They even put up patiently with the idiosyncrasies of the ghosts – taking everything in with an amused air.

Perhaps banging doors and footsteps on the second floor are as much a part of their lives as cable television and the internet.

Some Asian visitors however, still prefer to stay away from anything other-worldly. I certainly do.

RADIO BLARING AT MIDNIGHT
IN INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA
Many years ago, I checked into a small hotel in Innsbruck, Austria which had all its walls painted black.

The somber atmosphere should have foretold of eerie occurrences.

However,  I naively chalked this up to a taste for the avant-garde and a penchant for dark colors.

In the middle of the night, however, the radio began blaring at full blast.

Scroll down to read the rest of this story, and about ghosts in Venice…


Startled out of my sleep, I immediately shut it off.

Later, amidst the fog of a waking dream, it came on again.

The skeptical might attribute this to faulty wiring but who really knows? And why did the radio only turn on at midnight?


SUFFOCATING AT MIDNIGHT  
IN VENICE

Another summer, I was staying alone at one of Venice’s top hotels and very much enjoying a room filled with antiques and facing the Grand Canal.
However, again, in the middle of the night, I awoke with a jolt, feeling incredibly hot and suffocated.

I automatically assumed it was the air conditioning and so I called the front desk to complain.

The night clerk arrived within minutes, white as a sheet. Without explanation, he moved me to another room where I promptly resumed a comfortable rest.

Scroll down to read about the ghosts on England…

A GHOST IN MY ROOM IN VENICE

I thought it odd that he hadn’t even bothered to check the room’s cooling system, but soon forgot about this.

I stayed on for a few more days, walking around Venice and making the rounds of my favorite shops. I even spent a day at the Lido, hanging around a beach.

Later, I found out from one of the young men at the concierge desk – who I bumped into at a pizzeria one evening – that my first hotel room was known to be haunted, and that guests often complained feeling suffocated while sleeping there.

That’s why the night clerk looked like he’d literally seen a ghost…

Scroll down to read about the ghosts on England…

BRITAIN IS FULL OF GHOSTS
Interestingly, the United Kingdom (UK) seems to have more ghostly encounters compared to the rest of Europe.
Major tourist destinations like London, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews all feature very popular ghost tours.

And, while many of these tours are purely for fun. I did the St. Andrews ghost tour one evening, for instance, and there was absolutely nothing scary about it.

In fact, it was so un-scary (even if St. Andrews can be a rather somber town, especially on a dark and overcast day) that the organisers had to rustle up a fake ghost to appear before its clients.

A man in a ghost costume surprised us at the end of the tour.

Nevertheless, some tours are just not for the faint-hearted.

THE EDINBURGH GHOST TOUR

I once joined an Edinburgh ghost tour that took in many locations with gory and violent pasts. It took us to Mary’s Close, an underground attraction that is reportedly among Edinburgh’s most haunted places.

Then it terminated in a local cemetery well-known for apparitions.

I had to leave midway because of a terribly uneasy feeling. Apparently, not a few participants experience this, and some even start shaking all over.


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THE MOST HAUNTED HOTEL IN ENGLAND
While many hotels worldwide might consider a ghostly resident as a public relations nightmare, quite a number of UK hotels seem to revel in, if not enjoy, the notoriety.

Some even employ their ghosts as an effective marketing tool.

The 12th century luxury Ettington Park Hotel near Stratford-upon-Avon, for example, is often called England’s most haunted hotel.

THE LADY IN WHITE

This isn’t just because it’s neo-gothic architecture fits the popular imagery of a haunted house.

Both guests and hotel staff frequently report seeing a lady in white roaming the corridors and hearing banging doors and footsteps from empty rooms.

BANGING DOORS IN THE COTSWOLDS 
I had a similar experience at a 16th century hotel in the Cotswolds, an area of ancient origins that almost certainly has a ghost story haunting every neighborhood.

My suite – which was fashioned out of several rooms in the attic — was large, bright and decorated in pastel colored chintz.

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SPIRITS AT MIDNIGHT
I was very pleased with it until midnight came (what is it with ghosts and the midnight hour anyway?) when I was again woken up by the incessant banging of my bathroom door. 

This was in spite of closed windows and no wind at all.

I closed the door, but it simply started again after half an hour – as if someone was teasing me and preventing me from sleeping.

EARLY MORNING ESCAPE

I feigned sleep for the rest of the night, not wanting to come face to face with the unexpected by turning on the lights.

Of course, at daybreak, we checked out.
I’m from Asia after all, and if I were to encounter the supernatural, I’d much prefer them to be from where I hail.

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