Annals from the canals.

It is just a bit over a full month since we left home and it is quite amazing how much we have seen, but it is nearly time for us to say goodbye to Italy. For me the last month has been like every art history class I ever took put into a large glass jar and shaken. I have been totally awestruck at the volume and the beauty of the work we have seen. I thought I had seen it all in previous weeks but even more was to come in Venice (more about that later).

 

So we took the morning train from Florence to Venice - it really is so easy catching the trains here. We only take the second class ones and so far our good experiences have outweighed the bad. There are things to learn like get there early enough to get a seat and if the it says the train leaves from an "extension" that means a long walk up the platform, almost to the next station. Take food and drink and be prepared with a good book. Don't get the inside windows as the trains coming the other way will frighten the life out of you, and pop your ears while going through tunnels at high speed. Enough about trains.

 

Venice. What can I say. It is beautiful, poetic, magical. Possibly disgusting in summer but I think we have seen some great days, 1 sunny 1 raining 1 foggy, each day was so different but interesting. Sadly Venice is shrinking in population and it seems the tourists out number the residents. In saying that our experience here has not been one of long lines and terrible waiting times. Queues are short and generally prices seem to be reasonable. We have stuck to our salads at night and home made sandwiches during the day which has been a great way of knowing what we are going to eat and also saving money. We have also eaten locally and the food has been quite good.

 

When we first arrived we wound our way to our B&B and were so happy to find that it was right beside the Grand Canal (yes the river that runs through the middle), our room doesn't have a view but since we generally get home after dark it doesn't matter too much. There is a bar underneath that play good music that we can listen to which we always thought looked interesting but didn't go into until our last day.

 

The view from our doorstep

Day one looking around and eating pasta

 

Day 2 on this day it was very warm and sunny so we decided to go for a good walk and wandered through the streets until we found St Marks square. Yes it is big and some great buildings. The clock with the Roman numerals is really fun. But the best bit of this day was going into St Marks and seeing all the mind blowing mosaic work and the tesselations on the floor. The gold alter piece in the back was sooooooo intricate. We just kept on walking around and around being amazed and then on the way out we decided to pay to go upstairs and see the four horses that the Venetians had knocked of from the Turks at the same time that they brought St Mark back in the pork Barrel. Well! If you are ever in Venice make sure you spend the €5 to see this because it really is the most fantastic place to view the Basilica and the mosaic work and the Square and the roof tops and the clock and it is all just too amazing for words.

Mosaic. All mosaic.

 

Ditto. Tiny squares.

 

Day 3 raining so green jacket. Venice is beautiful in the rain. You just need to watch out for the umbrella's they can be very pokey in the small alley ways. Lots of puddles and drips every where. We went into Mestre by train today to see how to catch bus to Ljubljana- that took quite a while but I think we have worked it out now. Then we came back and had a bit of a rest- we are both getting a bit tired at times it we don' t eat carefully enough. Then we decided to go to the Academy of Venice. There are a few Venitian painters that are quite good..... That is what we had heard anyway! I was a bit oh yeah? We have seen the best. OH! Was I wrong. It was unbelievable. I still can't believe we spent 3 hours in the gallery looking and looking not just oh yes another Tintoreto or Bellini but come and have a look at this on one and did you see the work on that one... We were like two arty fatty religious buffs working out all of the Saints and who's work belonged to who. We are getting quite good at recognising the symbols for all they people now. Veronese is a new hero and a painter called Sebatiano Luciani. And Tintoretto - so huge and dark. This was a highlight I won't forget too quickly.

Some poor bloke had to guard this all day., standing one metre behind it.

 

Day 4 we bought a 24 hour Tavel card and just kept on taking one water bus after another. We went to Murano which was fun to walk around. The glass work was a bit ho hum but the islands were interesting and the glass workers were interesting. We went right around Venice on another bus and then out to Lido to the beach which was grey and disgusting -it might be better in summer. It was raining so maybe we weren't seeing it at its best. Then we came back and took another water taxi up the grand canal to home. Arrived back and found the bar below has happy hour - pasta buffet and a wine or beer for €5 which was great as it is a beautiful very, very old building. The pasta and wine were great Venice is great and we have had a wonderful time.

 

My two cents, by Paul: I agree with all that, and...

What I have found fascinating here is how it all works. Like ambulance and police boats, post and deliveries by water, cranes operating from the back of boats, bridges with ramps for trolleys to go over, different layers of bricks in the walls to restrict the water soaking up the bricks, draing whole sections of canal to repair walls, ferries and water taxis and rubbish barges and all sorts of boats everywhere. It's really cool. And they got the original wooden piles that they built all the 'land' on from forests in Slovenia because it was special wood that doesn't rot for like 1000 years. How did they do that? How did they get them so deep in the marsh and all level and then built on and !!! How do they do this stuff?!??!!

They say the sewerage goes straight into the canals...

 

Beer update - I have had 22 different beers so far, the most recent, 'Gasthaus', costing 70 cents for 660ml from the supermarket being really quite drinkable, even verging on good, in a simple lager sort of way.

 

p.s. evidently an 'annal'' is a chronological record of one year. Well I reckon it nearly rhymes with canal so it works for me.