IT SNOWED OUR LAST NIGHT IN GERMANY which just reenforced our decision to head to Venice. So we dropped off the car in Frankfurt and took the train to Venice. The usually always-on-time Deutsch-Bahn wasn’t so punctual and it took us 13 hours, three trains and a vaporetto (water bus) to get to our hotel in the Dorsoduro neighborhood of Venice.
A taste of winter
We were last here in September, 2001. Venice was a spur of the moment choice when a snowstorm forced us to bail from our Swiss alpine trek. This time we came better prepared; we know what we want to see and do — and how to do it! We had already booked a hotel and we purchased a seven-day vaporatto ticket, the better to get around efficiently. This morning we purchased a Museum Pass and stocked up on groceries at one of the few supermarkets on the island.
High water A rainbow of colors
Venice is sinking, has been for 500 years or so. The rising sea-levels are a more recent event and the two, combined with the crazy weather patterns around the world make life in Venice (and many other low-lying islands) a bit daunting. The ground floors of most canal-side ca’s (short for casa) are perpetually flooded. During high water, so are the plazas. Like St. Mark’s Square, the hub of tourist Venice. It wasn’t too bad today — we could use the boardwalks — a good thing since I refuse to wear the brightly colored booties that scream “Tourist! Tourist!” with each squishing step. The weather isn’t helping either, cold and wet, but we spent a few hours inside at the Correr Museum, a massive collection of Venitian paintings and Roman sculptures housed in a palace that virtually surrounds St. Mark’s Square.
