Day 29 - July 13 - Venice!

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We started the morning walking along the Venice Boardwalk, seeing some cruise ships come in, others docked. We tried to have an early morning to see St. Marks somewhat empty and to see the actual church, which had been too crowded the last time we were there. Alas, everyone - including the day cruisers - had the same idea. Although we arrived just after nine the line up stretched all the way across the square almost to the Boardwalk - longer than our previous attempt. And, the church didn’t open until 10 - so we opted not to wait. We climbed the Campanile instead, a crowded experience, and the only tower in all our travels with a gift shop at the top. Still, we positioned ourselves to watch the little men hit the bell from far up, and photographed every square inch of St. Marks.

We couldn’t move in the square when we got down. We did pause to watch a few dogs chase pigeons, and few children with food get chased by them, then we hightailed it out of St. Marks - easier said than done in the hot crowds.

Sam also wanted to see the small church across the lagoon on Isola San GeorgioMaggiore, and climb its tower. We looked for a vaparetto stop. We waited, and waited, and waited at a very crowded stop - our vaparetto didn’t come. Sam was cross-referencing guide books and the posted schedule, getting increasingly frustrated over a forty-five minute period. I was confident, at least after the first twenty minutes, that the vaparetto we were waiting for was not running. Sam wasn’t listening. I kept telling him to look at the other schedule, which suggested to me it only ran in peak hours - early morning and late evening. Eventually this discussion ended in another heat tantrum - this one from Sam, who threw up his hands, declared it impossible to reach Isola San GeorgioMaggiore, and was ready to call it a day, at 11:45.

I studied the schedules some more, and the guidebook, and figured out that if we went to the vaparetto stop a few meters away, we could get over to the island. I took the backpack, carrying it for the first time in a month (my husband is quite the gentleman, and would not permit me to share the load until this particular moment of crankyness). I convinced Sam to drink some cold water and give it another go. We arrived as one vaparetto was leaving, but this stop was much less crowded, and another Vaparetto arrived in less than fifteen minutes. By then, Sam had cooled down, literally and figuratively.

We toured the church, then paid the monks to go up the tower. From the tower we got a great view across to St. Marks. We took some pictures, looked all around Venice, and decided to move on. We took another Vaparetto across to La Giudecca, and wandered the quiet residential neighbourhoods for a while. This uncrowded area, and the beer and sandwhiches we had at an unremarkable café with remarkable views across the lagoon to St. Marks, cheered Sam up significantly.

We took the vaparetto over to the Academia, and were able to get into the museum without waiting. Unfortunately the museum is not air conditioned. In the late afternoon heat, with the crowds, I found it hard to appreciate the art. There were a few pieces that caught my attention - one in particular, a battle scene of some war Venice fought, and another, a brawl on a bridge, which were apparently quite common in those days. As you can tell by my descriptions, my attention was not focused on the art. We managed to poke our heads into every room and stay an hour and a half before we were done with the place.

We were planning to go back to St. Marks for an evening in the square later so we decided to go back to our B&B and take a rest in the air conditioning. We wandered back via the boardwalk, and got to see another cruise ship departing, and took some spectacular late-afternoon pictures of the sun on the water.

We surfaced from our rest around seven, grabbed some salad mixings we had bought and a pizza, and headed over to a bench on the park to watch the sun set. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to be eating in the park - we had heard there was no eating in parks rule in Venice - but we decided to anyway, taking great care not to leave any of our mess.

From the edge of the Sant’ Elena park, you have a perfect view of St. Marks. We watched the sun slowly go down over the Campanile, casting beautiful shadows and light over the water. Then we took the vaparetto over to ST. Marks, where the sky was the most remarkable shades of pinks and oranges, and the last remaining light of the day made the buildings glow.

Sam’s boss had recommended splurging for an evening in St. Marks, and that had made Sam quite keen to do so, regardless of the cost. We found Florians, which Rick Steeves recommended as the most reasonable of all the unreasonable cafes on St. Marks. I of course secretly was glad Sam had chosen that one because it reminded me of the Florians ice cream shop in the Harry Potter books. In fact, given the decore and atmosphere at this Florians, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the inspiration for the fictional place!
We knew we were going to make an evening of it. We looked at the drinks and desert menu which was, of course, unreasonable, but we had made our decision. I wanted the wonderfully chocolatey ice cream sundae described, and decided it was indeed worth $20 euro for the experience. We also decided to buy a bottle of wine rather than glasses - $50 euro for a mediocre bottle- and sip it over several hours. There was also a sitting fee.

But it was worth it. What made the experience worth it was indeed sitting there for hours, listening to one orchestra then the other, watching the crowds move from café to café as orchestras took breaks, or played new songs. Whenever Florian’s orchestra - which was wonderful - took a break, we would switch sides of the table, and look out over the square at the orchestra across the way. I kept thinking to myself how much my grandmother, who had been a musician all of her life and who had never made it to Italy in her travels, would have loved that evening.

We were so pleased with the way we did St. Marks. We sat at that table for about three and a half hours, just relaxing, chatting, listening to the music, and enjoying ourselves. We were not rushed us or pressured us to order anything else. We were happy to be sitting, listening to the music, rather than joining the mobile, standing crowds. We didn’t understand the many couples who came, sat down for half an hour, had a drink and left. For us, the entire experience was making a full evening of it, and relaxing. I thought, not for the first and not for the last time that trip, this is why I work so hard - so that my life can be filled with moments like this.

Our total bill for the bottle of wine and the ice cream, with tip, was $90 euro - but cheap as we are, we didn’t care. We had had a magnificent, magical evening. It had been perfect, just the way we wanted to experience St. Marks. To cap off the perfection, we rode the vaparetto back, and got to sit at the outside back of the boat, watching St. Marks disappear into the horizon. By the time we stepped off the vaparetto in St. Marks, the heat of the day and the exhaustion of a months travel had been completely absorbed by the magic of Venice. Life just doesn’t get happier than that.

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