No roads, just water, and 117 small interconnected islands cut through with a winding Canal Grande.
There is no way to get around aside from boat or walking. That's pretty cool, gotta say. We crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi, one of four bridges over the entire canal.
It's hard to take a bad picture in this place.
We found our place before too long, only getting moderately turned around in the myriad of paths, squares, tiny bridges. At times it appeared that you simply can't get there from here.
Our place was basically just one of a couple rooms in an old lady's apartment off of a square. Her English wasn't great, and she requested the piece of paper that I brought confirming our reservation. After seeing the room, we wanted to double-check that we were getting the bed that we paid for, so we asked to see our piece of paper. She informed us that we couldn't and disappeared. She then got it into her head that we didn't want the room, so returned to berate us, then disappeared again. She returned with her daughter on the phone, whose English apparently was a little better. Amanda had a lovely conversation with her in a mixture of Spanish-informed Italian and English, where we eventually were able to sort out that 1) we just wanted to see our paper 2) we never said or implied that we didn't want the room or wouldn't pay. Once her money was again secured in her mind, the old lady was nothing but pleasant. Her little rat dog, Dante, still sucked. View from the window:
The location was nice though. It was far enough from the center of town that we weren't surrounded by tourists but close enough to be a quick walk, once we learned our way/paid attention to the signs. The square itself had a grocery store and several restaurants, making it a pleasantly lively scene in the evenings.
So we took our first wander down to the Piazza San Marco, the center of town. We had to cross back over the Canal Grande to get from our place to the Piazza, over the Ponte di Rialto.
(Disregard the split gondola at the bottom) Until the 19th century, this was the only bridge over the entire canal.
The Piazza is pretty huge.
The Basilica di San Marco is very impressive. Lots of gold, colored marble, and Byzantine mosaics.
You can tell that Venice was a big melting pot of different cultures.
We walked alongside the Palazzo Ducale and through the Piazetta, an extension of the Piazza that sits on the water and contains two statues emblematic of Venice: Saint Theodore (with slain dragon) and Saint Mark (symbolized by the winged lion).
There was a little green park area nearby. Didn't see many of those.
We wandered along the water and wound up near the old Arsenale di Venezia, the complex of shipyards that managed Venice's strong fleet through much of its history.
Keeping an eye on the map, we headed back in the general direction of home to see what we could see (and find dinner). We ate at a place right off of our square, where we met Joe the puppy, who became a common sight tableside.
I had fegato alla venezia (calves liver), which was enjoyable, but I'm quite happy keeping my consumption of organ meat to a minimum.
Clearly, it was gelato time afterward, so we went to find some of that and ended up back by the train station for a beautiful sunset.
Stopping home briefly before acquiring gelato, we ended up on a hunt for an internet cafe or calling card for far too long due to people trying to get hold of us back stateside for pressing Recession Sessions business. I'm not sure if we ever ended up getting gelato that night.
The next morning, Day 18, June 24th, we headed back to the Piazza San Marco. As you get toward the center of town, the high end stores and packs of tourists become overwhelming. Overall, though, I was impressed by how much old Venice felt like a living city despite the enormous tourism it has always had. Early in the morning, trash collectors would be out, and boats would be ferrying lumber and other supplies around. And there are definitely working fish markets.
Back at the Piazza, we spent the morning in the Palazzo Ducale, the former residence of Venice's Doge, the leader of its strange traditional governmental setup. It's a beautiful complex of buildings and contains lots of great stuff.
The enormous paintings in this room depicted Venice's many naval victories. The most famous is probably the Battle of Lepanto, when a coalition of Mediterranean Catholic nations destroyed the Ottoman Empire's main fleet. It also "was the last major naval battle fought almost entirely between oar-powered galleys". If reality was anything like the paintings, it must have been quite the sight.
You also get to follow the path of old troublemakers and cross the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs).
We wandered westward in the afternoon, finding some interesting churches and buildings. It turns out that Pisa isn't the only place with a leaning tower.
The Chiesa di Santo Stefano is famous for the interior of its roof, which invokes a ship's keel, paying homage to Venice's heritage.
A smaller church held an exhibit on Vivaldi and other music history of Venice, which I thought was a nice way to use a nice space that no one wants to use for its original purpose.
We looped around the southern arm, which hugs the bottom and end of the Canal Grande. The Ponte dell'Accademia took us over.
Notice the shape of the windows.
There was the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute, which has a crazy design.
Inside the sacristy, there was a bunch of works by Titian.
We went to the Museo Correr, which is on the main Piazza, for a little while since it came with our Palazzo tickets. It had some cool stuff in it.
Afterward, we made a quick stop at an internet cafe, and then wandered north through the Cannaregio district.
The Jewish ghetto is there, and they do their part to keep Venice famous for its glasswork.
As the evening game, we stopped home for a shower so that we could be presentable for dinner for a change. We had reservations (!) at a really good vegetarian place nearby, and it did not disappoint.
We picked up some cherries and cookies and enjoyed both in the square near home. Joe was up to his usual mischief.
The following day, we started off with the Museo Storico Navale, down near the Arsenale.
Another leaning tower on the way. The naval museum has artifacts from Venice's entire naval history and was pretty sweet.
Captured swords.
These are big rings by which Venice would "marry" the sea.
And who knew that gondolas aren't symmetrical? They're designed that way to account for the rower working on one side.
From there, we took a water bus (vaporetti, how cool of a word is that) to the nearby island of Murano, which has been the heart of Venice's glass industry ever since the glassmakers were moved there to avoid burning down the entire city. It's still basically what the entire island is geared toward.
Piazza San Marco (basilica, campanile, doge's palace), Piazzetta, and the little park from the water.
There was lots of crazy glasswork in each window, showcasing each artist's prowess. It was nice to walk around, looking in windows and getting a few things for ourselves.
We picked up some cheese, basil, tomatoes, and bread from the grocery store, which made a great picnic lunch by the water. This would be a recurring meal.
On the way back to the main city, we passed the Arsenale from the outside. These vaporetti operate on different colored and numbered lines, stopping fairly regularly, just like buses would in a normal city.
We hopped off back near the main Piazza and took the elevator (no stairs option!) up the campanile for a nice view of the city.
Unfortunately, not quite high enough to see all of the little canals separating the islands.
Amanda remembered getting and subsequently breaking one of these little cornstarch men being sold for one euro by countless people, so we picked one up as another travel buddy.
We hunted down the bakery Pasticceria Rizzardini to recharge with meringues and marmalade-filled Venetian doughnuts before making the trek back to our place. We recuperated for a bit and planned for the next day, when we would leave Venice for the long train across Northern Italy. We had dinner at a different place in our piazza, and it was another beautiful night.
It's kind of crazy that Venice even exists.
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