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From the very first bridge up the very first canal between the ferry and Piazza San Marco. Well we have either demonstrated our great flexibility or been sucked in a little by Italy. Not sure which but we changed our plans and will now head to Greece by way of a ferry from Italy rather than making the drive across Croatia, Serbia and Makedonia. So in this post we remain in Italy traveling down the eastern coast probably towards a ferry to Greece from Brindisi. .
Venice. Everyone knows about it, has seen the photos, read the stories or seen the movies. I was still surprised by the place.
We camped at Punta Sabbioni, across the water from Venice. The books had told us that we would blow the budget in Venice if we decided to stay there, Mestre didn't sound all that appealing so we decided to camp at one of the many camping areas near Punta Sabbioni which is on a peninsula that juts down from the north to within a 35 minute ferry ride from Piazza San Marco in Venice. The place we selected from the many available - the Miramare Camping Village - was classified as 3 star I think. It had all of the amenities we needed - good ablutions, grass
LittleTent
With an extra camp sites, wifi - but, sadly, no camp kitchen. It was, however, just 700 metres from the ferry terminal where ferries left every half hour for San Marco. A ticket for 3 days of ferry rides anywhere we wanted to go in or around Venice cost us 33 Euros. Not a lot cheaper than buying individual tickets but so much easier than queueing up each time. And it actually did save us money because we took a few extra rides.
The time of real glory for Venice was the 15th and 16th centuries when it was a world trading power. They built well in those days and a lot of the buildings constructed in its heyday are still there. Some are in reasonable repair. Some are not. The combined effect of rising sea levels and sinking houses has the authorities in this city that says it attracts 20 million visitors per year extremely worried. The architectural and historical heritage, let alone the incredible earning power of the place, is basically rotting into the mud. I was surprised by the proportion of buildings that show clear signs of the effect of having 'wet feet'.
They are working on the
Crowds
Big tour boats add to the standard high level of tourists issue. At Punta Sabbioni there are massive works underway to create a lagoon by building essentially a massive sea wall that will, presumably, allow the water levels to be managed. That, of course, will solve just part of the problem. The investment will only be protected if restoration work on a massive scale also continues.
The canals, bridges, narrow streets, leaning towers and the streets that weave and wander in absolutely no fixed pattern make getting around the place like working through a very well designed maze. There is one sure way to get out though, you simply find the hordes of tourists and follow the path they are on. Unfortunately, this path winds its way past shop after shop after shop after shop. These Venetians may no longer sail the seven seas to bring in their wares but trading is still the lifeblood of the city. A much more pleasurable time can be had avoiding the other tourists and just wandering. We did a bit of that but we also checked out many more shops than, at times, appeared absolutely necessary.
Piazza San Marco is the key place for most of the crowds. On our first day
in Venice the weather was beautiful, it was a Saturday and the crowds were there - thousands of them. We rode the ferry up the Grand Canal and walked a lot of the way back to near San Marco where we were able to catch our ferry back home. On our second day the weather was not so good. There had been rain the previous afternoon and overnight and showers continued the next day. For us it was a museum day. We visited L'Accademia which houses works from the heady days when Venice was a world power. While there were certainly some wonderful works of art there, the subject matter of most of it became a little samey after a while.
We had a perhaps more interesting, but a lot less, time in the Musee de Musica which, apart from being free to enter, was a lot smaller. They had an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Vivaldi and exhibits dealing with the progression of some musical instruments in Venice. As I said, the place was small and was housed in a deconsecrated church. We came away with some CDs, 2 of which are now played in the
car. One was supposed to be guitar instrumental versions of European folk songs which turned out to be songs sung by an operatic singer. Probably very well performed but very little guitar. Sad.
The Peggy Guggenheim Museum is housed in what was the former Guggenheim residence. We had different views of the modern art that is housed there. I would happily put a fair bit of it on the wall in any house we build. Pat was not too keen on as much of it, although a couple of the more expensive looking bits attracted her attention. I must say that there seemed to be a higher preponderance of, what might uncharitably be called, the wanker element in this museum than in the others we visited - but that might just have been on that particular day and time.
Our third day was the day allocated for actually buying as opposed to shopping - which I am advised is really about looking and checking out. We ferried our way to Burano, the island where they make the lace. Quite famous among those who know anything about lace. I don't. The place is worth a visit without the lace.
Punta Sabbioni
Earth works for the new wall The people have obviously decided that the way to success is to paint your house a special colour. The sight is certainly colourful and impressive. To my untrained eye there was less evidence of dilapidation in the houses and the village. We left without lace but enjoyed the walk around.
Murano doesn't paint up its houses. They have glass to make and sell. We visited the museum devoted to the history of glass in Venice. A worthwile museum but hard to find. It has an unprepossessing entrance but, once in, we found well presented and interesting exhibits. We also bought a few bits of Murano glass. Whether it will make it home is another question altogether.
Rain is a nuisance when you travel. Not many positives at all. There isn't much that looks better in the rain. You can't take those special photos and you run the risk of getting your equipment wet anyway. Tents, particularly small ones, keep the rain out but it is a bugger to find a place to cook. We did expect to routinely find camp kitchens in camping areas of a reasonable standard but that has not panned out in either France or
Italy so far. It rained well in Venice for a fair bit of the time we were there and, at times, reasonably heavily. On the morning we had decided to leave we were lucky to spot the next good shower coming and were all packed with just our coffee to finish when it hit. We left the area feeling just a little smug as other campers raced to get their gear packed in the pouring rain.
Ravenna isn't far from Venice down the east coast. It rained most of the way though and that, plus the pretty boring villages that were strung along the road - not the motorway this time - made for not such a wonderful day of travel. Pitching our tent with the threat of rain didn't seem sensible so we opted for a little unit or bungalow as they are called here.
Ravenna was a significant city a couple of thousand years ago and we wanted to have a look at some of what is left of its former grandeur. These days it is a relatively small place in European terms, about 200,000 people. We drove in and then walked around the old part
of the city. For us it was well worth the couple of days we spent, although I should note that we left the greater of the 40 or so sites listed in the brochures alone.
We did visit the Basilica San Vitale - excellent murals in a relatively large church but chock a block full of Italian school kids; the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia - a very impressive lot of murals, particularly on the ceiling of this lady's tomb, with thousands of gold and silver stars inset and reputedly the inspiration for Cole Porter's “Night and Day” (younger ones should ask their elders who he was); the Museo Arcivescovile - a well thought out and interpreted small museum in part of the old Cathedral which contains the very famous, except to us, ivory throne and, of much greater interest, to us, the original carving in marble of the calendar that determines when Easter is celebrated; the Battistero Neonia - another very good set of murals, and good enough that I wasn't getting tired of the subject matter; and, last but definitely not least, the Basilica Di Sant' Appollinaire Nuovo. This last one was the pick of the day. The
Under Water
Not the elevation. This is on a street in Venice murals on the walls of the nave were the best we had seen that day and in an impressive building. Interestingly, the altar area of the church (for want of a more technical term) had been decorated in later centuries. It served, as far as we were concerned, to demonstrate that the style and technique of the 5th century was more to our liking than that of the later time.
And how good is it to be an Italian school kid, or any other European school kid for that matter? The kids who visit Ravenna and Venice, along, I suspect, with other similar sites all over the country, get to go to places where they can see and hear what their ancestors created and where they lived on the spot. It is very different for a lot of their Australian counterparts who normally have to rely on getting it all from books, except, of course, for those whose ancestors lived in the country thousands of years ago.
Back into the driving again and down to near Brindisi. We have decided that our little Citroen C3 is a good little car. It feels more roomy than its size should
allow, is very economical getting around 4 litres per 100km, handles well and has reasonable acceleration. It is small enough to get into tight parking places and, in comparison with the Renault we hired once before, it has an excellent gear box. On the other hand we have decided that life for the next 6 months or so will be a lot more comfortable with a larger tent. The little one is good and easy but not being able to stand up or to cook when it is raining is more discomfort than we need so, while we have a vehicle we will use our new Quechua T 4.1. Takes a bit longer to pitch but more comfortable.
Europe has the capacity to put more pressure on our budget than, say, Africa or Asia and we have strategies to deal with this. We usually self cater which takes us into supermarkets and other shops on a daily basis. We don't want to carry a fridge, they don't sell ice all over the place here and, so far, there are rarely fridges available in camping areas. It is possible to feed ourselves by self catering a lot more economically than
eating out. Even a basic feed in a cafe will cost around 20 Euros whereas we can normally feed ourselves well for a day on less. We don't self cater all of the time though. One memorable dinner - that did lead to a budget blow out - was in what looked like a basic pizzeria but turned into a special fish dinner with a starter of raw scampi, sea bass, tuna and a local artichoke followed by a main of sea bass and the trimmings. As good as it gets.
But more than food, the car has the capacity to put pressure on the budget. Diesel is costing about 1.2 to 1.4 Euros or about $A1.90 a litre and some of the tolls in Italy and France can be substantial. Added to the daily cost of the leased vehicle this adds up.
We had planned to leave Brindisi for Greece on a ferry in the next couple of days. Plans have changed again though. The Greeks require that you have an international drivers permit as well as a home country licence and, till now, we haven't needed one. We will secure one of those before we go
and that will delay us for as long as that takes - or as long as we decide not to take the risk and go without. In the meantime we will just continue to enjoy the delights of Italy.
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Andrew
non-member comment
Now there's a surprise
that you rather like Italy...You might want to hang around a little longer until the Greeks calm down - at least if you were headed to Athens.