Venice

I must be the first person in history to go to Venice… and not get lost… at all… I promise… no really I walked into that canal on purpose… well… not really but wouldn’t that have be a fun story to tell… and no I did not fall in the canal… but we did do some meandering around. Venice is really much nicer than I assumed it would be… I mean you hear other Italians call it “Disneyland” and you start to worry… but all in all it is rather pleasant. Now don’t get me wrong I can see why they call it that, and yes it is way too damn touristy for me and the prices that go along with it.

I am not sure if it is just the fact that this was the first canal city I have ever been to, but I really enjoyed the uniqueness of Venezia. I cannot help but imagine its beauty hundreds of years ago when its canals were filled with gondolas and galleys, instead of the vaporetti (water taxi/bus) and tourist boats of today.

Our hostel was run by an extremely nice lady named Amanda, and her lovely baby Giacomo, to whom we owe many thanks and without whom we would definitely not had such a great time. The afternoon we arrived, we really just wandered around, catching all of the main tourista stuff like Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge (which our hostel was very near to). We spent the evening around the Piazza Santa Margherita, which had a younger more vibrant crowd and was a lot of fun. On our way to Santa Margherita, we just turned around a little and ended up at Piazzale Roma, which is where all of the cars and buses access the island… really a rather depressing place, but hey what car garage is not.

Now that I come to think of it, Venice is the only Italian city I have been to where it seems everyone is in a rush. I mean all Italians walk fast and are a little pushy, but at least they commonly congregate around cafes and chat up a storm while they have their infamous 3 hour long dinners where you have to ask for the check 3 or 4 times before the waiter figures out you actually mean it. These people were almost running to their cars and buses, it was really quite odd… so un-Italian… at least the Italian that I am used to. Thankfully when we actually got to Santa Margherita, that all changed; All of the students and young people there behaved as I had previously hoped all Italians did, so perhaps it is just that most of the Italians who work on the main island just want to get away from the tourists and return to normal once they reach the Lido.

This brings up my other pseudo-qualm about Venice… its so damn empty at night… its almost scary. I couldn’t help but dream up a Jack the Ripper story for this place, with al of its fabulous tiny streets and near total lack of lighting… it just seemed to fit… but then again once one thinks about it… Venice may be one of the safest cities in the world, especially in the off-peak season… I mean there are no vagrants, the gypsies are required to have housing… it just seems safe, I wouldn’t personally leave my doors unlocked but I bet you probably could and get away with it.

On our first full day we went back to really explore the areas around San Marco, watching idiot tourists feed the friggin pigeons… I mean seriously I think half of them go to San Marco’s just play with those damn rats… anyway I digress… The piazza is really something to see, I can see why it has become such a famous place to visit… I really think Venice is opulence at its greatest… especially the inside of San Marco, I mean its just gold and mosaics, the sheer amount of work and material is staggering, both visually and financially. After that we wandered around on Murano (island famous for its glass) and saw the Bridge of “Sigh”, it is called this because it was the bridge that ran between the courthouse and the jail, so as prisoners were lead across it, the view would be the last they would every see of the outside world… hence the “sigh” it invokes.

After that we wandered around to the area around the Accademia and its cool wooden bridge that was originally only supposed to be temporary but due to its popularity it has stayed in use for almost a hundred years. After that we did some shopping and went to a restaurant which ended up being more touristy than I care for, even to the point that the waiter was almost trying to push the bill on us… we of course in return delayed it as long as possible and had a fabulous 4 hour dinner complete with dessert and coffee… much to his chagrin.

Our second day started out with running to the post office for the second straight day (too much shopping…grrr … oh well it is friggin Venice), and then we hung out around the Rialto again. The Rialto Bridge is another shopping bridge not terribly dissimilar from Florence’s Ponte Vecchio. The Rialto is divided into 3 stairways with 2 rows of shops in between. Whereas Ponte Vecchio is a large sloped bridge, the Rialto is just a series of stairs and feels stubbier. It seems the 2 side stairs are more for the Venetians to rush by the shopping tourists, than they are for viewing the Grand Canal. Anyway afterwards we went to the nearby Rialto Mercato district which is filled with great food vendor stalls, and a great open air market right off of the Grand Canal. Next to the open air market is the Pesceria, which is a building full of fish vendors… smells great… or something… yay…

After that we were off to the train station again to get our overnight train tickets to Prague (joy!), and then back to Santa Margherita for lunch and more wandering. We ate at the same restaurant as the first night, but this time we ate outside in the piazza. The waiter here is just a nice guy, and his comments about the people who spurned eating at his restaurant were the highlight of my day, just hysterical. After that we just had a great time wandering around and popping in a church here and there, with Jeannie even discovering an artist she hadn’t heard of, Giandomenico Tiepolo, who did an awesome stations of the cross in Chiusa di San Polo. Then we found a rare and used books store, had some pizza cake (Italian term for thicker crusted pizza), and hopped on our train for Prague.

We both look forward to the next time we can come back to Venice so we can see more of the many things that we had to miss this time around… so now onto Prague and more languages I have no hope to understand… yay! high-five!