"The Drawing Room of Europe" -
Napoleon
I have never been anywhere where the sound of the people talking, people
laughing, street music and the pigeons have completely drowned out any sounds
of motor traffic. That might be due in part to the fact that all non foot
traffic is on the waterways only.
I got to see the infamous Ponte de Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs)
which connects the ducal palace and the overflow prison built just across the
Rio di Palazzo, the bridge of sighs connects the two buildings. When a prisoner
was sentenced to death in the ducal palace they took their final walk across
the Ponte de Sospiri to the executioner. This was the last time they got a chance
to see the water and the sunlight before death. Awful pretty bridge for such a
gory use. And even more weird is that there is a superstition that is you take
a gondola ride underneath the bridge of sighs at sunset and kiss as you are
directly underneath your love will be eternal.
The pigeons are amazing, you can buy a package of corn kernels for about 1€
and walk into the center of the square and feed the millions of pigeons waiting
for you. They will even fly up and land on your arms to eat right out of your
hands... I even had 4 and 5 pigeons landing on top of one another in order to
get some food. Being a bird lover myself I had a great time doing this, check
out the video (assuming it is up and running on youtube -- they take FOREVER to
upload videos).
This is a very pretty place to see and quite a bit of shops
to wander around, don’t forget to stop and get yourself some Gelato and don’t
miss out on the local street performers. The gondola ride are pretty expensive
so i didn’t partake in that, but I'm sure it is one of those things you just
HAVE to try while you are in Venice, and since I'm not leaving Italy anytime soon
I think I will end up taking a ride on one before I go.
