Venice

Venice
Hotel: Principe
Dinner: Hotel Principe

(Grand Canal)

Venice is one of those rare places, that is almost impossible to describe. Sure you can say what everyone says, it is a place where there are gondola’s gliding down narrow water passages, and everywhere people navigate over bridges and around buildings, but hearing this is completely different from physically experiencing Venice. There is a certain theatrical quality to Venice, it exudes with the atmosphere of a carnival, a carnival more specifically for grown ups. Instead of balloons and cotton candy, the place is rich in murano glass and thin expensive
slices of “Italian Pizza.” There are colorful masks all around, and people everywhere are scurrying about trying to find a place where they can squeeze their entire family of 8 onto one gondola with a singer, a musician and a bottle of spumante. Then these same families drink their champange while gliding over the murky waters of the Grand Canal. The whole place, is simply put absolutely ridiculous, but that is the whole ironic beauty of it. Maybe I felt this way about Venice because every post card or picture I have ever seen of the city always shows a picturesque quietness of the city, with maybe one or more people gently gliding down a peaceful canal, and yet in truth Venice is crammed full of people with Gondola drivers busy talking on cell phones as they try to cram 4 large Gondola’s down the same narrow lane, and you yourself pray that you stay far enough away to not smack into the other boats. I suppose my romantic view of Venice was a bit far fetched, I new it was going to be a tourist spot, but I guess a city like this you never can be fully prepared for. I do not with to really scare anyone from visiting Venice, it truly is a marvelous and beautiful city, I just feel that 2 days here has been enough for me, and with the description of the rest of my day I hope to prepare you for what I viewed as the real Venice. Anyway let me tell you about a few things we packed into our very busy day.



Our first stop of the day was, of course after a nice breakfast, was to take a trip in a private boat down the grand canal where we made our final destination to the special Venetian island of Murano, which since 1291 has been the center of the glass making industry in Venice. Once there we saw a demonstration of glass blowing where a 71 year old master glass blower made a beautiful vase an d horse in practically no time at all. The glass that we were all able to view (and possibly purchase if we had a lot of $$$) was really breath taking and since Venice is known for its and glass severely and items, many people bought some extremely expensive items. You guys can probably guess how much I spent (0$) because although it was pretty, I couldn’t really find things below the range of $20.



After the glass blowing we took the boat to piazza San Marco, the biggest and most happening spot in Venice for picture ops, due to the Campanile, the Basillica, and the Doge’s Palace. But before we got to tour any of these historical attractions we had to catch a planned Gondola ride. There were 6 people in each Gondola, and we had 3 Gondola’s go out in a group with a singer and accordion player in the Gondola fitting 4 people. Each of our 3 gondola’s that went out got plastic cups and a bottle of Italian Spumante (very good by the way I highly suggest) and as soon as we popped the cork the Gondola was off. Even though the whole event was a bit ridiculous (laughable really) I did enjoy the event. I think its something that just fits in with the theatrical chaos of the city, and if you can understand and laugh at the absurdity of chugging down plastic cupfuls of wine during a 20 minutes collision filled tour, then it takes little effort to smile through your grit teeth. It’s really one of those things you have to do in while your in Venice, even just to say that you did it. When our watery tour was at an end we were quickly shoved from the boat and were given an hour or so to shop and look around till our next tour.



Due to our little break we decided to stop at Harry’s bar, a bar famous for their Vellini’s (a fresh peach juice mixed with Champagne). I did not personally want one especially right after drinking the Spumante so I instead split a Bellini with Madre. This was overall all a good idea since each Bellini was a huge sum of 15 Euros each (yeah that’s a lot) but I wouldn’t expect anything less from such a tourist stop. They say Ernest Hemingway was one of the famous patron’s that used to go, so hey what the heck for a little taste of history.



I know your probably thinking this seems like a long enough day as it was but it was far from over. After the bar and a little shopping we met up with the group to get ready for our tour of Dogi’s Palace and the Basilica . All I can really share about the trip to each of these landmarks is they were amazing and things you should really take the time to explore on your own. Since we had a tour guide, we were rushed and given little to know time to enjoy each of the landmarks. The guy was absolutely obnoxious and talked in a very condescending way, he skipped half the rooms in the palace and breezed through the tour on useless information. It was like, yes I get it, it’s fresco, and know I don’t care about the latin route of certain words, I actually really want to know about the room and I don’t know the “Dogi’s” who stayed in the “Dogi’s Palace.” I was so frustrated by our tour of the Dogi’s Palace, that halfway through our tour of the Basilica I left the group to tour on my own, which made the whole experience much more worthwhile. The Venetians that created the church were indeed very rich and it took 30 years to build and over 180 year to decorate in all of its extravagant gold and statues. The whole ceiling seemed to be plastered in gold of some kind, entrancing but also a little garish.


(San Marco Square)
Leaving the basilica at our leisure, we decided to go to another art gallery, to perhaps compensate a little for how robbed I felt for flying through the magnificent paintings and works of art at the Dogi’s palace. The museum we did see was the Museo Correr, which had a lot of religious paintings, and after touring at a good slow place, I was once again happy to hit the streets of Venice for shopping. I finally purchased a mask and a gift for Stephen, and this shopping along with a nice dinner outdoors ended our tour of Venice. An over all truly unique experience. Tommorrow we wake up for Pisa and Florence, and I cannot wait for Florence!
Ciao



(This is not part of my journal but an afterthought. Has anyone seen Casino Royale? The new James Bond? I saw it after coming home from Italy and the end of the movie takes place in Venice, most specifically San Marco’s square. When I watched that part of the movie I kept yelling I’ve seen that! Holy crap I’ve walked that way too! It was really neat to have been to the actual place and then be able to recognize it on the big screen. Also good movie I recommend people to see with Italy as the backdrop- La Dolce Vita)