Venice with Locals (what's it REALLY like?) Italy ep.3
hi we're The Budgeteers. We're on a journey across italy with a total budget of just 1.000 euros each. And in this episode we're exploring one of the most iconic cities in the world, Venice. We're gonna see how overrun this dream tourist destination really is! so join us here in Venice where we try and do as much as possible on a budget. But first join us to see what it took us to get here...
this adventure series is made possible thanks to these amazing travel brands: Ortlieb, Komoot and TropicFeel and tropic feel we need hurry ups a little steeper Let's go. last time you saw us we were in lake Garda pedaling for our lives and racing against the clock in order to make it to the train station in time so that we could make it to Venice. It's like spinclass and we have to try like you really get a train. thankfully we got there in time so we could rest and take it easy all until this happened... what! wait...
I'm so confused. normally they wait for anyone who wants to jump on on the platform to enter the train. literally have one minute to jump on, not even 30 seconds. 30 seconds.
sorry we're totally new to trains in italy. uh oh this is stressful. i quit! another development: so we may have just missed our train. we don't know but if we did that's just the cherry on top. because we have our host in venice who forgot that he can't host us tonight. so we have to still find accommodation now.
then we had another host set up in another city and that i just got a message saying that fell through. -we just had two hosts in one hour cancelling on us... while it was getting dark we still had no idea if there was still a train that could get us to venice tonight. okay there is some good news: we found an actual experienced bike packer i might say. she just crossed the alps all the way from germany, to here? wow lena put the phone down we're going on this train and we're not missing this one.
luckily we had some really interesting company on our long train ride of three hours but in the end we made it to venice in the middle of the night. we arrived This is a train station outside of venice but it's 11 o'clock at night and we have not booked anything but we know a hostel which we're gonna check out. we made it at the hostel. it's taller than Thys. yeah just barely.
that is such an unattractive angle. how much was it for tonight? 16 euros. Welcome to europe, that's like still cheap.
so in the end we found a bed and were able to check in at midnight which wasn't an ideal hour but we were thankfully able to find some food. they're massive! and fries. i thought they might be too small but apparently no. i don't even think i can get my mouth around it. "that's what she said" we met some people uh this is Rick, and this is Liz. Rick is from the netherlands and Liz's from the uk and we just met them here.
Thys made friends, i leave him alone for two minutes... Our new friends even gave us their leftover breakfast which was really kind and a huge time saver because we barely had enough time to get ready and check out. yep this is where we slept and now we have to check out and it's two minutes before checkout time and this is the state of us.
to be fair or ridiculously early checkout time. yeah who checks out at 10!? because we're staying in the mainland part of venice which is just a few kilometers away we still had to hop on a train, which is one of the only ways to enter the city that was built on water. actually staying inside the venice is way too expensive and taking the train really is no effort.
so within a few minutes we've made it straight into the city. so we're excited we're we're up for the challenge of Budgeteering venice. because obviously it's probably the most, if not one of the most expensive cities in all of italy. and i'm really excited, i've been looking forward to this for a long time. venice is supposed to be incredibly beautiful, but also very touristy so this is where our interests really clash. But we want to do as much as possible, see as much as possible on a budget today here in venice. and we're gonna meet up with someone who's
gonna show us around and show the local side of venice. so let's go. this is the most beautiful train station exit i've ever seen! immediately on the water hey so happy to meet you. I'm happy too.
thank you so much. i see you on youtube, you are famous. No, we're not. -not not at all. i was in australia when the Budgeteers started.
she was there at the very very very beginning. at the birth. yes.
When Thys was in labor. When Thys was a farmer. She was in the same farm as me and Paddy.
What we do first? because it's lunch time, i was thinking to do a baccararo tour. Okay so bacaro is a typical place to go and drink wine, eat cicchetti so you're gonna try something that we locals do here in venice. Perfect ,that's what we do. we love it.
so we're gonna walk around venice like the real venetians do. but to avoid the crowds of tourists on the main roads we follow Lorena and take a turn into one of the many narrow streets. we walk over tons of small bridges and past cute little canals all the way until we end up in a really small local place where they serve real local food paired with their own wine so we had to give it all a try...
oh everything in italy's bad luck and this is sarde in sour. sour sardines basically. yeah since we're in such an idyllic location, and on such a lovely day with the music in the background, we had to go for a second round and give all the other cicchetti a taste. after lunching as the venetians do Lorena took us for a long walk around the city to see all of the beautiful houses, alleyways and canals in the city. and also to stop and taste some more local food.
we did another food stop. mozzarella incaroza. we were a little bit hungry after all those proseccos and we have a lot of walking to do so might as well eat more. you can smell the salt air and then taste the sardines. i love food.
that's why we're here. one of the reasons we chose italy. we have to try all the food.
we have to try all the food on our budget. Lorena took us through a maze of little streets in her courtyards and across too many canals to count. but there's only a few main bridges so we end up back on the main tourist road eventually. we're back where all the tourists are. one of the popular places to visit here in venice is a strange place, if you can find it at least.
it's a book shop. a bookshop in a city that floods on a regular basis. it's called the Libreria Aqua Alta, so apparently the owner while trying to save the books. he put the books a little bit upper. you will see inside the famous stairs made with books. let's see.
it is a wee bit crowded with all kind of tourists. this is a librarian's nightmare. it's amazing to see all of the creative ways this bookshop owner protects his books from the high tide and it's no surprise that this unique bookshop attracts so many curious visitors. do you want to grow up? go up? okay. And going up the famous stairs made of books is a reminder that the water is never too far away here in venice. after walking around venice for an entire day lorena still had to show us the most famous and most touristy part of venice: san marco square.
so back in the days of the republic, the prisoner had the last chance. so if they could make it to go around a special column here. Then they were saved.
do you want to try it? yes, you have to go around and you can not fall down. if you can do it you are saved. oh no the sun is about to go down. and we're finishing our day here in the most famous part of venice, san marco square. it's been a long day.
we're gonna go meet our couchsurfing host. here in venice, Matteo. So we're gonna head back on the train and meet him there. we've been walking around oh my gosh with all our bags across venice mestre and we're waiting for him to come down and let us in and we're really excited and we're also really hungry. hey we made it, finally! how are you? i'm good i'm Lina. hi nice to meet you.
nice to meet you. hey i'm Thys nice to meet you. Sorry i've got all these bags. i'm so sorry we're late. no it's okay it's okay.
well this is cozy thank you so much for hosting us. it's a pleasure. you can see that it's very comfortable. we're really excited.
I'm gonna cook pasta for you. you're serious? wow what a nice place. did you? wow this is amazing, and this is a good song. look at this bed. you can cuddle the dolphin at night.
i'm so excited it's so cute. yeah just sit down please. Can i help you? no it's okay don't worry sit down. i founded a startup in the travel business. ah cool it's like a sort of blabla car, airbnb for travels. yeah that could be interesting.
yeah i read your profile and i said wow it's cool. i want to know everything about yous. we'll tell you everything. yeah because some people that read our program they're like what they're filming? what's that? and they don't wanna host us. i mean i put a warning in every message because if people don't want it i understand. and i would rather people know before.
Matteo's great company, his fun personality and also his amazing cooking was the perfect way to unwind after what had been an amazing but exhausting past few days of exploring. so we were really grateful to Matteo for welcoming us into his home and making us feel so at ease. okay our couchsurfing host Matteo, who's actually in an other life in the past, a rock star in an italian metal band which toured the world. good morning.
oh you got a coffee going! Lina's bike was having some problems so i'm gonna see how much it is to repair it. and hopefully they speak some kind of english because my italian is non-existent, except bonjourno and grazie. Do you know how much costs? about? or does it depend on... if we don't have to change the part it's not
expensive. okay which one okay perfect perfect grazie. i come back with the other bike. so for 10 euros each we both got our crappy old bikes revised and checked. that went really well all right, great.
we've talked about it on camera a few times. all of our plans keep falling through are with our couchsurfing host until tomorrow morning. he has to go travel for work tomorrow morning so we have to be out of his place tomorrow morning. which is like the one and only sure thing.
yeah yeah but we just have no idea what we're gonna do next or where we're going.. nope you know things things fall apart and plans keep falling through. it's stressful and we don't know what's gonna happen but we're gonna make the best of it and we'll like you're happy to follow along on our journey. we're having the best time here in venice so at the same time we kind of need to remind ourselves: this is great, just enjoy the moment while while it lasts now. we're having the best time here in venice.
it's so good today. oh no, did i bring my sick pills? oh no no no no no. The reason why Lina is so concerned about forgetting her motion sickness pills. because we are planning to go on the ferries and water buses today. a day ticket to go unlimited boats all around venice does cost a lot but let's see if it's worth the price. venice is a maze so for even on the boats it's it is complicated.
but there's a lot of water taxes here. so we're on the water taxi, it's a little bit confusing so we think we're going the right way. we're pretty sure we have to get off at the next stop.
and then we get on another we transfer to another water taxi that takes to Burano. it's a nice view. this really is the best way to discover venice because you get to see the best views from the water. the water taxis actually go all around the city which makes it even more impressive.
this is a city that's really built in the middle of the sea. so this is the reality of tourism here in venice. there's a crazy long line to get to Burano! okay it's like 45 minutes later... and we're still in line. this is a part where we can sit.
this is a part of real travel. we made it. we got off we made it. The sardines are out of the tin. Burrano is known for all the colorful houses.
yeah uh this is kind of the fisherman's village right beside Venice. It keeps amazing me how big Venice is. this is actually a really cute very quiet quiet little town. yeah, funny thing is this must have been like a couple years ago really quiet town with only locals. yeah then an instagramer came and took a photo in a dress...
i'm just kidding we made that up. moving by water taxi in venice is a lot faster than walking. oh my god it's so complicated.
it's so difficult to understand the routs. but once you get a hang of it it's fun! this is by far the best sunset spot you can find here in venice. it's a wee bit crowded but a few people are allowed to go in one by one and we managed to get in.
thank you thank you thank you Lorena. We booked well in advance. well we have everything planned on this series. yeah look! the perfect spot to finish off our last evening in venice, it has an amazing view of overlooking all of the city, and all of the bell towers, all of the churches. and the only thing we're missing is a beer now, or a good prosecco. at this point we're going to enjoy the last views of venice before the sun goes down.
so we're going to try this. i have not tried these yet they're called spritz and it's with wine? this is with aperol. touch the table perfect summer drink. the way it should be.
and as the sun went down and all the tourists returned to their hotels we went in search for the place where the locals go for a night out we're finishing up the night here in santa margarita. this is known to be like the local square this is where all the locals hang out yeah all the young people students and yeah to finish with the apperativo. We wanna eat. i want to say hi to everybody who knows me, so in case just contact me Lorena.
Lorena, tour guide in venice . and uh we're waiting for our couchsurfing house Matteo to meet us here and then we're gonna get some food. Mateo's here hey how are you doing good ah it's not like guys the table wow look at the moon bye bye venice bye-bye yeah we haven't schooled me i haven't left no okay now we can go all right thank you so much it was a pleasure huh whatever i am if you are thank you so much man i checked online there is a train within 25 minutes where we can take our bikes on.
okay we're here at the train station we're about to leave uh what were your thoughts on venice? really touristic but really really beautiful, i still think it's really worth seeing. yeah there are still locals and i'm very i'm very happy to see that. and it's such a unique city even with the prices it's still worth it because we've just calculated we spent about 75 euros each. and that was on 2-3 days and we've had fun we've had drinks so it is possible to do venice on a budget now we're gonna change things up because we're now getting on the train and this is where we're going outside of the cities because we've been in the touristy places. now we're going outside.
we're gonna go into the local countryside of italy and we're gonna do something really exciting that we know you guys are gonna love. yeah yeah yeah for sure and we're gonna start using these bikes. we don't know what's happening next but please go and watch the next episode and we'll see you there. we're gonna be late we're gonna miss our trip on to the next train because we still have to see a lot of italy go let's go all the way down
2022-05-03 06:31
