Venice

 Day One: Arrival and Recon

This time, we tried the normal "slow" train instead of the high-speed.  I was curious to do because a) you have to pay an annoying "booking fee" to reserve a seat on the high speed train on top of the Eurail Pass b) the timetable said the high speed only saved us half an hour, c) the high speed only goes to the train station on the mainland near Venice, and you have to make a transition to the local anyway.   Turns out, the local is still pretty fast, comfortable, and easy, but it doesn't come with a coffee and a cookie you don't really want.  Or a table.   I dunno, unless it's a long train ride, I am thinking the normal train is fine.  

We arrived in Venice no problem, and instantly we were aware we were in a very different city than Bologna.  Definitely fewer porticos, even more leaning towers, WAY more canals, and MUCH narrower streets.  Venice struggles even more than Rome or Florence with the weight of the tourist hordes, and it's tight spaces exacerbate the kind of claustrophobic feel of the city.  Even though they imposed a steep day-tripping tax and banned cruise ships from the Venice Lagoon, it's still pretty wall-to-wall around the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's square.  And those parts of the city are keenly tuned to spoungue tourists- pretty much everything is more expensive than the rest of Italy, and the quality of the food in general is a notch down.  

Now don't get me wrong- Venice is all they say it is and more when you get outside the main tourist attractions.   The canals are amazing, and yes, filled with gondolas, but honestly, you are going to do a lot more walking than you think there!  And you are going to have your phone out with Googgle Maps working on overdrive; I have heard many old cities described as having maze-like streets, but Venice is literally a maze.   Not only do the streets go in every direction but a grid, but the place is even more riddled with canals than you've heard, and the bridges over them are scattered in no particular order.  If you were to walk blindfolded down any given "street" (a good share of them are narrow enough you could trail your fingertips on both walls at once), you would be as likely to plunge headfirst into a canal as to go up and over a bridge.  Venice would be really tough for anyone with mobility issues- since every bridge has a steep set of stairs up and immediately back down.  There is also the issue of the Grand Canal, which is a lot wider and only has 4 or 5 bridges over it the whole length of the city.

But again, let me say, Venice is amazing, and gets a bad rap for many things that aren't true: I had heard that the canals are filthy and stinky, but I didn't think so, unless you think the ocean stinks.  Venice struck me as quite tidy, in fact- certainly in comparison with Rome.   It also has a bad reputation for crime, which is another thing we happily did not experience.  Science says it is in imminent threat of sinking beneath the ocean, and I CAN confirm that- we saw the high tide rise just to the edges of the canals in several places, and it's not even fall, when the highest tides have already flooded the city many times.  They have a mega-project (described below) that is supposed to mitigate it, but... yeeeshh.    Venice also has a huge housing crisis, which is exacerbated by landlords turning apartments for locals into short-term rentals- a problem certainly not unique to Venice.  It seems just a matter of time before a crackdown comes, as it has in New York, Berlin, London, Barcelona, and so on.   One of our hosts in Florence told us that well-intended laws protecting tenant rights are also a factor- apparently eviction is next to impossible.   But this is all a complicated issue much better discussed elsewhere.  

My impression of Venice is that time and circumstance has constructed a uniquely charming city that is very understandably an irresistible tourist attraction.  It's a stunningly beautiful place, and much of it is still thrumming with a vital energy (particularly its art scene)  The advent of low-cost travel in the 80's and 90's, however, have placed Venice in quite the dilemma- its economy of course is completely reliant on tourism, however over-tourism is stomping the life out of the place.  And can we, as typical as tourists could be, complain- we certainly aren't helping the situation, what what can you do?  The long-time residents are fleeing the place in droves, only to be replaced by yet another lousy pizzeria or carnival mask store or trinket cart.    And of course like low-lying coastal cities worldwide, it's kinda-sorta doomed anyway.   Ah, Venice.  

Day Two; San Marco Square, Venetian Arsenal

So we got right after it today, seeing the main things everybody goes to see while in Venice, which are all centered around St. Mark's square.  We used the same strategy as in Florence to try to get at the big draw as early as possible to mitigate the wait in line, and I think it did help.   So first up was the surprising and spectacular Doge's Palace, which is relatively plain-looking on the outside, but hoo-doggies is fancy on the inside.  The "Doge" was the unquestioned ruler of the Venetian Republic through its long history from the Middle Ages all the way up until it was finally officially conquered by Napoleon.  The Doge, did, however have many, many advisors and councils who helped rule the powerful city-state, and the palace was the primary meeting place of all of these aristocrats.  

They sure didn't skimp on the interior decor!  Each meeting hall is more gilded and bedecked by gigantic oil painting than the last.  And though all this is pretty impressive, the parts that really got my attention were the arcane committees that meted out justice and settled disputes.  There was, for example, a shadowy "Council of 10" that met in a room equipped with several secret doors and a special mail slot in the side through which autonomous accounts of defendants' misdeed could be slipped.  This Council of 10 had a military strike force at its beck and call, whose weapons you could look at in the chamber next door.   Not only did these cool swords, crossbows, and armor bear the subtle but terrifying "CX" engraving, but a number of them were Medieval weapons that were also guns!  A mace that was also a gun.  A crossbow that was also a gun.  A cane that was also a gun, and a gun that was actually 3 guns!   

I mean, Game of Thrones, eat your heart out.  

There were councils for just about everything in the Venetian Republic, and sub-councils, and consortium,  committees, and I am sure blue sky "no bad ideas in a brainstorm" bull sessions.  As long as you were an aristocrat, and your name was good in the "Golden Book" (managed by a 2-man committee), you probably had a spot in government.  And every sub-organization had an ornate room (with lots of secret doors), and then they met in bigger and fancier rooms, and then they had the biggest, fanciest room where thousands could meet that featured the world's largest oil painting, along with what must have been the 2nd-6th place gigantic oil paintings that were all surprisingly violent and gory.   

There also is/ was a prison right across the canal, which is accessed via a high stone arch named the "Bridge of Sighs" which makes a lot of sense once you see the dungeon.   Do NOT get sideways with the Council of 10, is what I am saying.  

Right next door to the Doge's Palace is St. Mark's cathedral- actually it was more acurately part of the Doge's palace because it was his private chapel.  St. Mark's wins the nuttiest cathedral in Italy hands down, from it's reason for existence to the layers upon layers of disparate ornamentation that it accrued over the years.   The short version of the temple was that a group of religious zealots got in into their heads that they needed to reclaim the bones of St. Mark from Alexandria, whose message of Christianity was received poorly enough that the pagans tied him up and dragged him around until he was dead.  The heist complete, they brought the remains back to Venice and encased it in a kind of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" golden tomb, and later built a huge cathedral around it.  Venice was of course, the pre-eminent sea power of its time, and for nearly 1000 years reaped untold riches from their stranglehold on the trade from Asia and the Mediterranean.     So you KNOW this signature cathedral is going to be covered in gold mosaics and charging horses, and marble statuary, and wild domes, and priceless paintings.  

There is of course a tall bell tower we checked out next door (this one has a mandatory elevator), and it gives a great view of Venice and the surrounding islands (though curiously, not a single canal- they are way too narrow and deeply hidden between the buildings to see from there).  

In the afternoon, we walked up the seaport shore (where, happily, cruise ships no longer dock- banned in 2021) and over to the sadly neglected but still okay maritime museum.  There is some weird history there, including a WWI torpedo that somebody actually drove, and lots and lots of cool boat models.   I thought the part about gondolas was pretty interesting (like that they aren't symetrical- they curve a bit bow to stern like a banana to compensate for being powered solely from one side).  

But it's pretty weak sauce considering it's right next to the Venetian Arsenal, which was the base of operations for the most potent naval superpowers in history, and arguably the fore-runner to the mass production process of the Industrial Revolution.  You'd think there would be a huge museum about that right there in the Arsenal- but instead it's just an old naval base with many of the historic buildings crumbling to dust.  Well... this isn't exactly true.  Venice, as you may know, is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to rising sea levels, and there is a civil engineering mega-project underway to hopefully save it from slipping under the waves.   This series of giant seawalls which control the 3 major entrances to the Venetian lagoon (I'd call it more of a sound, but whatever) will be maintained and controlled from a headquarters there in the Venitian Arsenal, which has been largely restored to take on this new purpose.  The project has been been dogged by delays, scandals, and corruption, but apparently it's finally going to be done next year.  The only question is, how long will it actually work, as the pace of sea level rise is increasing.  I can tell you from direct observation that at high tide, a lot of the city is about 6 inches from the canals topping over the cobbles, so uh... fingers crossed?     

Then, it being mid- afternoon, we engaged in what became a happy pattern for the next few days- just wandering through a particular part of town with no hard destination in mind.   This allowed us to escape the throngs of tourists choking the area around St. Mark's Square and the Rialto Market and take in the full charm of Venice's famed canals and maze-like streets.  Occasionally they open up into inviting "Campos" (small squares), where inevitably there is a little restaurant or cafe that begs a stop, if for no other reason to just take in the charm of the boats passing by and the people passing by in the sun.   Venice has a BAD over-tourism problem, like everyone says, but there are still many opportunities to get out of the pizza/pasta/carnival mask shop/ gelatto stand Disneyland much of it has become and catch a breath.     

Day Three: Art Academy, St. Mary's, walk around the art district

On the very south end of the main island of Venice is the Academia, or Art Academy in Venice.  (Actually, actual art school moved out of the centuries-old buildings a few years ago and down the canal a little way into some other centuries-old buildings. )   The whole neighborhood from the old Academy to the old Customs House (now a famous modern art museum) near St. Mary's Cathedral, is an art district, and one of the most pleasant areas of the city.  

The Academy Museum is one of most highly esteemed in Italy, indeed in Europe, and for what it's worth, I would also like to add my 5-star mark of approval.   We were really glad we got the audio guide, because it gives you just the right amount of information to walk you through the well-organized and well-explained exhibits.  Rather than the absolute baffling deluge of antiquities you get from the Vatican Museum (to name just one), here you have a well-limited amount of examples of particular artists, schools, and time periods.  I suppose this makes sense, since after all, this is part of an art school.  Most of it chronicles the long tradition of Italian Renaissance painting (with large props to the local Wunderkind Titian), but it goes well into the 19th century, including a large exhibit celebrating the local sculptor Antonio Canova.  There is even a shrine to him there, with an alabaster urn that once contained his heart.  Later, people found that a little distasteful, so they removed the heart, put that back in his casket, but then while they were in there they cut off his right hand and put that in the urn.  Much more recently, (like 15 years ago), it struck somebody that this was also pretty weird, and the hand was removed and slipped discretely in with the rest of his remains.

We were captivated enough with this excellent museum that it was early afternoon when we emerged blinking in the sunlight, so we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying this district and the beautiful St. Mary's cathedral, which features yet more priceless works of art adorning its many altarpieces.  There were two more art museums on offer- the Peggy Guggenhiem museum and the Punta Della Dogana in the old customs house, which are both supposed to be excellent.  But we have found on this trip and others that at some point, just about everybody falls to Museum Fatigue- where the mind can only take in so much information, and the feet and back can take only so much standing around on exquisitely patterned marble flooring.  Also the latter museum is REALLY expensive, and also it was a lovely afternoon, and this area of the city is just as charming and canaled and narrow-alleyed, except are many fewer people in it, and these are generally art students.  So we whiled away a few hours in a couple of ridiculously pleasant sidewalk cafes, ate some very affordable yet excellent street food, and ambled our way back to our place via the long way.  That night, we actually managed to rally out after the siesta to have dinner at the "appropriate" hour, having actually researched our choice, and had an excellent seafood dinner.  

Day Four: Cooking class, walk around the north end of town

Another of Jen's must-do's for Italy was taking a cooking class, and of course since this involved signing up through an online vendor I was suspicious that this was going to be some tourist-trap silliness.  But happily, it turned out to be a great experience.  We met up with our guide and instructor at the Rialto market in the morning when it was still quiet (it gets CRAZY later), and were joined by a pleasant young couple from Australia.  We five then walked around to see what was on offer at the local fruit stands, butcher/cheesemongers, fish stands, etc.  We then walked to our instructor's apartment in the north end of town and got to work cooking.  The goal was an eggplant parmesan, handmade ravioli, and a tiramisu for dessert.  The ravioli I thought was the most fun to make, and was particularly tasty, but the tiramisu was super-easy, and in my opinion one of the best deserts going world-wide.  There was lots of friendly conversation over some nice local white wine, and we lingered perhaps a tad past our welcome into the mid-afternoon.  

We had wanted to wander around this section of town, the Cannareggio, anyway, and seized the opportunity once offered it.   It had the strange honor (?) of being one of the first ghettos (segregated neighborhoods) in the world, in this case cordoning off the Jews in the city.  Some of the history remains in the food and shops in the side of town, but for the most part it's just a nice quiet part of the city with a little more open area around the canals- here there were generally a nice cobblestone path on either side rather than 4-story stone buildings hemming in the water everywhere but where the bridges crossed them.  A couple more cafes and more walking and lounging around, which honestly, is one of the best things you can do in Venice IMHO.   

Day Five: Trip to other islands.  

One could spend a month in Venice and not run out of things to do, but we had to make decisions of what to do with our time, so on the last full day here, we opted to hop on the ferry and explore a few of the other islands in the archipelago.   The typical package deal includes the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello, so that's what we did. 

I was a little worried at the first stop at Murano, which is famous for its glass-blowing.  You are herded off the ferry with 100 people or so into a large workshop where you see a demonstration of glass-blowing that was fairly interesting, but then from there immediately into a big gift shop full of very delicate glass things that would have zero chance of surviving the rest of our trip, even if we wanted to buy a glass unicorn.  Happily, there was an escape door, and you could walk around other parts of the island, which also has canals and pleasant walkways and buildings.  It was still 90 percent chatski shops, though, and I was worried this was kind of an elaborate shopping expedition for seniors looking to decorate their nursing home rooms (considering the next island was known for lace doilies).  But Burano, the next island, was actually more famous for its seafood and gaily painted houses, which really made for fantastic photos- if you are into super-charming-ass villages that is.  We had an inexpensive but superb seafood lunch in an out-of-the-way restaurant overlooking the surrounding wild lagoon, and very happily wandered around the gorgeous little village snapping photos.    The final island, Torcello, is on the agenda because of a 5th-century religious complex on it, much of which is an active archaeological site.  The belltower offers an excellent sweeping view of the surrounding area (since it's all flat as a pancake and mostly water), and the basilica housed perhaps the best of the gilded mosaics we had yet seen.  Nowhere near as fussy as those in the more "modern" cathedrals of St. Mark's or St. Mary's, these had more of an austere appeal that drew more attention to their subjects and less on the splendor of the filigree.    

Quite a nice day overall, and this took up the whole of it.  We got some pasta to go at yet another of the restaurants my phone recommended (the Phone has great taste, don't know what to tell you), and sure enough, it was the best pasta we have yet had- and that's saying something.  We got stuff mostly packed for the egress the next day, and had a pleasant night's rest.