Watery Venice

10/15/2009

Today we had a wonderful day in Venice. This city has mad a mark on the list of my top favorite cities we have visited so far. The last time I was here I don’t think that we walked around much, just saw the major sites and it was really hot so it was uncomfortable to be outside. Today was a beautiful crisp fall day. Venice is shaped like a fish so it is very appropriate that the city is built on water. The sky here is so crazy and always changing. Katherine put it nicely when she said it was very “expressive”, definitely interesting to look at. While Venice is on the water and boats on the canals are used as a major form of transportation, it is still a pretty walkable city, you just walk over bridges to get over the water. The water surprised me because it is actually a lot more green/blue that I remember of expected it to be. Venice actually fits my stereotypical idea of what Italy is like with skinny streets that go through tall crowded buildings with clothing hanging out to dry above and lots of shops and restaurants to duck into.

Our hostel did not provide us with a free map of the city (normally hostels do that), so we kinda wandered around all day. My computer doesn’t get Internet very well in the hostel. It is extremely splotchy, so we used a guidebook to Venice that was lying out at the hostel to get an idea of where and how to get to our major points of interest for the day. It was very pre-internet feeling using a book as a main reference. I haven’t had to do that since probably middle school. Katherine and I decided that we think out hostel is pretty much a girl who has a pretty incredible floor in a building and decided to use the space as a hostel. It is extremely casual. Breakfast is at nine, which is pretty late for hostel standards, so it felt like we were getting off to a late start this morning. We have some major issues with using the key to the front door of the hostel. For whatever reason, we could never get it to work and would always have to be buzzed in. I think the main lady thinks we are a bit on the slow side, but I swear that I have never had a key give me so many problems. We did not get it to work even once.

Our first priority of the day was to find an ATM. We ended up walking in a random direction and eventually came to a bus terminal. There was a bank there, so that worked for us. There also was a major waterbus stop there so we bought the 24 hour pass for 18 euro. We figured that this would be good because then we wouldn’t have to worry about transportation fees during the day, could go wherever we wanted, and then we could also use it the next morning to get back to the train station because we would definitely be back there by 11 and before the 24 hours ran out. This would be a lifesaver for our wallets and our backs with our packs on. Now we just had to hold on to the passes. We ended up riding these waterbuses all day. We realized that they are not the fastest or most efficient mode of transportation, but we did get a great tour of the Venice waterside. The boats on the water a wild here. They slam up to dock and the water taxies zoom in and out of spots. I saw a water taxi almost take out a pile-on in an attempt to make a speeding turn in docking.

From the bus terminal, we hopped on a waterbus to the island of Murano. On the way we saw a huge sign that said “Something strange happened here”. I thought to myself, “duh, something strange happened here, this city was build literally on water.” I don’t think we got on the most efficient line there so the boat ride was a very long one. Eventually we made it and spent the morning going in and out of Murano glass shops. There was some unbelievable glass pieces. I was thinking that I would buy one if any really caught my eye. It could be a blessing in disguise that none did and I eventually found a pretty little glass ball ornament. How cool would it be to have an elaborate, ornate, Murano glass chandelier? Murano glass is all over the city of Venice too. So if we decided we missed something, we could have easily found it somewhere else.

From Murano, we headed to Saint Mark’s (Santo Marco) square to see the beautiful mosaic church and the square with all of the pigeons. We passed a photo street vendor here and a very cool picture of Venice caught my eye. I haggled with the guy and got it 4 Euro cheaper than his original asking price. I was proud of myself even though I probably could have gone a little lower. Im still new at the whole bargaining thing, but this is a step in the right direction. Im pretty psyched about the photograph. We got lunch in a little restaurant off one of the streets near the square. This restaurant rubbed us the wrong way as soon as we were seated but we were starving so we stayed. Here there also was a table charge. I wonder if all of Italy has these. I had spinach and ricotta stuffed raviolis with a pumpkin sauce over them and Katherine had a pizza. The place was over priced, the food was mediocre and not nearly as good as they advertised to be, and they tried to not give us bread. Oh well, we are having a free dinner at the hostel tonight of risotto, so hopefully that is good.

After lunch, our next stop for the day was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Peggy Guggenheim was an American modern art collector that lived in Venice and was able to collect some unbelievable pieces of art from all sorts of famous artists. Picasso, Jackson Pollack, Dali, and many more in her collection. The collection is on display in Peggy’s house, which is on the Grand Canal. It is an unbelievable house with a great front terrace on the water, a fantastic back courtyard (furnished with very cool statues and pieces of art including a Yoko Ono wish tree (??)), and a rooftop deck. All in all a beautiful piece of property. I really enjoyed this museum a lot. There were some pieces of art that just made me smile.

The next thing to do on our list for the day was a gondola ride, because you have to take a gondola ride when you are in Venice. It was 80 euro for the both of us, but I think it was worth it. It was extremely relaxing. Before we got into the gondola we stopped into a very cute coffee shops for some hot chocolates to go. Oh my lord this was probably some of the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. It was literally thick hot chocolate with minimal milk, just chocolaty goodness. It was wonderful. The gondola ride was a lot of fun and nice to take a leisurely ride down the back canals of Venice.

Venice is a beautiful city, but I could see how on a dark and dreary day it could easily come off as dirty and depressing. I would love to return here for a romantic long weekend full of eating, drinking, and gondola rides… and shopping. Oh my lord the shopping in this city is unreal. Everything from knick-knacks to couture clothing, which makes window-shopping here an extremely enjoyable and stimulating experience. Churches seem to be around every corner. There are so many beautiful churches to admire, that I would think the holiest of holies would find themselves quite calm here. The one problem I might have in this city would be it is probably a very good possibility that I could get easily lost here. Everything does look similar, but that is another reason why wandering is so fun. In addition to that if you need to get your bearing just walk to the water and look at the stops at a water bus stop and you will figure out where you are. Katherine and I had no problem navigating the city, which was a nice relief.

We are planning on spending the night hanging out at the hostel, where we will eat our free dinner. We will probably go out once to get dessert, maybe some gelato kind or a pastry. Tomorrow we are heading to Padua for a night to meet up with Katherine’s dad’s girlfriend’s best friend’s sister, who lives there. Its quite a connection train, but she was very willing to have us and it will be nice to stay in a house again. Apparently her husband used to be an Italian soccer player and she is a professor at the university in Padua. I am pretty excited to see a more rural town in Italy.

My foot did better today because it was in my sneakers. They have been a life saver for me on this trip and I am thinking that I will probably have to buy another pair once I get home because I will have worn these down so much. When we headed out for gelato I had mint stuck in my head, but as soon as we got there, I saw the tiramisu and immediately changed my mind. I think I made a good decision. We encountered our first snorer in this hostel. I will be ready to leave it tomorrow.