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Published: December 30th 2009
When Henry Miller said about travel that your destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things, he must have had Venice in mind. Being here transports you so out of the norm that it's like being in another world, even another time.
We arrived on the 20th to a cold and gray day with the temperatures in the low 30s and freshly fallen snow covering the ground. The north of Italy has been gripped by cold and snowy weather the previous week. From the airport we took the Alaliguna water bus a more scenic option than the bus at a fraction of the cost of a water taxi. After 30 minutes of meandering the lagoon Venice's buildings slowly come to view, their colors muted by the winter light and haze. After a few stops we were in the Grand Canal, the splendor of Venice all around us. A flurry of camera flashes, faces brighten with smiles and jaws drop. More than any city Venice's first impression never disappoints.
Our hotel is in the San Polo district west of the Rialto bridge just off a the campo where locals and their dogs or kids play.
Hotel Acca is a
basic but very clean bed and breakfast run by friendly Lucca. For us the location was perfect, on a district that still has a neighborhood feel and gives you an idea of everyday life here.
With 1500 years of history (including 300 as the most powerful and wealthiest city in Europe), unique setting, blockbuster art, dramatic and sumptuous architecture there is a lot for the traveler to experience in this city. We had originally planned to take side trips only to Verona and Padua which are in the same region (Veneto) as Venice but the call of Florence, only2-3 hours away was too hard to resist and ended up spending a day there. I will write a seperate entry for our trips out of town later. Also, I do not want to bore you with a blow by blow account of our days and nights so I will just list the highlights of our stay in La Serenissima (as Venice is fondly known).
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Walking and losing yourself in the city. Aside from the Vaporetto which only services the major canals walking is the only way to get around here. They have at least 9 different names to describe
the narrow streets and alleys of Venice. Fondamentas that branch into callis that turn into sotoportegos that lead to a rio terra that crosses a ponte to a campo. Remember to navigate by landmark because street numbers are not reliable and as long as you're walking in the general direction of your destination there will be signs that point the way to the major landmarks. Better yet, just get lost. Wander and stumble upon a quiet campo, a deserted street, discover a lonely canal, walk into an empty church and find your own Venice.
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art, Art, ART The Accademia is Venice's answer to the Louvre or the Uffizi. The gave us a good lesson in the evolution of painting from gothic/byzantine (1200-1300's) to the renaissance (1400-1500s). A highlight is the collection of Venetian renaissance paintings by the likes of Titian, Tintoretto, Bellini and Giorgone. Currently Leonardo Da Vinci's very famous drawing,
Vitruvian man is on display. After the renaissance art of the Accademia, the Ca Rezonico is the chronologically logical museum to visit. It's a palazzo on the Grand Canal furnished as it would have been during Venice's decadent 17th- 18th century when it was no longer a super power but
Europe's major party town. Here we saw paintings depicting the decadence of that era in a setting where a lot of the partying happened. What happens in Venice......
From there it's a short walk to the 20th century. The
Peggy Guggenheim museum show cases works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Pollock, Chagall etc. It also gives a glimpse of the life of Peggy, her many loves and many dogs. In fact she is buried here in the garden beside her pets.
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St. Mark's Square Known as the grandest square in Europe, Venice's number one tourist site takes on a more subdued atmosphere in the winter time. The tourists and even the pigeons are a fraction of those in summer. No lines to get inside the basilica where you can view the glittering mosaics, St. Mark's tomb and the original
bronze horses (the ones outside are copies). I have a fondness for these horses, I remember being mesmerized by them during my previous visit in 2002. They are so exquisitely crafted, so dynamic looking and yet so ancient. It's still not known exactly how old they are but estimates are at least 2000 years old. After all the sight seeing we went to Cafe
Florian where we overpaid for coffee but got the chance to linger in one of the oldest and most venerable coffee shops on the square.
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The Islands in the Lagoon We only made it to Muranno, famous for the glass factories . In the 1400's the glass factories were move here to prevent fires in the main island. Today it seems every store front sells glass trinkets. Thankfully during our visit Christmas day, they were mostly closed. Unfortunately the glass museum was also closed. Buranno (famous for lace) and Tocello (first settled island but now deserted) are the other islands worth visiting but we did not get around to them since the vaporettos were running on a light schedule that day.
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Churches and Campos Does anyone know how many churches there are in this city? If I lived here I'd go to church more often, just as an excuse to gape in awe at the astounding art in them. Of course there's San Marco the Basilica, with its Byzantine inspired architecture and golden mosaic interiors. Going to Christmas mass here is an experience we will never forget. It seems every neighborhood had a church worth exploring. Our favorites are
San Zanipolo (St.John+Paul) on a lovely square near the hospital, the Frari church ( has Titian's tomb, madonnas by Titian and Bellini), San Zacharia ( contains an underground crypt), San Moise (very baroque face) and San Giacometto (one of the oldest,near the Rialto bridge).
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Grand Canal Tour A ride on the public vaporetto down Venice's main "street" is an activity you can do over and over again and never get sick off. We did it both during the day and at night. The grand and decaying palazzos lining the canal. The breath taking views of the Rialto bridge, the churches of La Salute and San Giorgio Maggiore. The gondolas laden with tourist, sharing the canal with delivery, ambulance and police boats. All of that makes for a visual memory that no camera can fully capture.
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Venice at night If you visit make sure you stay out as late as you could one night and just wander around. The day trippers and tour groups are gone and you can have it all to yourself. One of the first things you'll notice in Venice is how quite it is here, you hear no cars, no vespas just the occasional vaporetto (motor
boats) passing by, the sloshing of the water and your footsteps. This is especially true at night when I think Venice is most magical. Plus it is also one of the safest cities to wander around late as there are no bad parts to Venice. The high cost and arduous way of life here have driven the bad elements to the mainland.
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Venice Eats It's not cheap but it sure tastes great. With the exchange rate Having been a tourist destination for hundreds of years it is easy to find over price and mediocre food here. However we did research ahead of time and had many memorable culinary adventures here.The trick is to stay away from restaurants in the main drags and those with tourist menus. We were able to sample traditional, regional Venetian specialties. Of course the seafood was great. Some of our favorites were home made pasta in sepi nero (squid and link), feggata venziana (calf liver with onions Venetian style), sarde en saor (pickled sardines) and of course chicchetti. Chicchettis are Venitian version of tapas. Yummy bite sized appetizers mostly seafood but some veggies. We found out the stranger it looks the tastier it is. For
desert this is the birthplace of tiramisu or you could go to a local pastecceria (pastry shop) order any of the mouth watering cookies they bake daily. If I get the time I will write an entry on the places we ate at.
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Aqua Alta I should have packed my water boots! Our feet were treated to a cold bath in the waters of the Adriatic after Christmas mass. We had to wade in a foot of water to get home. Aqua alta is the periodic flooding that happens in Venice around Winter and Spring. A combination of high tide plus winds and precipitation causes flooding in most of the streets and especially in St. Mark's square which is the first area to flood. It subsides after a few hours but it is a nuisance. The buildings have barriers to keep the water out but it still seeps in. During our morning walk we would see people hosing down their floors once the flood subsides to prevent the salt water from causing damage.
Venice is really a city like no other. Yes it is expensive, yes it floods, yes it gets cold in the winter and
super crowded in the summer, yes the population is shrinking and it may turn into a living museum in 50 years if the sea does not swallow it before then, but come here and stand by the front steps of the train station. Look at the faces of the tourist as they step out and see the grand canal for the first time. I swear, the look on their faces is the most memorable view I've seen in Venice.
Our trip would not have been as much fun had we not relied on the following guide books:
I will write an entry (I promise to keep it short) about our side trips from Venice.
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Tony
non-member comment
Amazing
I love the city also. It definitely opens your imagination of what the world used to be. I have been fortunate to see Venice twice Back in mid 80s, I decided to take off and was the youngest in the tour group. At that time, Venice was not as touristry and the charm of sitting at the courtyard was a delightful experience. Second time around, last May with Chet, we had a different experience. Chet brought costume and we roamed the city. What a blast. This time around it was bustling with school kids on their field trip. Now that i think back the only field trip I had when I was younger was Intramuros. O well.. Definitely have to chat about your trip and all the details.