Last week, with my limited funds in mind, I had to decide what cities were on my must-see list. Venice was placed right at the top of that list. I knew I could not leave Italy without seeing Venice. So with two days to plan, two friends and I decided to make the long trip to go see the sinking city.
We started our journey early Friday morning and hopped on the train in Perugia. After five hours and three trains we finally arrived. We ate a quick lunch and checked in to our hostels, then finally we started our tour of the city. Venice is... well exactly how it looks in the movies. Everywhere you turn there are canals, some larger than others. There has to be hundreds of them, and hundreds of bridges crossing them all. One very large expanse of water, the Grand Canal, basically splits the main island of Venice in two. Unfortunately, the Venetians have only ever built 4 bridges that allow pedestrians to cross the Grand Canal, which can make walking around the city utterly frustrating. More than once my friends and I walked down a street to find ourselves walking towards water, with no where to go but some stairs walking down into the green watery depths. We made our way to St. Mark's Square; probably one of the most famous piazzas in all of Italy. It was breathtakingly large, very similar to Piazza del Duomo in Milan. Our initial reaction to the sight of St. Mark's Basilica was rather subdued as the entire front facade was covered in scaffolding in lieu of a current restoration process. The inside however, that is a different story.
Everything I knew about St. Mark's I knew from reading Dan Brown's most recent novel The Inferno, where his protagonists frantically search the depths of the basilica for hidden clues. Dan Brown mentions how the church is famously known as the "golden church" because of the millions of golden tiles that make up its walls and ceilings. And I would definitely agree with that statement. For some unknown reason the lights within the church are kept at a very dim intensity, and only after letting your eyes adjust do you really comprehend the level of brilliance within the dark space. We had planned ahead and downloaded a free walking tour of the building; a 45 minute detailed description of the many murals and piece of historical artwork within the church and it's museum. After walking all the way through the basilica, mouths agape, we were allowed to go out on the balcony and overlook the entire square. The view was spectacular.
We had also downloaded a free audio guide that took us down the Grand Canal following the stops of the local water buses called vaporetti. It was a 45 minute trip going down the entire length of the canal, pointing out all the famous building and monuments on the way. Unfortunately most of the photos I took while on that vaporetti were terribly blurry and I have not included in the photo album. After all that walking and audio-guide-listening we were hungry. We spent almost a half an hour trying to find a restaurant that was very highly rated on Tripadvisor and Yelp. This place is a very small kitchen that specializes in only selling fresh pasta noodles, however at certain times of the day they sell the pasta with a small selection of signature sauces. It was cheap and served by the half pound in small chinese-food to go containers. We got our pasta, bought bottles of wine and found a place at the edge of the Grand Canal to sit and enjoy our dinner. We sat there, eating pasta from a to go container and drinking wine from the bottle, watching gondolas go by, chatting and enjoying each others company. We finished the night by finding a small local pub and getting a couple beers. The next morning was going to be another early one!
We woke up early and headed off in the direction of St. Mark's square again, however this time in search of the Doge's Palace. The Doge's Palace is a palace/capitol building turned museum. It was the home of the Doge, Venice's historical elected leader (the Doges ruled the city and surrounding area of Venice for over a thousand years!) The palace was a beautiful museum, one that I wish we had some sort of guide for. The most amazing section of the museum was its Armory. The armory was home to a collection of swords, spears, suits of armor, primitive firearms, and one very special weapon. This thing... WAS THE COOLEST. It was a sword that was inlaid with a gun! Half way down the blade on one side was the barrel and the trigger was in the handle. From a logistical standpoint, its completely foolish, as one now has a bad pistol attached to a horribly off balanced sword. But still... that's so awesome. The museum also contains a tour of the Venice prison, attached to the Doge's Palace by a span aptly named "the Bridge of Sighs," as it was the walkway upon which newly sentenced prisoners walked sadly to their new accommodations. After leaving the Doge's Palace the rest of the day was spent navigating the streets of Venice, stopping at mask and glass shops along the way. Mid-afternoon we grabbed the train back to Florence and finally back to Perugia after another five hours of train travel. On the train I met a group of traveling air force soldiers. They were a really fun group of guys and girls traveling to Florence on their extended weekend (they got Monday off for Veteran's Day). As always, it's such a pleasure to meet fellow Americans on the road.
My final thoughts on Venice are bittersweet. I am definitely glad I went to go visit it, as there are parts of the city that I really enjoyed. However, I spent far more money than I thought I would (prices there are ridiculous) and the city is so difficult to get around. With only money left for two more trips, my list of must-see cities has gotten much smaller. Let's see where I end up in a few weeks!
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