Strempels on Tour: Venice Wednesday 26th

Of course Venice is amazing – it sort of goes without saying. And I don’t think I have the words to do it justice. Its both the big and the little things that amaze and almost overwhelm. Of course it is also the crowds – you’ve never seen anything like it – even in places in Asia that we’ve been.

We set out to see a few things and just kept walking from about 9-5. Sore feet and boggled mind, as well as some nice trinkets was the result. It felt like we poked our heads into 100 glass stores, and almost as many clothing, shoe, cheese, meat, bakery and gift stores. There are so many & they’re all a little different.

As we would our way around the narrow streets it was just great to observe daily life – barges loaded with goods for stores pulling up as close as then could, and then offloading onto hand push carts to then transport the goods to stores. With no cars & motorbikes anywhere the place is on a very human scale – slower, quieter and it is all pedestrian friendly. Though it does present problems for some - I felt sorry for a postal delivery guy who had an overladen push cart which he had to wrestle up & down the steps of the bridges over the canals.

And while much of the city is grant and beautiful, it is also refreshing to see the gritty, decayed side of life on full view cheek by jowl with the grand. Whether it is looking straight into people’s kitchens in tiny alley, or seeing the mundane shops such as furniture repair or fabric shops, it stops it being a Disneyland type place.

The “list” of places visited goes something like this - through St Marks square & across the Grand Canal at the Rialto bridge to the local produce markets. Really nice, but for Adelaide people with our own market not overly “wow”. Though the olfactory “pleasure” of also having an open air fish market alongside was interesting. Made for fascinating looking at too.

Rialto Bridge

We then wended our way down through a few squares and stopped off at a couple of churches – as you do. All truly amazing. We came across an older fellow standing in a square and singing well known snippets from operas and croony songs. Beautiful voice & so apt in the location.

Along the way we found ourselves in a big irregular open space called Campo Santa Margherita where we had lunch outside a small care. I mention this because we were again surrounded by smokers –a real turn off while trying to eat. Given the changes in Australia over the last 30 years it is staggering to see so many people (particularly young people) smoking! I remember this from being in Europe before, but it appears that the Italians are more into the smokes than most other places. The site of a young man with a lit cigarette munching on a roll in between drags was something to behold.

After much wandering and staring we made it to the Gallerie dell’Acadamia, a collection of art about and made in Venice from Byzantine times to the 1700’s. One book described it as Venice’s answer to the Ufizi gallery in Florence. It is certainly spectacular, with more Titians than you’ll see anywhere else, and amazing pictures representing Venetian life at the height of their empire. (It was interesting that we had been in Corfu a few weeks ago & that was once part of the Venetian empire. Now being in Venice, I can see some of the influences we saw in Corfu & Dubrovnik.)

And then by way on contrast we walked a bit further to the Peggy Guggenheim museum of modern art – a must see. The museum is in Ms Guggenheim’s house right on the grand canal & there are photos of her in the rooms as they were in the 60’s. It must have been amazing when it was a house! Apparently she moved to France in the 20’s and decided that she wanted the world to know about modern art. She decided to do this by buying artist’s work to support them and then to share and display these works. It is claimed that she decided to purchase a piece of art every day & it would appear that she did this. The house displaying the best of her collection (e.g. Jackson Pollacks, Magrittes, Moore sculptures etc) is amazing, as is the very tranquil sculpture filled garden behind the house.

We walked back to the Acadamia as in front of it is a relatively modern wooden footbridge bridge that goes back over the grand canal. From there we wended our way back to St Marks square. It is interesting to try to navigate in narrow alleys between 4 – 6 story buildings where you cant see distant landmarks or see the directions of shadows to get a sense of direction. This is a round about way of saying that we backtracked on ourselves several times, getting lost a few times., but we eventually came across familiar landmarks and found our way back to St Mark’s.

Staff at our hotel had said that the queues for St Mark’s Basilica often shortened late in the day & we found this to be true. On our way out in the morning the queue was well over 150m long, but on our way home it was about 30m long so we took the opportunity to go in & have a look.

We went through the church – amazing, as well as taking the (very steep) steps up to the museum & saw information about the church’s development from an early Byzantine eastern looking church to its steady redevelopment into what it is today. The museum also looks back down into the church and also opens out at the level of the 4 horses & overlooks the square. So you can stand outside on a marble ledge and get a great view – really worth the Eu5 to take a look.

So – footsore, we headed home and freshened up. We sat on our balcony for a while to get a bit of solitude & a real storm blew up – clouds racing like I’d not seen before. We thought we’d be stuck inside for the night, but we got some wind & 10 minutes of rain – then it blew over to be calm and sunny again – weird. But it let us go out for dinner by the canal and then a longer walk east into the Castello area – which is very different to what we had seen during the day. And that was enough mind boggling for one day.

Oh and I should just mention that while the hotel room is modern and set in an 18^th century house, I think they have the original 18^th century hot water system and water pump. It seems that trying to get water to the 6^th floor is almost beyond them. A tepid dribble over a bath is not my idea of a shower – but if that is the worst thing that happens we’re doing pretty well.