Gondolas on the Grand Canal in Venice
As I said finding in the last story finding the hotel in Venice was quite strenuous - lots of bridges, stairs, with lots of heat and humidity.
After cooling down, and having a shower, we went out wandering the streets of Venice for the evening. Venice is very different than any other city we've been to. None of the streets go very far before dead-ending into a building or a canal. So the best way to get around is a combination of walking and taking a boat ride. The city is full of cool shops and plazas lined with little café's and bars that this time of year are full of people from all over the world.
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Gondolas on the Grand Canal in Venice |
More Gondolas in Venice |
June 14th is Flag Day in the U.S. and is our 13th wedding anniversary. What better place to spend an anniversary than Venice! We planned a nice day of roaming around topped off by an evening Concert / Gondola Ride that turned out to be the highlight of our stay in Venice.
After breakfast we headed out for the Murano glass factory where all the fancy glass art work this area is known for. At the glass factory they also have a gallery and shop that has every kind of fancy glasswork imaginable. Dorothy was able to find all the most finest and most expensive pieces out of the collection, of course, because of her work with stained glass. And yes, we bought a nice simple piece that we're having shipped to us in September.
After the glass factory we caught a waterbus to the Island of Burano, which is known for fine lace. Fortunately Dorothy doesn't like fancy lace things or I'm sure the day would have ended up even more expensive. We did have a very nice lunch before getting back on the waterbus for the long (2 hour) trip back through all the canals back to our hotel.
That evening we had tickets to a "Gondola Concert" which the local hotel association sponsors for their guests. Although it seemed a bit hokey, this affair was quite fun. Basically they loaded up about 10 Gondolas with 4 to 6 people we paddled out into the canals and mingled with one specially outfitted Gondola that had musicians and a signer performing classical music. One of the "features" of this show was one of the goldola drivers who went by the name Dante, who kept dancing and screwing arround until he dropped his oar and fell into his gondola. On this excursion we got to meet a couple, Phoebe and Daniel from Chicago, who were also staying in our hotel. We had such a good time with them on the Gondola Concert that we all headed off for a very nice night of eating and talking until past midnight.
John and Dorothy 13th Aniversary in Venice |
New Friends Daniel and Phoebe in Gondola |
Dante the Crazy Gondolier |
Musicians Gondola for Concert |
After eating and talking well into the night we decided to enjoy the quiet by sleeping in late and having a slow relaxing breakfast. Venice is very quite at night compared to the other big cities that we've been in because there are no cars or whining scooters buzzing around all the time. This really makes it feel like you've been transported to a different time, where things are slower and quieter.
After getting a slow start we decided to go see the Gallerie dell' Academia, and then visit the basilica of San Marco. The Academia Museum was yet another collection of great Italian renaissance art work. One very nice feature of this one however is that they had little cards printed in many languages that told about the works in each room. As the Lonely Planet book says "If you're even mildly interested in art this museum is a must see". San Marco's basilica is another wonderful Byzantine style basilica with a fabulous marble exterior and fine mosaics inside. Our hotel suggested visiting San Marco after 3:00 when it's not so crowded, but when we arrived at 4:30 it was packed with people. We decided climbed to the top of the clock tower to get away from the crowd and get some great pictures of the Venetian landscape.
Basilica of San Marco |
View Venice from San Marco Clock Tower |
Venice Shoreline from San Marco |
When we arrived at our hotel, we decided to ask the guy at the front desk, Carlo, if he had a better way out of the city than walking over all the bridges. After giving a bit of though Carlo started calling his friends around town working on a solution for us. It turns out that Carlo is one of those guys who is well connected and can get almost anything you might want, and he is quite a chess player. The best solution was to have one of his friends who drives a mini bus drive and is authorized to enter the port area drive us out to the train station. Although this solution was dependant on the bike fitting in the mini bus. So we arranged for a test fit, when the driver was coming to pick up a family on the next day. Carlo was funny after all the finagling he used the Italian word for checkmate and said he enjoyed solving out of the ordinary problems.
For dinner we went to a restaurant of one of the friends Carlo called on to get us out of the city. However when we went to leave it was raining and Carlo said he better call before hand because the restaurant was an outside restaurant. After a quick call he said it was no problem they had an inside table for us. When we got to the restaurant we ran into another family from our hotel, who were just leaving the restaurant that said we couldn't get in to the restaurant unless we had reservations. When we stuck our heads in and said that Carlo had sent us, and we got a red carpet treatment from the owner, who was very interested in hearing about the tandem. Staying at the Posania Hotel with a Carlo behind the desk really added to our stay in Venice.
First thing on the agenda for the day was to take a test run to see if the Tandem fit in the mini buss that would take us to the train station. The route over to the port area only had two small bridges, and the bike fit perfectly. So we put our minds at ease about getting out of town.
John and the Bike in Venice |
Then we headed for the Peggy Guggenheim museum for an education in modern art. Since neither Dorothy nor I know anything about works by Picasso, Dolly and their peers, we decided to rent little audio guides. This was quite helpful; as we looked at works by the cubists, surrealists, and others we were glad we had the guide. This is strange stuff.
We also wandered into a shop that makes carnival masks, that boasted supplying masks for the movie "Eye's wide shut" with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. It was really cool to see all the different clay masks decorated with flowers and fantastic colors in every way imaginable.
That evening Dorothy and I decided we just couldn't leave Venice without a private gondola ride though the canals of the city, even though it was very expensive. The trip was nice and romantic, as we cruised past the historic home of Marco Polo, and down the canals of this very old city.
This morning we set out for the Verona and the surrounding mountains, which is a quick train ride from Venice if you can actually get out of Venice. Fortunately Carlo's plan of using the mini bus worked very well, and we didn't end up drenched in sweat by the time we made it to the train station.
Dorothy and I have different impressions of Venice. She really enjoyed the old style charm and the simplicity and the slower pace that not having cars brings. Venice feels like its years away from the crazy pace of Rome. I also liked the old style charm and slow pace but somehow I felt very constrained and almost closterphobic in Venice. Getting around was a nightmare in which every little trip required the map, a waterbus ride, and about an hours travel time. I also felt closed in because building or paved plazas occupy every square inch of the main island of Venice leaving nowhere to stop and sit down other than expensive cafés. On top of those intangibles, Venice is also the most expensive city we have visited yet. All in all I enjoyed our stay and am glad visited, but I don't think it will top my list of cities to return to.