Advertisement
Published: June 28th 2016
Woolly says- I stood staring at the canal water as it lapped rather too closely to my paws, glancing towards Zoe it appeared that she was a. Still breathing b. Not doubled up in pain and c. Not requiring an ambulance, it seemed that our second attempt at seeing Venice was really going to happen. Our first try over three years ago had resulted in a very long drive back to the UK after Zoe had been removed from the campsite in the early hours by ambulance, An epic road trip begins..... and a missed opportunity, I had only blamed her for a few months for my disappointment! We hadn’t been sure how or when we would return but it had always been on the list of things to achieve, armed with two maps, our cameras and a mammoth we set off. Woolly says – as I trotted over my first bridge I knew that we would need sustenance to keep our strength up and what better than some real Italian pizza. As we tucked in I shared my wisdom with the girls, Venice is the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region and has over 100 small islands in a marshy lagoon in the Adriatic Sea, linked by it’s 177 canals....that’s a lot of water to try and avoid for me! Inhabited since the 10th century, the city became a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance times and was a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important centre of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. It was the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi and the infamous Casanova (loved David Tenant in the adaption of his life!) As Jo removed the last of the tomato sauce from behind my ears I asked Zoe (the font of knowledge when it comes to pizza) for her views on her first Italian feast, she paused before informing me that ‘spar’s thin and crispy was as good’, she’s a heathen!
Chuckling at his expression we followed him through the small streets, every corner leading us to another delight. Woolly says – beautiful squares and the most delightful architecture greeted my eyes, each bridge gave me another view of the city and another range of boats or the cities famous gondoliers ...... I want to go in a gondolier! I looked at Jo with my most imploring look, she smiled and said ‘we’ll see’, I thought about sulking but then spotted a charming wooden bridge, having gazed happily at the Grand Canal which forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city before one end leads into the lagoon near the Santa Lucia railway station and the other end leads into Saint Mark’s Basin in between it makes a large reverse S shape through the central districts of Venice. It is 3.8 km long, and 30 to 90 m wide, with an average depth of five meters (16.5 ft) and hopefully we would get the chance to travel along some of it. Glancing around I led my party down yet another cute street filled with balconies and shutters, on and on I padded turning this way and that......
We had made that many turns we were completely lost even with two maps! Woolly says – ......was I supposed to be looking at a map! Well I’m sure St Mark’s Square can’t be far from there, as we traversed yet another canal I found myself faced with the huge expanse of the Grand Canal once more and the most impressive of churches yet, the Chiesa dei Geusati, an 18th-century Dominican church. It wasn’t open but as Jo took the required pictures I took a peek at the map, hmmmm well we could go that way or that way to be fair, I thought the scenic route would be nice.
It’s all scenic! Having wrestled the map from his paws I decided that our best bet was to stay within site of the main canal and follow it round, I was so glad that we did. Woolly says – Holey Moley and all things Mammoth, I’m not sure who’s chin was closest to the ground (probably mine as I’m the shortest one) but the site in front of me was one of the finest. There in all it’s splendour stood the Santa Maria della Salute. In 1630 Venice had experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the plague, as a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health or Deliverance, which in Italian is Salute. The church was designed in the then fashionable baroque style by Baldassare Longhena, construction began in 1631 and most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to the Black Death. Ooooo hope there’s no dead bodies!
It looked like a bigger and grander version of St Pauls in London, I kept my fingers crossed as we walked up the steps that it would be as impressive on the inside. Woolly says – I could barely contain my excitement as I galloped up the stairs and into the cool interior, even better when my first sighting was a sign saying that it was free entry, I love Venice. As I started to walk round the circular area and admire the incredible statues and domes I heard a commotion behind me, a women was asking Jo for money, Jo pointed at the sign and shook her head and moved away, next she went for Zoe who did exactly the same this time though the women wasn’t taking no for an answer and she pushed Zoe towards the huge doorway I could see Jo heading purposely back towards her with her mother lion look on her face, Zoe stood looking shocked and shaken as Jo glared at the women and gestured for Zoe to carry on going in, the women tried once more and as Jo pointed at the sign again I wondered if the police had ever been called to a church before! Luckily another bunch of tourists arrived and the old women scuttled off to harass them instead.
We would have made a donation once we had walked round as we always do but into the proper box not the hand of someone who might well have been pocketing the money for herself, the couple in front of us who had given her something nodded in my direction and mentioned ‘money with menaces’ I could only agree. Woolly says – Having made sure that Zoe was ok and kicked her to make her feel better I showed her over to the rather grand Golden Throne before gaping some more at the ceiling, I was impressed and I knew that there was better to come. Heading back into the sweltering heat we wandered past the Guggenheim Museum and through another maze of passageways until I suddenly found myself back at the wooden bridge once more. This time we crossed it along with a thousand or so people who were elbowing each other out of the way to take pictures, I shoved Jo into the melee.
Tourists were everywhere but then what did we expect of one of the most visited Capitals in the world! Woolly says – on and on we walked, over bridges and past more churches and incredible architecture, Jo disappeared into a building and rather than lose her entirely I followed behind to find her admiring cases of violins and cellos in what appeared to be a church that was set up for a concert, I asked the man at the desk what was going on and he offered us tickets for tomorrow nights concert of Vivaldi’s Four Season’s, how wonderful that would be if only we were going to be there! We started to pass more and more shops filled with the most amazing masks, the masks have become world famous and were originally used in the annual Festival of Venice to mark the end of lent. All colours and all designs from cats to zebras some with long noses and some with feathers each one seemed better than the last. Zoe was stood in front of another shop who’s windows were crammed with coloured glass wear, the famous Murano glass which is on the Venetian island of Murano, which has specialized in fancy glass for centuries, they are considered to be collectors pieces.
My one Grandmother had built up quite a collection of venetian glass, the modern slants on it included squids inside bowls, orange and lemon slices sealed in time and every colour of light bulb you could imagine. Woolly says – we were flagging badly and my tongue was sticking to the roof of my mouth, Jo had a sheen of sweat across her face and to be honest I had no idea where we were, I spied a shady bar and without asking or consulting went and plonked myself on a seat feeling that there was unlikely to be any argument, there wasn’t. My small friend was right we needed to stop and having gulped down our first drinks barely pausing for breath, we sat and tried to work out where we were as we sipped our second.
Woolly says – with the maps taking up most of the table, we looked at the street sign above ur heads but it didn’t appear on wither map, as I sat crunching my way through the complementary crisps I wondered if we would ever find our bed for the night, would we be found by the bin men in the early hours, as Jo paid the bill and tried not to grimace at the price I set off once more turning yet another corner, a sign I found a sign! Patting myself on the back I grinned at the women and hurried through what appeared to be a tunnel before finding myself next to the Rialto Bridge, one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal and the oldest having been completed in 1591, it had replaced the cities first dry crossing which had dated from 1181 which had been a pontoon bridge bringing the two sides of the city together. It wasn’t as I had imaged it, in fact it looked like a shopping arcade on the inside with wooden doors on the outside, or what could be seen of the outside which was mainly covered with sheeting, it certainly wasn’t worth the amount of paw ache to find!
I had to agree with the mammoth maybe once the reconstruction work was completed it would be splendid once more. With the sun starting to set and our stomachs growling I suggested heading nearer to our accommodation and some food....well if we could find it again that is!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0228s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Magnificent
You have captured the allure of Venice beautifully Jo. What a place, what a city, what a delight it must be to be there!