Venice Part 1: See Venice and Die.

CONTINUED... There are only two ways into Venice, by boat or by train. As our train moved quickly toward the station, we could see the island approaching in the window, just a bunch of buildings perched on top of the water. My first, "Ok, I'm in Venice" shock came a few minutes later when we left the station. As we walked out there was a large set of stairs that opened out to a great canal lined with piers and filled with boats.


My first reaction was that this was chaos. There weren't any signs really, but we knew we had to catch a boat to get to our hotel, but which one? Some boats were letting people off, some were picking them up, some were really big and some really small. So we thought, when in Rome- ergh, I mean in Venice- and jumped in a line like everyone else.


After buying the right tickets, we were pushed out onto a closed dock on the water where we waited with about a hundred other weary travelers. You couldn't help but get the feeling of pigs being sent to the slaughter as everyone waited anxiously to get some place but didn't know where. The boats were packed with people and it took two to come by before we finally pushed our way onto one. However, the suitcase I was dragging was getting caught up in the people behind me and had yet to make it onto the boat.

Also, there was a little girl between Sara and I who was holding onto her mom but getting crushed in the crowd and yelling for her dad who was still fighting to get on. It was totally a Titanic moment. All the women and children were on the boat while the men were left pleading with the boatman to let them on. I was trying to tell the little girl she would be alright but I think I scared her or something because she just screamed even louder.

In the end, my suitcase got on the boat, as well as the father. And as we continued down the canal, more and more people got off, relieving some of the pressure. But those first few minutes as I was standing in the boat, gasping for fresh air, I thought to myself, "What the hell are we doing here?" Shortly later we found ourselves resting along the side of the boat watching beautiful palaces and churches roll by and  seeing gondolas full of couples experiencing a romantic night ride on the canal. That was when my first thought of regret in Venice became my last.

When we finally landed at our stop the light had just disappeared and we knew we didn't have much time until all the restaurants would be closed. So we headed off in the direction we thought our hotel was. Now everything I had heard before this trip was that you will always get lost in Venice no matter what. So when we still couldn't find our hotel after the first 10 minutes I wasn't scared. What makes things tricky is that there aren't really signs. Sometimes a wall might post what piazza you're in, or in which direction certain areas are, but for the most part, you kind of have to find everything on your own.

We did eventually find the place with a little help, and we're met  there by Mario, one of the hotel owners. He showed us to our room and then decided to describe every little thing in it. It wasn't like this Venetian hotel was different than any other hotels, it was quite normal compared to the other ones we had already encountered, so we found it a bit odd when he showed us where the TV was (on the wall next to us), demonstrated how to use the hair dryer by blowing it in his face, and pointed out the shampoo and soap in the bathroom. That wasn't all. He spent several minutes showing us the air conditioning unit too. "See if you want it to go up press here. 25, 26, 27... and to go down press here...26, 25, 24, 23, 22... 22 is a bit cold. 23, 24."

Of course all of this was being explained in broken English, with several lapses in between where he seemed to just stare at us thinking of the word in English until one of us finally said it for him, "table..." The worst part isn't that he went through and pointed out every detail of the room, it was that he explained things more than once. There we were, starving, waiting for this guy to wrap it up and then he would go back again on how to use the TV or the air conditioning. Sara thought it was because he was drunk. I thought it was because he had short term memory loss. He would repeat the same damn thing he had said only minutes ago as if he were saying it for the first time.

Then when he found out we hadn't eaten yet, he said, "Well, it's getting late. Things close soon." I was fighting back the urge to scream, "We know that's why we want you to get out of our room!" because he was very kind. In fact, after he left he came back with some snacks and champagne to welcome us. But the pretzels and nuts were not enough and after some quick showers to wash off the sweat we accumulated in Verona, we went out for our first Venetian dinner together.

What a surprise, we had pizza. One reason we ate it so much was also because we would eat so late that the kitchens would be closed and that was all there was. After dinner we decided to walk a bit around Venice by night and see how close to everything we really were. We realized we were less than a 10 minute walk to San Marco Square, the biggest and most important square in Venice. To finish off the night we chose to have a drink at a nice 5-star hotel that sat on the main canal.

We first tried to enter the bar but the bouncer wouldn't let us in because it was a private party, so we sat out by the canal where we were greeted by a less-than hospitable waiter. It seemed like a really snobby place, but once we sat down we promised we wouldn't embarrass ourselves by leaving after seeing the drink prices. O how stubborn we are! Coffees and sodas were 8€ just to give you an idea. Most mixed drinks ran over 20€. We settled for 18€ fruity drinks that fortunately were strong enough to make us feel a little bit better about where our money went.

In front of our hotel   

It was a great feeling not to have to wake up early the next morning and pack up all our stuff. Venice is not the same at night as it is during the day. During the night the canals seem mysterious and eerie, but during the day, each one is a beautiful passageway to another aesthetic discovery. Our hotel happened to sit right on a canal, just a short walk to the Grand Canal.

We started the day by heading to Piazza San Marco, where the famous St. Mark's Cathedral, Doge's Palace, and bell tower can be found in a giant plaza surrounded by cafes on every side. We chose to start at Doge's Palace, which was a little less crowded than the church.

The palace is one gigantic architectural museum that faces the water and is intertwined with the cathedral. It was used for the Doge or Mayor of the city who was only the figure-head and really had no power at all. Now you can walk through its many rooms and find furniture and paintings that are centuries-old. The most notorious part of the palace is called the Bridge of Sighs (left), the final bridge that prisoners crossed before entering the palace dungeons. As they walked across the bridge they were granted one last view of Venice, and would sigh at its beauty, before being locked away forever.

After the palace we found a place to eat nearby that we thought would be a quick cheap alternative to sitting down at a nice restaurant. However, Italians are really good at hidden fees. They either have a sit down fee or service fee and may or may not tell you about either one. So when we sat down to what we thought would be a 12€ meal each, we were surprised to see that all the fees bumped our bill up to 40€.

St. Mark's Basilica

After eating we decided it was the perfect time to walk through St. Mark's while most people were still eating. Before even entering, the beauty of the Byzantine facade draws you towards it, but it doesn't even prepare you for what waits inside. From the first step your attention is immediately focused upward at the gold covered ceiling. Every square-inch is covered with gold mosaics including most of the walls. This is why the cathedral is nicknamed the Church of Gold.

Because I spent most of my time staring up at the ceiling I almost missed the beautifully tiled floor as well, which uses different types of colored-marble to create quilt-like patterns across it. Although the cathedral is free, it does have a few museums inside that you can pay to visit. At one of them we decided to cough up the money to see relics like Jesus' blood and milk from the Virgin. But when we entered there was just a small room with a bunch of things behind glass. We couldn't tell what anything really was and there were no signs. To make matters worse there was a bar across the middle of the floor so we couldn't get close enough to the glass to really see anything at all.

Since we had spent 3€ to get into this exciting museum, we kept asking the man working the desk where certain things were. So the first time I walked up and asked in broken Italian/Spanish, "Where is blood of Jesus?" he just said it was behind the glass over there and then pointed arbitrarily behind himself at the room filled with unidentifiable objects.

Still, we were uncertain exactly what we were looking at, so Sara walked up and asked where the Virgin's milk was. This time he pointed toward the ceiling and said upstairs, I assumed in another museum. We weren't about to let him off the hook so again I asked, where are the three rocks that killed St. Stephen. Again he pointed toward the glass case and said, everything interesting is in there.

So Sara and I walked up and stared in trying to guess what was what. You know, you hear that there is a rock that was used to stone a person to death, and that sounds pretty interesting, until you look at a pebble behind glass from five feet away. I don't even know if that was actually one of the stones at all. However, I will still claim I saw Jesus' blood if I'm ever in a situation where I need to brag about seeing old Christian relics.

Afterward we walked around the church where there was another place to spend money to see something. After our first experience I squashed the idea. But before leaving we paid another 4€ to visit the museum above the church. It has beautiful views and lets you walk along the top of the church, inside and out. But we still never found the Virgin's milk and since the entrance to the museum is free I felt a little robbed when we left 7€ lighter. Still, it is one of the most beautiful churches in the world, in fact it is Sara's favorite, and I would have paid the money just to go in and stare up at its golden sky.

Watching party boats go past

As the day started getting later we headed to a spot on the Grand Canal and watched all the boats passing by. However, now all the boats were covered in decoration and full of half-naked, half-drunk people heading in the same direction. That night was the celebration of the Festa del Redentore, a fun Venetian festival to commemorate the end of the plague. Every year boats fill up the canal and watch fireworks before partying all night. We didn't get a boat but we planned to be down by St. Mark's across the canal from where the fireworks were going to go off.

We watched boat after boat go by until we finally decided it was time to get ready for the night. Our first stop was to Harry's Bar, a pub that was made famous by Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles. There is where the first true Bellini was created, so of course we had to go and partake. When we walked in there was only a little bar and about four tables, all of which were full of well-dressed people. While we did dress up for the occasion, we were sure that we wouldn't find a place to have a drink.

 

Unlike the snooty 5-star hotel, here a waiter came up and asked us what we needed. When we told him we wanted  to sit and get some drinks he made us follow him through a back door where there was a tall spiral staircase. He pointed us up so we followed his finger. By the time we got to the top, he was already waiting for us like some sort of Mary Poppins magic.


We were treated incredibly well the whole time and they even brought us some little grilled sandwiches, which I didn't see on anyone else's table. However it was the drink we came for, not the service, and we weren't let down. A Belini is a pink drink made from Italian sparkling wine and white peaches. It's sweet, fizzy, and delicious, and if you're ever in the neighborhood you should definitely try the original.


Later, after grabbing a bite to eat and picking up a bottle of champagne, we headed down to the piazza for the show, which started at 11:30. There were already thousands of people there, but we still made our way up close to the canal. We had a few more minutes before it began so I decided it was time to pop the champagne. Unfortunately, we didn't have an opportunity to refrigerate it and it was quite warm that evening. Still, after I took off the wrapping, I really wasn't expecting the cork to pop off and the champagne to start shooting out all over the ground. Thankfully I wasn't pointing the bottle at anyone, but I do wonder who was the lucky person sitting on the street when a cork suddenly fell onto their lap.

We had come to the plaza prepared with a plastic bag to sit on, but after the champagne incident the ground, the bag, my shoes, and the legs of most people around us were covered in champagne, so we enjoyed staying on our feet. Then the firework show began and it was amazing, the best I've ever seen. There weren't just a couple of small fireworks followed by a string of big ones. It was all the time giant fireworks exploding over our heads, usually four or five at a time too. The show went on non-stop for a good 30 minutes. Below is a sample of some of it.

Afterward we decided to follow the herd and head to the Church of Redentore even though our feet were killing us. Once a year there is a bridge that runs across the canal and connects one island to the church on the other side, and we didn't want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. So we made the same pilgrimage that every Doge had taken since the church was constructed in the sixteenth century and walked from the piazza all the way to the church.

However, it took us a bit longer than the average person because we really had no idea where it was. We kept asking and someone would point in one direction and then we would start walking, get lost, ask someone else, and they'd point us in a different direction. It took us almost two hours to finally get there, which of course included stopping to rest to help our feet, buying another bottle of wine to help our feet, and getting my third gelato of the day to help my craving.

We did finally manage to make it across the bridge and to the church (right), but after that there was the realization that we just went two hours in the opposite direction and now we need to head home. We made it back in just over an hour, completely exhausted, cramping and sore, but also appreciative that we were able to experience such a special Venetian tradition. One 19th-century developer and conservationist, Abbot Kinney, might have said it best: "See Venice and die." Although we felt halfway there (after spending the entire day seeing the best of the city by foot), we still had two more days in the beautiful, floating city of Venezia... TO BE CONTINUED