Venezia

The proper noun Venice always used to evoke many mental images for me. When I stumbled out of the Venice train station and, for the first time, beheld the Grand Canal, those mental images were immediately replaced with infinitely superior real images. Venice is astonishing to look at. It’s quiet because there are no cars, and it’s not at all smelly in the winter; my sense of sight was the truly privileged sense during our time in Venice.

The term “small, dark alleyway” takes on a splendid new meaning in Venice – every street in Venice is a small dark alleyway. Getting lost is the easiest and most fun thing to do there. For me, every piazza, bridge and tiny passageway between buildings was an adventure. Every boat tied up along a small canal was picturesque. Every tiny pet dog running around the street was adorable. Venice is a city of about 400 bridges and countless canals. The buildings must be the inspiration for the “distressed” and exposed brick look at all the TGIFridays and Ruby Tuesdays of America. I cannot describe Venice adequately. Look at these photos:

A gondola on the Grand Canal
Someone's street

Venice is filled with winged lions (not real ones) because they are the symbol of St. Mark, Venice’s patron saint. San Marco, the famous Venetian church where the Gospel/Evangelist Mark is supposedly entombed, is amazing. According to Brad, Venice began to decline after the Middle Ages. Before the Portugese started sailing, Venice essentially had a monopoly on trade with the East. Gilded Byzantine mosaics give the church of San Marco an eastern feel. The back of the altar is covered with priceless gems. In the treasury, we saw some unbelievably old stuff – much of it from Egypt and Turkey. One of the pots on display is 5,000 years old.

The architect must've been warned in a dream that the church would collapse if there weren’t enough columns . . .
Inside San Marco
On the front of the church
In Piazza San Marco; the countless Venetian pigeons that live in this square are famous. Charlene supposedly has a photo of pigeons perched on her arms and head!

After visiting San Marco, we toured the Doges' Palace. Doges were elected Venetian dukes who, with the help of many advisers, governed the Republic of Venice (600s to late 1700s). The palace was a mind-numbing collection of rooms with gilded, carved ceilings, behemoth fireplaces, Tintoretto frescoes and Murano glass chandeliers. A bridge (Bridge of Sighs) connects the palace to the "new" prison – Cassanova was once imprisoned here. (It seems that the Cassanova mentality is dead in Italy . . . did I mention that I received zero cat calls there?)

We couldn’t spend time in Venice without shopping. It was the end of our time in Italy and Venice has some fabulous items for sale. Famous in Venice: hand-made marbleized paper, Carnival masks, Murano glass and Burano lace.

I had to splurge on this gorgeous Renaissance painting that I saw in a store window

Our hotel arranged for us to tour a glass warehouse on the island of Murano. A water taxi picked us up and left Venice to deposit us on Murano (20 minutes away.) We had a short tour of the warehouse and we got to see a “master” sculpting glass! We could have watched him work all day, but “I’m-not-a-salesman” Roberto, was anxious to show us their showroom. We didn’t buy the 4-foot tall unicorn with a naked mermaid on its back or the set of 12 gold leaf brandy snifters, but we did get a few goodies.

At the bus stop in Murano – looks like we both have a “buyer’s high.” The weather was perfection on that day.

When it was time for lunch, we decided to go to Burano, a tiny island near Murano. Burano is now Tommy’s dream-home spot. How could it not be? The buildings on Burano are all painted vibrant colors and the views of the water are heavenly. I couldn’t stop taking photos.

View from Burano
A seafood place on Burano

When we finally were able to pull ourselves away from this delightful island (and after we’d done some more shopping), we rode home on the water bus just as the sun was setting over Venice.

For our last dinner in Italy, we ordered lots of ham, pasta and wine. The waiter even brought us free limoncello before we left. Most Venetians were quite friendly. The young owner of our heavenly B&B came in early to serve us breakfast before we caught our early train the next morning. All of this just made it harder to say “goodbye” to Venice.

We took a long train ride from Venice back to Rome to catch our plane to Madrid (we made poor Charlene and Tommy take a million planes, trains, buses and boats.) As a special treat, we had lunch in the dining car. We got to look out onto picturesque vineyards and country houses surrounded with tall cedars. I am positive that Italy left a remarkable first impression on three of us. (And a great second impression on Brad.)

Ciao!