Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy Friday, May 3, 2013

Larry and I got up to a gorgeous sunrise this morning. The birds woke us up before sunrise around 5:00 am. The birds are remarkable here with their music, especially first thing in the morning. We have been enjoying the sounds of the birds during the week...they make very happy sounds. By 7:30am we were driving down the two lane curvy road from Maderno through Salo onto Desenzano where we caught a train to Venice.

 

We boarded the 9:07 train that passed through Verona on the way to Venice. We passed through loads of well established vineyards with the vines just budding out. This reminds us of our ride through Florence. We made friends with two families on the train during our ride...one from Milan and the other from Paris. Larry broke out his IPOD to carry on a French conversation and then an Italian conversation. It was entertaining for the two hour train ride.

We got off the train and headed out of the station to be right at the Grand Canal of Venice. What a sight! Ferryboats were over loaded with tourist floating by as well gandolas and boat taxis. We went over and sat on the steps next to the waterwall and just watched...in our mind..stopping to smell the roses so to speak. The scenery was velisimo. Larry immediately began snapping pictures. What a unique city!

The Grand Canal

 

Venice was built on 118 small islands. The waters were dredged of soils to raise the marshy ground above the tides. The city is separated by 177 canals and linked by 408 bridges. The buildings are constructed on closely layered wooden piles that are still intact after centuries of submersion. The wood come from Croatian tree trunks that are noted for water resistance. Being submerged in water, the wood does not decay as rapidly as it would on the surface. The piles of wood penetrate a softer layer of sand and mud until they reach a layer of compressed clay. The foundations rest on these wooden piles with the buildings being mostly brick and stone covered with cement. It is simply amazing that it still exists. Venice, in its entirety, is listed as a World Heritage Site and is known as Europe's most romantic city.

Venice was a maritime power during the Middle Ages and an importance commerce center for silk, grain, and spices. It has also been known for the arts with its 13th-17th century painters as well as symphonic sounds and operatic music. We were lucky to hear a little man singing opera in one of the small plazas and a small symphonic band playing in San Marcos Plaza.

After studying the city map and taking in all the activities, we got ourselves moving to cross the Grand Canal going over a facinating bridge called Ponte Scaizi....one of the many that we crossed over all day. The map revealed a mixture of many alleys and waterways that were a maze to go through. Our goal was to make it through the maze to San Marcos Piazzetta...or Plaza to have lunch. We wondered down the walkway by the Grand Canal and then turned into the mass of old European buildings. It was a site to see.

 The walkways were narrow....sometimes only allowing two people to walk through side by side, so there were two single file lines, one going one way and one going the other....very, very tight. We felt so fortunate to have come on a sunny day. We had heard that the walkways were standing with water on rainy days and Venitians just put on their rubber boots and kept business going as normal. Drains for these walkways were no where to be found. We could only imagine sloshing around on a rainy day!

Venice has to be a shoppers paradise. All of the first floor buildings along the pathways were shops.....some with great little window displays and others with just a door to enter. Restaurants, bars, and little businesses lined the walkways with apartments all above them. Sidewalk cafes were scattered through the city. Everything was clean and old, old, old. We saw very little trash anywhere. What we did see were people! The place was packed. We had noticed on the way into Venice that three cruise ships were docked in the harbor......so we knew where their passengers were. There were lots of school children touring as well....large groups of people and kids following a guide with a flag or something to keep them gathered up. Many times during our walk through the maze, we would chose to go a path that had very few people. At times it was impossible to avoid the large congested areas due to it being the main bridge crossing. Venice averages 50, 000 tourist daily.

We found our way to the Rialto Bridge and after about an hour and a half of seeing loads of shops and churches, we made it to San Marco's Plaza....What a grand sight! Very old architecture with St. Mark's Basilica at one end. Little cafes scattered around the edges with a seven piece symphonic orchestra playing in two places....classical music....so European. We ate lunch with a couple from Scotland, they seemed to be enjoying the gorgeous day as well. We walked around the Plaza and then out to the Grand Canal. The entrance line going up into the tower called the Campanile and into St.Mark's Basilica were way too long to even consider. By this time it was 2:30 so we started heading back to the train station.

 

                                                     In front of St. Mark's Basilica

San Marco's Plaza

 

Along the way we enjoyed the Fish Market and a couple of other plazas that we had not walked through previously, taking lots of pictures. Everyone always asks, "Did you take a gandola ride?" How could we pass that up? Going to Venice and not riding in a gondola is like going to Disney World and not going on the Dumbo or Flying Tea Cups Ride.We saw all kind of gandolas....some were a taxi ride to just get across the Canal, others were fancy with pillowed crushed red velvet seats and Persian rugs...supposedly a romantic ride with the Gondola Driver paddling...not so romantic today because they were tons of them bumping into each other in the canals, while other slightly larger gondolas had several passengers with a musician playing an accordian.

 

An interesting sight to see...how the first floors of the older homes were flooded and no longer being used. Venice began to sink back in the 60's due to the over use of artesian wells. Since then artesian wells have been banned; however, many homes former ground floors are uninhabitable.

 

Another interesting tidbit....Venice is the only carfree city in Europe. The only form of tranportation is on the water or on foot. Venice is unique for remaining a sizable functioning city withoutd motorcars or trucks.

We managed to find our way back to the very start of our day and with about a half an hour, we decided to sit down at one of the cafes and have a glass of ice tea. It was great to watch the boats go by and the tired tourists finding their way out of the city. We found our train at 4:50 pm and it pulled out at 5:07pm. We arrived back in Desenzano at 7:07. Stopped to have a quick dinner and arrived home before dark around 9:00pm.

 

What a great day! We enjoyed the relaxing train ride, the stroll through the city, and the fantasitic views of the canals. We were able to take lots of pictures to revisit all the day's memories. Venice was a charming place to spend a day while visiting Italy.