Venice

Venice

We drove from Greve to Bologna, returned our rental car and caught the train to Venice. This was the first time we’d used our Euro pass which means that we can travel first class. What luxury in a highspeed train. We were there in no time travelling up to 160 k/hr.

I’d been looking forward to coming to Venice with Bob for some time as we’ve both been individually since coming for a day when we were living in Germany and Simon was about 4 months old.

This Bob's favourite picture that he took in Venice. He's a real perfectionist with his photography so if he's pleased with a picture he took it's good!

We booked into our hotel - Hotel Arcadia. It is near the railway station and about a 20 minute walk from St Marcs Square (that is if you don’t get lost which we did constantly at first).

The hotel is an old Venetian family home which has 17 rooms and has recently been extensively renovated. A huge undertaking. It is owned by a group of 4 – one of whom is managing it. The attention to detail is amazing. The breakfasts were sumptious. The old dining and living room where we had breakfast has lovely high ceilings and a chandelier that I doubt would fit into our lounge let alone hang in it. The staff couldn’t do enough for us. In fact a couple of times it was getting almost Monte Pythonish in their eagerness to please. I really wish them well.

                                            Great breakfasts served in the old dining room.

Our room had a small balcony and looked down onto this street market below

The first day we arrived we walked into St Marcs Square and looked around. What did we see – well mainly other tourists. We were tired from a late night and early morning and it was hot. We got lost walking back to our room and went entirely in the wrong direction, stopped to have a meal and got poor food and poor service. I was thinking what have we done even coming here.

However the next day we did an organised walking tour which was excellent and started to get a feel for the place. We ended up discovering that there is lots more to Venice than the crowds who can be avoided. It is not Disneyland but a functioning city facing lots of challenges. We stayed long enough to know that we saw a small amount of what there is to see and that it is an amazing place with some proud and committed citizens.

I think Bob could write our trip to Venice off as a tax deduction given the number of photos he took of water behaving in various ways to use for his lectures.

Some of the things I didn't know about Venice before this trip are 
         - Venice was built as a defence from the Huns and Lombards as the power of the Western Roman Empire dwindled in the early 8th century. 
        - Venice was aligned with Eastern countries and is Byzantine in origin - very different to Florence and Rome which were more aligned with Roman Catholicism.
         - it is built on a series of over 100 islands. All the canals are the natural breaks between the islands. 
         - the canals have had their sides reinforced over the years but the bottoms are still sand.
         - Venice is built on wooden piles. They don't deteriorate over the years as they don't get any oxygen. (can't explain this in detail - ask Bob!). However they do move and this is why the ground is very uneven in places.
         - Venice had a very sophisticated way of collecting and storing water for it's time by having collection holes for rain water which was filtered through the natural underlying sand and stored in cisterns like wells where water could be collected. Many of theses wells still exist although are no longer functioning.
         - sewerage used to go into the canals until the early 1970s when a more modern system of septic tanks was introduced.
         - there is a large barrier system being built to control increasing high tides and help protect the city. Some locals, including out tour guide, are cynical about how much it is costing and the likely benefits.
         - The population of Venice is dwindling. It was 175.000 at the end of the WW2 and is now less than 60.000. A large proportion of residents are seniors. It is very expensive to live in Venice and young people often move to Maestre nearby where it is cheaper and they can have more room.
         - much of the Venetian life takes place on the water which are equivalent to roads. Most inhabitants own a boat and use it for getting around - other than short walking trips. 
       
 We took so many photographs.  It's hard to know what to share.  
Let's start with Piazza San Marco or St Mark's Square.
   

 Lots of people love to feed the pigeons. Not really for us but we did have a drink eventually. The square is notoriously expensive. The first place we went to was charging about $15 for each drink with a $9 surcharge because music was playing. We decided we'd choke if we did that but then found another cafe charging $7 for a drink and we succumbed.

                         
                              The architecture is amazing and of course there's lots of people.

                       Of course we had to have an ice cream on the square and very good they were too.

Had to add these shoes. How do they walk - I don't know. And the usual bride that we've come to see.

This is a sad photo of a women begging. We saw a few adopting this posture for ages. We did give her a donation after taking the picture.

                                                   Basilica di San Marco

There's a photo of the outside of the Church above with scaffolding on it. It took over 800 years to build.

It's not easy to take pictures inside but look at all the marble floors again.

The exterior has lots of marble of different colours and it changes colour in the light. We had a meal in a lane way nearby one evening and every time I looked it seemed subtly different.

Now I know you'd expect better of me but..... The first day when we went to St Marc's Piazza it was late afternoon and there was almost no queue to go into the basilica so we decided to go. While we were in the queue Bob reminded me that I was not suitably dressed. After all my ranting about being prepared too. So ... while I may be prepared to look a little silly to amuse you I promise you this was not the plan this time. I have to tell you the paper shawl was very hot and not a becoming colour for me - and I had to pay 1 Euro for it!