Venice

June 13 - 14, 2007

Lisa really wanted to go to Venice while she was here in Europe. Sadly, Mike could not go with us because he had class, but he had already been to Venice in High School. So, Lisa and I took the night train into Venice while Mike stayed in Munich. The train left Munich at about midnight and then got into Venice at about 7:30am. It was wonderful. Not many places were open, but we found a café selling great pastries that we ate while watching the city wake up. The island of Venice is not all that large, and we bought a map, so we decided to wander through the streets while making our way to Piazza San Marco. Its so much harder than it sounds. Venice has wonderful narrow winding streets that you could get lost in for days. At times the streets stop at a wall, canal, or building and you have to backtrack and find a different street, and because the streets are not straight, its incredibly easy to walk in the wrong direction. Thank goodness for the street index on the map!
We finally made our way across the Grand Canal near the Accademia. We had heard all about this building in Art History 101 at GVSU and still remembered the name 7 years after the class, so we really wanted to see it. It was under construction… So there was scaffolding and big advertisements all over it. But at least the views of the city from the bridge over the canal were great.
It only took us 3 ½ hours to get to Piazza San Marco, but we got there! The Piazza is huge and filled with people, even at 11:00am. It’s a huge tourist thing to buy pigeon food and feed the birds. Well, the stupid people actually feed the things out of their hands so that the pigeons climb all over them. They even let them land on their heads! And parents think this is great. Photo opportunity of the century to them. All I could think off is all the diseases those little rats with wings probably carried and how they have to poop sometime with all that food. I hope that they scrub their children with bleach after playing with those vile birds. The line to get into the basilica was pretty long, so we decided to come back during lunch time since the lines are usually shorter while everyone is eating.
In the meantime we wandered more streets. Its interesting to see a big city like that without cars and how they get on without them. Everything is done by boat: the trash pick-up, laundry pick-up/drop off, some market stalls were done by boat, travel, etc. The canals are, of course, pretty gross. The water color is fairly unnatural and things are floating in it all over. We did see kayakers, but again I think a good scrubbing with bleach afterwards would have to be in order. I think living in Venice during the hot summer months would have been pure torture as a child. You can definitely not swim in the canals nor do I think you can in the surrounding ocean.
We checked out taking a gondola ride, but for a forty minute ride, it was going to be 80 euro (about $100). Given that Mike and I have no real income this summer, I didn’t think that this would be a wise spending of our money. But I doubt I would have said “ok” if we did have income. That’s a really expensive 40 minutes when I could just walk the streets and see the same thing.
We moseyed through more streets and did lots of window shopping as we made our way back to San Marco. By the time we got back to the basilica, the line was much shorter and moving much faster. All the ladies in short skirts/shorts and sleeveless tops were holding us up greatly. You would think that more guidebooks would tell you that in Italy you HAVE to dress appropriately to get into churches. Maybe they do and no one pays attention…
The inside of the basilica is incredibly beautiful. There are amazing mosaics all over the walls, and even the floors are beautiful. You cannot take pictures inside, which is understandable, but is still a bummer. It would be nice not to have to buy expensive postcards, but such is life. We went into the treasury, which neither of us knew what to expect. I had not been into any of them yet, but it was interesting. Along with some beautiful old objects - such as bible covers, goblets, candelabras, etc. – there are bones of various Saints. None of them were labeled, so I have no idea what ones are what, but it was slightly creepy to see all the bones of long dead Saints.
Our hotel for the night was on the mainland. So we made our way back to the other side of the island and to our hotel. Instead of coming back into the city center that night, we were recommended a pizzeria in the area. Not only was it much cheaper than the island, but it was frequented by actual Italians, not tourists. Nice to know the food is authentic enough to be eaten by people that live there! And the pizza was very, very tasty.
The next day we headed back to Venice and went straight to the small island of Murano, which is known for their glass making. When we got there, we were able to see the glass being made and the process was explained to us. It was really interesting, and really HOT in that room. I cannot imagine working there, but those guys were incredibly talented. The island was really pretty to walk around in and window shop. There were lots of shops selling the glass works, but they were really expensive, and those that weren’t… I would be afraid would break on the way back to Michigan.
After Murano, we headed over to Burano. Its an even smaller island known for their beautiful lace work. It took us even less time to window shop through the town center, but the lace work was very beautiful. The rest of the town was great as well. The houses were brightly painted and the flowers were gorgeous. By the time we were done pursuing the islands, it was almost 3pm and it sounded like a huge thunderstorm was coming in. We wanted to get back to the main island of Venice before it fully rolled in. Thankfully, we just got the cool winds from the storm and saw the lightening and thunder. It threatened on and off all day, but passed us every time! We walked through more streets, watched people in Piazza San Marco – and there are a lot of them to watch! – and then headed to dinner. We ate at a wonderful little restaurant right off Piazza San Marco. Service is a lot more hands off there, so we were easily able to have a long Italian meal, which was great as we needed to kill time before our train headed out at 11pm.
Venice is incredibly pretty – the streets are beautiful, the canals interesting, and the food amazing – but it was nice to be going back to Munich. It was my first vacation without Mike since I met him. I did not like vacationing without him, even for a couple of days.