Venezia, 3-6-09 to 3-8-09
“Thank you for attention.” That’s what the guy on the speaker signed off with after reading the next stop on the train. We (Peter, Stephen, Will, Hannah, Karen, and I) are on our way to Venezia (Venice). It is the 6th of March, and we have been in Italy for exactly one month today. Oh my goodness.
The train we are on is headed for Firenze (Florence), where we will take a connecting train to Venezia. I love train rides. They are undoubtedly the most romantic form of travel. Anyway, we managed to get a train that had compartments. I am sitting in a seat between Stephen and Peter, looking at Hannah, Karen, and Will. The five-hour train ride to Venezia is everything we want it to be: fun, relaxing, and suspense-building.
Once we arrived in Venezia, we jumped off the train and hurried outside. The view that greeted us made me a little giddy. The six of us were standing in a line looking at a bustling scene of the Grand Canal. Water taxis, public water buses, and personal boats cruised along in the water. People milled about and lounged on steps. The buildings were beautiful, and made me instantly think how impossible and incredible a city built on water is. The weather was magically warm and sunny, a stark contrast to Siena, where it had been raining for two days straight.
The first thing we did in Venezia was try and buy two-day passes for the water bus. It’s really expensive to stay in a hostel/hotel on the actual island of Venezia, so we had made a reservation in a hostel on Lido, which is a strip of land right next to Venezia. While we were waiting in line, an older couple came up to us and offered us their tickets. They were French, but spoke some English. They said they were leaving Venezia, but their tickets were good till Sunday, and we were welcome to have them for free. After they left, all of us were like, “Ah, see? This is why we love Italia. Two seconds in Venice, and people are already demonstrating good will. This is what Italy is all about” (Never mind that this happens in the U.S., too).
So, we took the water bus to Lido. The sun was just setting. We apparently have a knack for seeing beautiful sunsets. In the distance, we could just make out a long line of immense, snow-capped mountains. After about 25 minutes, we arrived at Lido and tried to check into our hostel (Hotel Giarinetto, or something like that), but they directed us to another hostel down the street, for reasons unknown. So, we checked into Hotel Reifer (or something like that).
After getting settled in, we immediately set out to get dinner, preferably cheap. It took a few tries before we found something fairly inexpensive. I ordered gnocchi with cream, tomatoes, greens, and almonds. It was good. After dinner, we walked around a little. It was dark by then, and all of Lido was deserted except for one or two outdoors bars with a few people lingering on the stools. Since it was so quiet, and still early, we decided to ride back into Venice.
We got off at the Piazza San Marco. Karen was so psyched to be there. She took a class based entirely on Venetian art at Goucher, and couldn’t wait to see things in real life. It was actually really nice, because I was surrounded by all these historical things and had no idea what I was looking at; Karen gladly explained. And rambled.
After wandering around the Piazza, we started following groups of people to see where they would lead us. We walked along streets that held store after store after store, all lit up with their window displays. There is a store for anything you could possibly think of. Clothes, sunglasses, and shoes, of course. Then Murano Glass, door knockers, different types of food, door knocker store, a store with a knight’s armor in the window, a bookstore with a beautiful display of old copies of Peter Pan, Shakespeare’s Works, and others (which was closed, but we decided it was mandatory to go inside the next day)…everything you could think of. People weren’t lying when they said Venice was expensive.
We continued to follow the crowd, which lead us straight the Rialto. We climbed to the top and were rewarded by a great view of the Grand Canal. After milling about there for a while, we kept walking and found a ton of people. This one bar was really crowded, and people were milling about the piazza and drinking. We stayed for a little while, long enough for the boys to get a drink and for Hannah, Karen, and I to make a friend, and then we left. We took the water bus back to Lido and went to bed.
The next morning, we wanted to get up early and spend as much time in Venice as possible. Everybody was ready on time except for Peter. He’s slow to move in the morning. Stephen waited for him, while the rest of us went to search for a Coop for breakfast. Coop is a grocery store. With Hannah’s magical sense of direction, we soon found one. We loaded up on croissants, bread, meat, cheese, and chips for breakfast and lunch. I bought cookies, too.
We rode the water bus to Piazza San Marco again and went to the information center for a map. Then we milled about the Piazza for a bit. There were people and pigeons everywhere. The pigeons in Venice are unlike anywhere else. Any pigeon will come as close to you as they dare if they think you will toss them a piece of bread. The pigeons in Venice, however, will fly directly into your hands if you hold out bread crumbs for them. Picture the bird woman in Home Alone II, and you will have an accurate depiction of what any person in Venice with crumbs in their hands looks like.
After wandering about the piazza, we found some benches in a small park and sat down to make our panini with salami, ham, and mozzarella. They were quite delicious. While we ate, Karen took control of our map and plotted out what we should see.
We were walking back to the Piazza San Marco to start our day-long exploration, when we passed a long line of gondolas. All of us really wanted to go on a gondola ride, but we figured it would be really expensive. We decided that 15 euros each was the maximum we would pay for a gondola ride, and then Stephen and Peter went up to a man to ask about it. They talked for a few minutes, and then Stephen and Peter came back in defeat. The man refused to give a ride for less than 20 euros. We turned around, and walked for about 20 paces before another gondola man came up to us and said he would give us a ride for 80 euros, which would only end up being about 13 euros for each person. Later, we decided that maybe these gondola men had a strategy to work customers and get the highest price possible out of them. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our ride. Our gondola man took us on a 45 minute tour of Venezia, and explained everything as we went. It was hardly a romantic ride, being crammed onto a gondola with five other people, but it was definitely fun.
After our gondola ride, we got in line to go to the top of the tower in the Piazza San Marco. I had to go to the bathroom, and raced across the Piazza to the public bathroom where I learned that it cost 1.50 euros to use the toilette. I did not have that much in change, and the next biggest bill I had was a 50. I paced around outside the gate for a minute or two trying to figure out what to do, and was seriously thinking about jumping the gate when a man with change came up to me. It was one of the most ridiculous bathroom experiences of my life. Anyway, I ran back to the tower and made it just as everyone else was about to go to the top. There was no other way to go except to take the elevator. At the top, we had a spectacular view of Venezia in all directions. We saw colorful buildings and water stretched out before us, and those immense, snow-capped mountains made another appearance in the distance.
Before we continued our grand tour of Venice, Will, Hannah, Karen, and I really wanted to go to the bookstore that had been closed the night before. The man inside made us wait outside the door for a few minutes; he only allowed a certain amount of people in his store at a time. I could understand why. Once inside, we were surrounded by four walls covered in beautiful, beautiful books. It turns out the books in the window are originals, and all the books inside the store have blank pages. Each journal was stunning. He had ones that looked like they were recovered from ancient temples, beautiful leather-bounds, pretty journals with picturesque scenes of Venice, journals with fairies on the cover, comic book strip journals…everything. If any of us talked in the store, we whispered; it was that spellbinding. I asked the owner if I could take pictures, and did so while Will asked him about his store. Apparently, the owner made every single book in the store, and has been doing so for “too long.” His workshop was right there in the store with him. I couldn’t make myself leave without buying a small journal.
After the bookstore (we spent more time than expected in there, Stephen and Peter begrudgingly told us), we headed to Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a small basilica. It took us some time to get there. Hannalah (what I’ve come to call her, in reference to Fiddler on the Roof) and Karen are fast walkers and wanted to see as many thing as possible, while the rest of us meandered along at a slow pace and drove Karen and Hannalah crazy. We finally made it to the Santa Maria dei Miracoli after seeing more streets, stores, and sights. It was a pretty, little, white church right next to a small canal and bridge (as most things in Venezia are).
Karen also wanted to visit one other basilica called Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. It was far from Santa Maria dei Miracoli. We walked through this one street market that was selling all kinds of things: food, men’s ties, scarves, jewelry, clothing, soaps…everything. Also, we saw a lot of vendors that sold hot wine. I stopped to buy a cup of strawberries.
When we arrived at Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Karen went in by herself and the rest of us remained outside and sat in the sun. Stephen and I bought a crepe with nutella and powdered sugar; it was the most delicious thing ever. I am so excited that there is a crepe place in Baltimore. As we waited for Karen, we soaked up the sun and listened to a man play his guitar in the piazza. We also saw a beggar by the entrance of the church. He was hunched over and shaking. I was about to go give him money when he stood up straight and walked casually away. Oy. I gave the money to the guitar player instead.
After the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, we took a water bus to the Peggy Guggenheim Art Museum. It holds mostly paintings and modern art. I really enjoyed it. I never really liked wandering through museums before, but I think Italy will change that in me. I’ve really loved everything that I’ve seen. In the museum, I took a few pictures of paintings before I realized that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I’m glad I sniped them, though. Just as we were leaving, we realized that one of the employees, a young, blonde, British girl, was the same girl we met in Siena who recommended a bunch of things for us to see. She lives in Siena, but had been in Venezia for five days because she got an internship with the art museum. Pretty cool.
On our way back to the water bus stop, we saw a store with bottles displayed in the window. A couple of them were different kinds of absinthe. I had been wanting to try some, and so Karen, Will, and I bought a bottle to split. We tried it later that night, and all decided that it’s a myth that absinthe makes you hallucinate; it didn’t happen for any of us. It did, however, taste horribly of black liquorice.
The next day, our train was leaving Venezia at about 1 P.M. All of us split up to do our own thing. Karen, Hannah, and I got breakfast at a quaint pastecceria and then went to the Palazzo di San Marco. Will had lunch with his aunt. Stephen went to meet his aunt as well. Peter took his time getting ready in the morning and met us at the train station.
The Palazzo di San Marco was amazing. We were only able to spend about 45 minutes inside, which was nowhere near enough time, but we got to see lots of things. There was a whole room dedicated to old armor, and how it morphed throughout the years. We were in a room that held old guns. I actually didn’t even know there were guns that early in time. My favorite room, however, was the room with the largest oil painting in the world. It was a huge room, and sort of reminded me of a ballroom. Possibly my favorite thing to do with an oil painting is look at the individual people in a large painting. The fact that the artist took time to paint hundreds of different faces and expressions makes me appreciate the piece ten times more. I tried sniping a picture of the oil painting, but alas, I could only get a corner of it.
After seeing the Palazzo, Karen, Hannalah, and I sat in the Piazza waiting for Will. Once he arrived, we headed to the train station. Peter was already there, and he had grabbed a compartment for us. Stephen hopped on at the next stop. After that, it was just another lovely train ride back home.
I Miei Momenti A Italia 