Till now about a hundred films must have been shot in Venice. Or even more than that. Every place has a city centre kind of location. Italian cities call them Centro Storico or the historical centre. The centre of the city of Venice is the St Mark's Square or the San Marco Piazza. Everything in Venice is named after Marco Polo..the Venice International Airport, this square and various bus stops and water taxi stations. No matter wherever a film is shot in Venice, there is always a glimpse of the St Marks Square.
We walked to the edge of the canal and then finally took a water taxi to reach St marks Square. There was a surface route definitely, but who had the time/patience/knowledge to reach there by foot? Well the sad part is that we reached in the afternoon; when it was bustling with tourists. To say the place was crowded is an understatement. It was stuffed with visitors! There was absolutely no place to walk!
The St Marks Basilica is a beautiful architecture by itself. It is one of the most famous churches of Italy and is an excellent example of Italo Byzantine architecture. It lies adjacent to Doge's Palace or the Palazzo Ducalo. The basilica was finished building in 832. That's way back. Since then there had been lots of restoration projects. The bell tower or the Campanile offers bird's eye view of entire Venice. But we neither had time nor money to go up there.
I had seen this place so many times in movies that I felt a kind of Deja vu. In fact Venice was more beautiful in reality. The latest song to be etched in my mind was the ''Khuda jaane '' from Bachna Ae Haseeno. I could feel Deepika and Ranbeer running in the courtyard. They must have shot really early in the morning as it was impossible to imagine that place sans the crowd.
The Basilica had just closed when we tried to go inside. It was a boon in disguise as we running short of time. So instead of fretting or waiting, we roamed around the courtyard. We saw the Doge's Palace from outside. The palace had been restored multiple times because of fires and structural failures. It represents Venetian Gothic architecture. It used to be the residence of the highest authority of Venice from the 9 th century. It looked magnificent nonetheless. We were awestruck by the vibes of these ancient wonders and the chirping of the tourists. Finally we decided to board a water taxi to go to Lido island.
Tip: If you want perfect pictures go early in the morning to avoid the crowd. Waking up and strolling on the cobbled streets sans the crowd is my idea of heaven.
