Annette and Rick's European Adventure 2011: Ah, Venice!

Venice lives up to expectations - it’s beautiful and its beauty is very different to the beauty of Paris or London; it’s a more intimate beauty, more human in scale and so watery. Except for the water, everything is man-made, and the water is everywhere, though we’ve yet to see any of the high tides that sometimes submerge parts of Venice.

It’s hot too, but nothing like the 40+ degrees the city was still experiencing not that long ago. Venice is a testament to humanity’s ability to create beautiful things because there are no natural features except for the sea: no hills, no cliffs, no beaches and few trees; and yet it’s so lovely. It’s old and experienced and careworn but still lovely and it feels peaceful, especially in our area, Cannaregio, which is on the outskirts of Venice proper. As soon as we’d breakfasted we set off to explore and wandered along the canali until we saw signs pointing to either S Marco or Rialto; it didn’t matter to us because we were determined to see it all anyway. As we neared the Rialto, which is closer to our hotel than the Piazza de San Marco, the tourist hordes became thicker and the bridge itself was crowded with frantic snappers. Of course, we had to join in as well, we’re tourists too!

Ricky Rialto

Annette on the Rialto bridge

View from the Rialto

One of the wonderful things about Venice is that there are numerous churches, big and small, that you can duck into to escape the menacing throng, and you’ll find Titians and Tintorettos on the walls or in the altars. These churches are usually not crowded and often you’ll be the only person inside except for some non-evident staff. After a day and a half here, I’ve found more Tintorettos than Titians and many other less well-known Venetian painters as well.

We pressed on in the general direction of Piazza San Marco and when we arrived it was slightly disappointing, like a lot of “must-see” tourist destinations, though in this case only because it was just too crowded. In that sense, it’s very similar to Sagrada Familia and the Eiffel Tower (with the latter it doesn’t matter so much because the area around it is so immense). Still, it’s definitely a magnificent sight, with the Piazza, the Basilica and the Campanile tower. The Piazza San Marco is smaller than I imagined but I think the mass of camera-toting people must have diminished its grandeur. The queue to get inside the Basilica was much too long to even contemplate joining, so we spent only about 15 minutes in the Piazza itself and then went down to the edge of the Isola della Giudecca when it started raining, which dispersed the tourists somewhat. The rain only lasted minutes and then it was back to sun and heat and tourists.

We had fun watching the gondoliers in their decorated gondolas; it’s fascinating how they negotiate the narrow canali and the low ponti - they duck their heads under the bridge at the last possible second but do it with supreme nonchalance in typical Italian style. A gondola ride is expensive, around 100 euro, but Annette’s determined to experience it, which we will soon.

Gondolier waiting for customers

Gondolas on the Grand Canal

More f-----g gondolas (a la Monty Python)

We walked and walked. There are shops selling Venetian glass everywhere, almost every second shop it seems. We love glass art so it’s a buzz for us. There aren’t too many touts around and not that many beggars; as in Barcelona, most of the beggars are Gypsy women, who often sit in a position denoting absolute poverty and dejection, crouched on the ground near a church’s entry for instance, their heads nearby touching the ground and holding in their hands a crumpled paper cup for any coins passers-by may deign to drop in, though hardly anyone ever seems to. It’s very sad.

Santa Maria della Salute

The local residents are more blase about the beauty of La Serenissima

View from the steps of Santa Maria della Salute

Looking across the Grand Canal

We sat on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, which has a huge dome and some great paintings and sculptures inside and then we pressed on, past the Peggy Guggenheim museum, over many more ponti and eventually back to our hotel for a brief freshen-up before setting off for dinner and a glass of wine at a local restaurant patronised mainly by Venetians and after that stroll through the stradi at nighttime, a very evocative and romantic experience.