Wednesday 21 August 2013

Venice (Wednesday 21st August 2013)

The rain and grey clouds had gone and once again the sky was blue. Breakfast wasn't much to speak about, not even any cereal. Just bread rolls, one croissant each, juice from a box, and only tea or caffe americano. I couldn't believe that in Venice a Venice hotel I was not able to get a cappuccino or an espresso! Aside from that the hotel is fine. Oh, sorry, I forgot about the crappy WIFI which seems to disappear at about 10:00pm. The signal is “Poor” at best, even though my computer is about 15ft from the office.


 


We headed off in search of the Tourist Information office in St. Mark's square, which is on the other side of the Grand Canal, wandering through the streets and alleys and over countless canals. We brought some Venice souvenirs along the way. If we wanted to return them some some reason we'd never find the store again! In one square, in an exhibition hall was on exhibition of machines designed by Leonardo da Vinci. He had created about 25,000 pages of notes through his long career. 80 percent of them have been lost or destroyed over the centuries. The 5,000 that remain are scattered in about ten different libraries, museums or private collections. Anyway, a bunch of people gathered together pages from the remaining Codices and built replicas of dozens of the machines from his notes and diagrams. I could have spent hours in there but Kerry was outside waiting patiently in a nearby coffee bar. Two amazing facts I didn't know about da Vinci, - 1. he was the bastrard child of an affair between and peasant girl and a young notary from Florence. 2. he wrote left-handed by choice to make it easier to write his notes backwards from right to left. Why he would want to do that, I have no idea. Perhaps fact 3 might be... he was a bit of a practical joker!


We crossed the Grand Canal via the wooden Accademia bridge and found the Tourist Information Office soon after.



It didn't offer much help (or information) for tourists. They took bookings for events and excursion but didn't offer much else. They should be renamed to the Tourist Booking Office. Anyway, we booked a cruise to the three islands off the big one for tomorrow.

St.Mark's square is very large, lined with very expensive cafes on three side. We had been advised by Julius (a former Venetian) to be wary of the costs in St. Mark's cafes. I was immediately on the defensive when at one cafe I saw the very well attired waiters and the quality of the cups, saucers, plates and tea-pots.






So, as advised by Julius, grabbed a menu, saw that a cappuccino cost nine euros, dropped the menu and ran. We didn't really need a coffee anyway. At those prices the guy in Florence looks like a volunteer worker in a soup kitchen. We stood in a queue to visit St. Mark's Basilica whi8h moved very quickly, once again because there is no entry fee. However, when we reached the top of the queue the chap advised that we would need to check our back-pack in...... in that building over there! Not happy, Jan! We did that then jumped the queue and went in. No photographs allowed, no talking, no nothing. We thought we'd the terrace to get a good shot of the square, climbed a long set of stairs.... five euros please. Good-bye! Let's go here and look at the basilica's “treasures”.... three euros please. Good-bye!. What's in here? Oh, a nice Chapel.... two euros please. On principle, good-bye! The ceiling of the domes are entirely done in small ceramic tiles with strong gold overtones. Very impressive. I took some sneaky video. I must check how it came out. I should be able to lift a few worthwhile photos from it.

We left the basilica and headed to the waterfront. There were many people on the dock and it seemed just as many craft in the water. We found the place from where our boat will leave tomorrow. Time for a drink. I thought I'd have a Campari & Soda as I'd seen many people drinking them. “Probably and acquired taste”, was my first thought. I shan't be lining up for my next one any time soon.

Our Lonely Planet had a self-guided walk called the Venice Labyrinth which started in Mt. Mark's square and finished up..... somewhere. We haven't finished it yet! Our first attempt started off poorly. We hadn't gone 100m when we stopped to check our bearings, right outside a Pandora shop. Twenty minutes later we were back in the street with a considerably lighter wallet :( [Greg] :) [Kerry]. We tried to get back on course, got lost, so we went back to the start for attempt #2. We wound up in the same place (not via the Pandora shop this time) so, once again, I let “the force” take over. The combination of Italy's poor attention to detail with street signs coupled with LP's vague map and directions was a search and rescue mission just waiting to happen.

But the walk is aptly named because there is no better word to describe Venice's streets, lanes, alleys and squares.


It's great fun to wandered around them. The biggest problem for navigation is that only rarely can you get a point of reference. When you do it is only good for a few metres before it disappears from sight. Even the tallest church domes, bell-towers or other civic buildings only come into view when you are right on them. The narrowest of thoroughfares that are seemingly going nowhere turn out to be major links between squares or larger streets. And, of course, just to complicate the issue is the countless number of canals and bridges pushing you in one direction or another. It's great fun!

We made slow progress, having only reached stop 7 of 17 after a couple of hours. The church of San Giovanni took some time to get past. It is a 14th century Gothic masterpiece, in my view. “And I should know, I've visited plenty of them” (apologies M. Python). 


It is massive inside in length, height and width. The walls are lined with Renaissance art. Little chapels can be found down either side on the church. A painting of St. Catherine of Siena in in one alcove accompanied by, in an elaborate gold and glass receptacle, her foot. Don't ask! We thoroughly enjoyed this church, took lots of non-flash photos and happily donated the suggested 2.50 euros to the offertory plate. If you're in Venice, forget St. Mark's and go straight to St. Govanni's.

It was past beer-o'clock so we found a bar and had a drink next to a small canal and watched a couple of gondoliers try to drum up some business. They got no one in the 45 minutes we were there. At eighty euros per boat. I'm not surprised. Eighty euros seems to be the price adopted by the members of the VGU (Venetian Gondoliers Union.... I think... but I could have made that up). After pre-dinner drinks we moved all the way across the square to a restaurant there for dinner. I had a pizza, Kerry had Spaghetti Carbonara. Service was a bit slow. I had to threaten to leave before the manager could be bothered to bring the bill.

We continued homeward without direction, just the occasional, un-assuring glance at my map and the occasional sign to Piazzle San Marco, near our hotel. At one stage we must have zigged when we should have zagged and overshot the mark finishing at the Grand Canal, but not too far from the hotel. It was an expensive zig as Kerry found a leather shoulder bag in a little shop which she bought. The proprietor didn't haggle very well taking only ten percent off the price. Somewhere along the way I lost my Lucca hat, which is very sad. We got home via a gelati store and hit the sack.

1 comment:

  1. Kerry, just fantastic that your self guided walk took you straight to a Pandora Shop ;) and then to finish it off with a leather shop!! Must have been devised by a lovely lady, I'm sure!! Greg, shame about your hat :( Was looking forward to seeing it upon your return. Maybe if any of your friends are travelling that way at a later stage they might be able to get another one for you??

    ReplyDelete