Wow! What a great day we had today. We managed to cram a lot into this busy day, but somehow we still managed to sleep in – sort of, we took a boat ride. Still managed to walk about 10 miles, and fit in a nap in the afternoon.
Our little apartment here in Venice is not the greatest. Venice is an expensive place to visit in Italy. We had set out targets to not spend more than $150/night / couple for our lodging. We had hoped that for a combined $300/night we would be able to find a grand Villa with windows that open up to the Grand Canal – this is what some good friends of ours (Connie and Ken) were able to do. But not for us. It just so happens that the weekend we are here in Venice happens to coincide with a major Holiday in nearby Switzerland and a lot of them like to come to Venice. We also find out that Sunday is the day of a large Regatta, where the citizens parade their restored boats. Also, there are 4 cruise ships in port each with 3000 to 4000 passengers. As a result the pickings were somewhat slim. We were able to find an apartment for rent through Air B&B. It is in a decent location just a short walk from St. Marks Square, but the apartment itself is pretty basic. Apparently, there is a company that has over 100 such apartments that they rent through Air B&B. So unfortunately for us we have no view of the Grand Canal. But we do have a view of the neighbors laundry out to dry. We can’t really complain because we spend relatively little time in the apartment.
On this day, I wake up at 5:30 AM after a mediocre night of sleep. The bed is reasonably soft but it is a bit lumpy. I decide to go into the living room to work on the Blog a bit at about 6:00 AM. I’m writing away, when Trent comes in unlocking the front door. He too woke up early and decided to go out for a walk and get some photos in the morning light. He gets some great shots of the empty canals and sidewalks of Venice. It is now about 7:00 am and Trent begins reading some of the prior blogs. He promptly falls asleep on the Sofa is is really sawing some logs, aka snoring. Elisa and Carolyn begin to roll out of bed by around 8:00am and take their showers. By the time we hit the streets and find a place to have some breakfast it is 9:40 AM. We find a very nice cafe attached to the Hotel Londre right on the main walkway leading to St Marks Square. It is pricey but we can get some eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast. So we splurge.
By the time we are finishing up breakfast the streets are crowded with tourists. The Asian tourists (Japanese, Chinese and Korean) are the first to be out in their little herds. The follow their guides with their brightly colored parasols or tasseled batons that they can hold up high in the air. The flit from one object to another snapping up photos. With our breakfast finished, we decide we will hire a water taxi with an English speaking guide that can give us a boat tour. We go from one stand to another trying to bargain the price of the tour. On this day, the hawkers for the Murano boat tours to the glass factories are out in droves. On the weekends, the boat rides to Murano are “free”. We’ve seen it before and we can tell it will be very crowded there so we opt not to go to Murano, but it seems most of the available boats have been enlisted for the Murano Armada. Finally, Elisa is able to wrangle a deal with a man at one of the taxi stands. For 120 Euro we will get a 45 minute tour of the Grand Canal and several of the smaller canals and then make a loop around the major islands of Venice.
It is taking some time to arrange a taxi because it is so busy and most drivers are demanding more money. Finally we secure a boat. Simone (a young Venetian boat driver) invites us on board his classic motor cruiser. They have been using this model of boat as water taxi’s since the early 1960’s here in Venice. We discover that Simone’s English is a bit limited. So Elisa joins him up front and Trent, Carolyn and I are standing up in the back of the boat. Elisa quickly builds a great report with Simone and we learn that he and his girlfriend got married in Las Vegas in 2014. We become fast friends. Simone takes a slow cruise through the Grand Canal. With Elisa acting as translator, Simone points out the major hotels, museums, gardens and private homes. He shows us we’re George Clooney was married here in Vegas. He takes us under the Rialto bridge, past the train station and then into a series of smaller canals. We exit near the main port of Venice and he points out the large cruise ships that are there. Eventually we make our way out to the main channel where the water surrounding Venice is the deepest and the most choppy. Simone guides the boat skillfully and we manage to avoid the wakes of larger boats. By the time we return back to St Marks Square, where we started we see that we’ve spent nearly 50 minutes at sea. We learned so much from Simone. Venice was founded about 700BC as a series of villages on the 123 small islands. By 29BC the Romans conquer Venice along with Verona and many other nearby cities. With Roman conquest comes growth. We also learn that each of the 121 islands has its own church and the larger islands often have many churches. Consequently, there are over 221 churches spread throughout Venice. We also learn that the canals were constructed in a way that they could be blocked off and drained. They do this because the sea water is hard on the sea walls and the foundations of the buildings. Periodically, the canals must be drained so that they can be maintained. They even had to do this in ancient times. Each property owner must share in the expense of such maintenance. We also learned that there was a great flood in 1966 and the water level rose over 6 feet above the current gourd level. As a result a major dike and flood control project was startled in 1986. Like all things Italian, it is still underway and has not yet been completed. Consequently, Simone tells us that about 10 to 14 times per year, the tides will rise above ground level by 1 to 2 feet. I guess you have to consider that most of the cathedrals here in Italy took over 150 years to construct. So 30 years for a set of dikes may not be too bad. He says the Venetians take it in stride.
With our boat ride now complete, we decide that we will take a walk from St. Marks to the Rialto Bridge and over into the other main island of Venice. We take our time walking and we do a lot of window shopping along the way and take a lot photos of the sights. By now it is about 1:00 pm. So we decide we will walk back to our apartment, stopping at a Coop grocery store along the way to pick up breakfast for the morning. We then head back to the apartment. By not it is about 2:00 pm and we decide to go out and find a quick lunch. Elisa had seen a restaurant with gluten free pasta and pizza that we head for, but is is just a small bar with no real seating. We find a nice place to eat a little further down Cafe Ali D’Oro. We take an outdoor seat that is next to a smaller canal and we are able to watch the Gondola’s cruise by with their passengers. Elisa has the veal Marsala, Trent the veal with limone, Carolyn a pizza with prosciutto and mushrooms – her starter by the way was prosciutto and melon…if you look at the previous blogs you will read that Carolyn has had prosciutto practically every day since she has been here. We are beginning to think a major intervention is going to be needed. She is clearly hooked on the prosciutto as if it was crack. We’ll wait and see how she does when we head into Germany. With our lunch finished by around 3:15pm we decide to head back to the to relax a little. It has been very warm and humid today and we are feeling it. By 4:00 all of us have fallen asleep and we take about a 90 minute nap.
At around 6:00 PM we take a walk near the Arsenale district where we learn that in the 1100’s Venice had build the largest military industrial complex of its time. The Arsenale, was a major shipbuilding and arms building factory. It occupied over 110 acres or about 20% of the available land at that time. Inside the Arsenale, craftsmen would work in teams with each team building specific components for a boat. They were made to be interchangeable. Once all the parts were complete, teams could assemble a complete ship in one days time from those parts. This gave Venice a might naval capability at that time. Eventually, our walk brings us back down toward St. Marks Sqare. It is approaching 8:00 pm and we begin to think about dinner. We decide to honor Marco Polo since Venice was his home city, by having a Chinese meal. We find that the best Chinese restaurant in Venice is located near the Rialto bridge. We head over the the water bus station and purchase tickets so that we can cruise in the cool evening air over to that part of town. We are seated in the restaurant by 9:20pm. We are becoming true Venetian’s dining late in the evening. By the time we finish dinner and catch the water bus back to St marks it is going on 11:00pm. We are safe and in the apartment by 11:30pm.
We are all exhausted, but we must say farewell to Venice and Italy in the morning. Tomorrow, we will be heading into Germany with Garmisch-Partinkirschen as our destination. Everyone, hits the sack, but with the long afternoon nap I’m wide awake and working on the morning’s Blog posting.
So Good night everyone and more later.
Ciao!
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