Hi And Welcome To Venice (Venezia):
If you like water, you’ll like Venice or Venezia as the Italians say it. Now I realize you can go on-line and see marvelous photos of Venice, so let’s be clear that these narratives are focused on the inside stuff (whatever that is) and photos not readily available on-line. Today we’ll personalize things a bit with the photos, saving what we’ll call the “architectural photos” for the next epic dissertation.
Also, it’s a sunny Thursday morning (November 7th) in Aix-en Provence, so I’d be untruthful to lead you to believe that we are still on the trip. Yes, we’re “home” and back into the daily rigors of life. The Provence sunshine is still prevailing, as it was sunny and 73 degrees yesterday, which isn’t all bad for November. Two solid rainy days since late August and another five days where it rained a part of the day mixed with sunshine. That covers about 75 days, and we must consider that October and November are the rainiest months in this part of the world. So, the reports of this being a sunny place to live are accurate to this point.
Anyway, let’s get back on the road driving to Venice. Trucks, trucks and more trucks. When we exited to the freeway headed to Venice, we lost the trucks. So, they were all headed to Slovenia and Croatia. Gosh, it would be exciting to have just kept going around the top of the Adriatic Sea and gotten really worldly. But, how much can you cover in 11 months?
As always, you need to fill in between the lines. But, a little local knowledge to give you the flavor of Venice. Venice is located off the Italian mainland on 118 islands. I expect there are a couple of somewhat larger islands included. There is a causeway about 1-2 miles long between the mainland and Venice, which includes a freeway and rail lines. The deal is you cross that causeway and arrive at the train station, the bus stop or the parking lots (which are very expensive). No land vehicles beyond that point.
We read that parking at the Venice Airport (about 3 miles from the causeway) was the economical approach. I’d say we saved 20% of what we would have spent had we crossed the causeway and parked. But, we experienced the long-term parking lot (mostly grass with trees) and a public bus trip through areas of real Italian people living, so it was interesting. The approach to Venice on the causeway was less than beautiful. You felt a little like you were in Florida along the Intra-Coastal. There was a major oil refinery/supply area and a feeling of gray. Then, you caught sight of three ocean liners in port at Venice. And, arriving on the bus was hectic, but that’s European cities. Off the bus we had to ask for Line 1 Vaporetta (a motorized boat). It’s setup just like a subway, only you’re on a fairly wide canal. We got off at the Rialto stop and had instructions with about six turns down narrow walkways (Venice’s answer for roads) to our hotel.
The photos give you an idea of what our apartment/hotel looked like from the outside. Almost roomy around the building, at least by Venice standards. Also, you can see the view from the front door of the hotel. A waterfront property! And, Marlene took a shot of the kids sleeping, and as was often the case, it was on a foldout couch. Marlene enjoyed her morning coffee at a café on the Grand Canal, which is about 80 feet wide and a maze of boats. There are the bigger motorized boats (Venice’s answer to busses or subway trains), motorized taxis (smaller boats) and the gondole, which you see moving through rather narrow waterways.
The spelling of a singular such vessel is “gondole”, at least on the signs. I’m into calling them gondolas, but to each his own.
Also, you have delivery boats, boats involved in construction.......well you get the picture......lots of boats and not a lot of width on the waterways.
Venice has great shopping. We were just around the corner from the Armani store. So, at times it seems like a shopping mall. At other times it almost seems like a movie set or an amusement park. Most areas are very touristy. One afternoon, while Marlene and Sophia went shopping, Keaka and I walked into non-commercial areas and eluded the other tourists. Interesting to see the very, very compact living quarters. Doing your daily shopping and living exercises would be very different. Lots and lots of restaurants. There were the usual walk-up joints for coffee and for sandwiches or pastries, but there were actual restaurants that made you feel you were in NYC, Boston or Chicago. You don’t get much of that in the south of France. We were on a roll, having had much better food in Lucerne (German), and we were not disappointed in Venice. We had a pizza that matched our favorites (Gabaldi’s in Phoenix and Pizza Scholls in Portland). Keaka knocked off a very tasty filet mignon. Lots of wine, of course. It’s always hard to get use to wine by the glass, beer and soda being almost the same price.
In summary, Venice is not like many other places you’ll experience. I guess you have to experience it once, but I doubt you’d need a second visit.
Very interesting architecture in Venice, which we’ll share next time.
The Wilsons
