Venice

Wednesday afternoon we left Florence by train for Venice, arriving at the train station for a late afternoon vaporetto ride to our hotel. It turned out to be wonderfully well located, just a short walk to Piazza San Marco. So after a brief rest we took a walk to Piazza San Marco and took in the night scene of the basilica and the square, then had dinner at our hotel.

Piazza San Marco is ringed with cafes that have small groups of musicians playing; they seem to have an arrangement so that only one is playing at a time, and their genres vary.



The Basilica in all of its evening glory.

One of the cafes in the piazza featuring a mucial group entertaining the few paying customers, and the rest of us freeloaders.


One thing we have noticed -- oddly, it is hard to find a good meal in Italy. Somehow almost every meal we have had in France was wonderful, even modest sandwiches or cafe meals. Here, we have yet to really have a good meal.

Our trip was somewhat marred by Tom having a bad cold that started on the prior Saturday. Thursday morning I woke up with the sore throat and congestion. So we took it easy, stopping to check at an internet hot spot for email. We then found ourselves at the basilica about noon with a very short line, and decided to go for it. We listened to the Rick Steves ipod tour, and paid for the extra tour of the famous bronze horses. We have noticed that many of the churches have free entrance, but they have placed rooms and collections in separate areas available only for a fee. In San Marcos, for example, there are three separate paid tours in addition to the church itself. One is of the altar! Hard to imagine that they can charge a fee to see the altar, but the altar itself is set apart and was not meant to be visible to the congregation. And of course, more and more the various churches and museums do not permit photography, so in those cases, you will just have to use your imagination.

Tom with the famous bronze horses. Of course these are copies -- the originals are inside and no photos allowed. Sigh.

A view of the piazza from the balcony of the basilica. The doge would greet the people of Venice from a spot between the two pairs of horses, and this is what he would see, but with more people and we assume fewer cafes.



Having crossed the biggie of our list, we rested up a bit, then headed off to find dinner, this time a walk into the center of the island for another unmemorable meal. Venice is a bit of a maze, since the streets are often dead-ends, and there may or may not be a bridge connecting the street to another block -- we were lucky to find our way.

Friday we started with a quick tour of the church nxt door to the hotel, which tunred out to be quite a find. One of the paid tours was of the crypt, featuringa small altar in the basement of the church which, as you can see, was surrounded by a few inches of water.

Then we walked to the Rialto Bridge, and then to the Rialto itself, the marketplace, just in time to see the fish market breaking down its stands. After a lunch we continued to wend our way as far as the train station, where we found a vaporetto going down the grand canal. Again we listened to the Rick Steves ipod tour as we made our way back to our hotel.










Saturday the colds were taking their toll, and we realized that we would not see nearly half as many sites as we would like. So we limited ourselves to the Doge's Palace and the related Correr Museum. The palace was magnificent, the museum only so-so. Having exhasuted ourselves, we had a nice dinner at a bustling restaurant, that had at least 6 people waiting in line to get in for the tnire time we were there. Sunday, back to Florence, where we have been joined by friend Martha who will stay with us a few days. It looks like we will be here until next Tuesday.

This photo is of the Bridge of Sighs, linking the Doge's Palace with the prisons; this provided the condemned to their last look at Venice before being locked in the unpleasant cells of the prison. It is hard to know what the actual bridge looks like, since here it is swathed in advertising which hides scaffolds we assume are being used for restoration of the exterior walls of the palace and prison.



My overall impression of Venice? I expected the dark, somber, mysterious Venice of the postcards and movies, the quiet and Byzantine-influenced architecture and canals. What was it really like? Disneyland for adults. It was plenty crowded, although not even a fractions of the summer crowds. It was almost a caricature of itself. I mean, gondolas? I don't know why, but even the canals and bridges were not particularly interesting.


Yup, gondolas, all over the place, and guys with funny little suits, striped sweaters and straw hats with long ribbons.


Meanwhile, my cold is taking its toll. Today I went to the pharmacia for some cold meds, and was rewarded with acetaminophen and ascorbic acid. (16 tabls for E5) We Americans like stuff to work, and somehow this seems like pretty lightweight medication. But I'm trying to be patient. Tomorrow we have the long-awaited reservations for the Accademia (Michelangelo's David) which Tom will likely miss due to work requirements. Stay tuned!