Monday, April 22, 2013 -- The End of the Road, or Canal

This was our last day in Venice, and of our trip.  We spent some time in St. Mark’s Square and on the adjacent Riva (waterfront promenade), with its classic views of gondolas lined up in the foreground and the grand churches of St. Gregory the Great and La Salute across the lagoon.

Then, we walked to Rialto via the most direct route, a distinctly relative designation.  It was pretty straightforward – OK, forward, but not straight – and lined with lots of interesting shops.  Crossing the Rialto Bridge, we wandered through the fruit and vegetable market and then on through the San Polo sestiere to the train station, where we re-crossed the Grand Canal.  We just wanted to visit neighborhoods we hadn’t seen before and soak up our last hours in the city.  We had light rain on and off, nothing major, but lots of umbrellas in the narrow streets can make for a lot of juggling back and forth.

After lunch and a walk on the Riva in our neighborhood, we picked up our suitcases and took the one-hour boat trip to our airport hotel for tomorrow morning’s early flight.

We’ve loved our time in Italy and never seem to tire of coming here, or find that we’ve run out of things to see in this ancient and beautiful country.  Of course, we have a few random, unrelated and unimportant but interesting-to-us observations before we bring this journal to an end:

·        - Motorcyclists all wear helmets, and even Neapolitans seem to have given up flaunting the law on that score.

·        - Bicyclists (other than those seriously riding for sport out in the countryside) never wear helmets.

·         English is very commonly used in the names of businesses (e.g. “Cash and Carry”) and other environmental print and American music is everywhere.

·        - Speaking of music, if you have an old accordion in your closet and have spent a lifetime wondering why you ever took lessons (you know who I’m talking to), bring it over here and join all the others playing for their supper.

·        - Italians have style, even the young guys in their skinny jeans and scarves.  They take La Bella Figura seriously and almost manage to make smoking (which they do an enormous amount of) look cool.

·        - It is mandatory to issue a receipt for every payment, even if it’s to use a public rest room.  The amount of paper generated is astounding, and that’s even allowing for those “independent businesspeople” who flaunt that law in hopes of gaining some undeclared income.

·         -A very efficient combined drying and storage system for dishes is widespread.  Clean, wet dishes are placed in racks above the sink and drain down into the sink or onto a tray.  They drip-dry behind a closed cabinet door and don’t have to be put away.

·         -There is a huge number of immigrants, all up and down the peninsula.  On previous trips, we’d grown accustomed to seeing lots of young North African men, but now they’ve been joined by great numbers of Indians and/or Pakistanis, also families from the Mideast.  The Africans seem to have the franchise on street sales of knock-off purses, while young men from the Indian sub-continent hawk sunglasses on good days, umbrellas when it rains, and glow-in-the-dark things at night in the piazzas.  And, none of them seems to be printing any receipts!

This has been a great five-week adventure, though now we feel it’s time to go home, face the real world, and re-connect with friends and family.  We appreciate your having traveled with us and hope you’ll join us again; we’ve already started to consider future destinations!

Until then, ciao!

I just had to add a picture of the 995 Euro ($1300) shoes at Chanel in Venice. La Bella Figura costs money.-Tom

 

Sunday, April 21, 2013 -- Puddle Jumping and Island Hopping in the Venice Lagoon

We made the short walk to San Marco in the start of a steady rain and sea of umbrellas to attend Mass there before breakfast.  The basilica is closed to tourists on Sunday mornings and there was just a small group assembled up close and personal in the great multi-domed church.  A choral and brass ensemble from Finland filled the space and lifted spirits.  The Mass is the same, no matter the location, no matter the language, so we always feel at home and a part of something universal.  (We’re both old enough to remember when Mass everywhere was in Latin, so pretty much no one understood what was going on; now, everywhere, at least part of the congregation has a fighting chance!) I must admit that it was difficult not to have my eyes fixed on the scene overhead.  The mosaics of San Marco are simply stunning, in both their glittering beauty and in their extent.  Above the level of the first arches, literally every inch of the domes, arches, walls, and ceilings radiates with a golden glow.  It is just stupendous, perhaps all the more so in comparison with yesterday afternoon’s visit to the darkened basilica.

We found it even rainier after Mass, but as we walked home for breakfast, saw some breaks in the clouds.  By the time we were ready to set out on the day’s adventure, it was sunny, and just perfect for our planned itinerary.  We were headed to some of the islands in the lagoon away from the city, along with lots of others doing a Sunday getaway. 

Our first stop was the farthest away, the “ghost island” of Torcello, one of the first islands settled when the Huns drove the natives off shore.  It was once home to 20,000 people, but now fewer than 100 live there.  It’s a pretty bucolic place with a couple of churches, including the first cathedral of Venice, some vineyards, a museum, and a couple of inns – for those who really want to get away from it all!

From Torcello, we backtracked (five minutes by vaporetto) to Burano, home to fishermen and their lace-making wives.  Pull out your favorite metaphor for colorful (the ultimate Crayola assortment, a rainbow, a riot of color, the full Pantone chart, the whole color wheel, etc.) and you won’t come close to the look of Burano.  Nothing subtle to be found anywhere on this delightful island, and no end to scenes just begging to be photographed!

Working our way back to Venice, Murano was our last stop.  This island, close to Venice, was where the glass furnaces once located in the city, were sent to isolate fire danger.  It is full of furnaces (and the blackened remains of others) and the shops that display and sell their beautiful finished products.  In contrast to Burano, here the colors were in the shop windows, not on the buildings.

 

On our return to Venice, we took the vaporetto to the train station, where we caught another boat, which traveled the length of the Grand Canal, past its magnificent palazzi, hotels and museums, to San Marco.  We disembarked there, shopped for our last dinner in town, and headed home.

After dinner, we went to the nearby Church of the Pieta, where Vivaldi had been the concertmaster to hear a concert of his works.  He is highly revered here in his hometown, and his music is presented everywhere, every night, but this certainly seemed like the right venue for us.  The church is right on the Riva, between our apartment and San Marco, and it’s a little oval jewel.  The concert included The Four Seasons (that seems to be a requirement) and it was lovely. 

The night was clear and mild, so we walked over to the piazza, which was uncrowded, clean, and quiet, except for the music from the swank cafes.  Truly, you’d have to go a long way to beat this.

This was our last full day in Venice.  Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll take a ferry to the airport and we’ll spend tomorrow night in a nearby hotel before our early morning flight on Tuesday. 

Before we leave La Serenissima, a few observations about this unique city:

·       -  There’s no such thing as not getting lost.  Normal rules of geographic location are suspended: street names change, one side of a canal has a different name from the opposite bank, dead ends abound, places are often identified by church parish, and the sight of people scratching their heads as they huddle over their maps is as common as bridges.

·      -   Everything comes and goes by boat – food, garbage, building supplies, the fire, police, and ambulance service.  Deliveries on land are by hand truck, up and down the steps of countless bridges and through narrow streets.  Residential garbage is bagged and hung on hooks outside homes for collection by men pushing large carts. 

·        - For all its charm, living here must be very difficult. Space is at a premium, grocery shopping is limited (less to carry!), maneuvering strollers up and over bridges is not for the faint of heart, nor is watching toddlers.  In a “normal” environment, if a child wanders into the street, s/he at least has a chance of being unscathed; here, a tumble into a canal pretty would much seal the deal.  And, forget about access for the physically handicapped; I don’t know how they manage.

·         -Venice is quiet.  Away from the Grand Canal, the rios are quiet, with mostly gondola traffic and the occasional motor boat.  No car horns, buses, trams, no bicyclists.  In the evening, most of the tourists have gone to the mainland or sailed off on the massive cruise ships, and the city is peaceful. 

·        - Venice is clean, especially considering how crowded it is during the day, and the small-scale trash collection operations described above.

·       -  Venice is magic.

Saturday, April 20, 2013 -- Over the Ponti and through the Calli and Campi of Venice

Cloudy skies and an occasional sprinkle did nothing to keep us (or anyone else, evidently) from wandering all over Venice today.  We passed on the Basilica of San Marco this morning when we saw the length of the line; we figured that our digs were close enough for us to return another time, or two, or…

So, we set off with no particular destinations, but a few churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli, San Giovanni e San Paolo, Gesuiti, and the Frari, with its remarkable Titians) we wanted to visit.  Worth mentioning also is the old ghetto, where, from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries, Venice’s Jewish population was locked in every night and forced to live lives that were restricted socially and economically.  The height of buildings in the ghetto was also restricted so, as the Jewish population grew, their buildings were constructed with lower ceiling levels, so that more floors could be squeezed into the allowed height.  We were also able to see the Squero di San Trovaso, where, since the 17^th century, gondolas have been custom made, each one tailored to a specific gondolier, who inherits the job from his father.

We walked, got lost, tried to decipher maps, got it wrong, got it right, and repeated that cycle throughout the day.  Regardless of where we found ourselves vis a vis where we thought we were, it didn’t seem possible to be anyplace uninteresting – or, unphotogenic!

During the course of the day, we found ourselves in each of the city’s six sestieri, or districts, and never once had to watch out for cars, or even bicycles.  On the other hand, it’s impossible to cross the “streets” anyplace but designated crosswalks (the bridges) -- no jaywalking here!

Passing through Piazza San Marco en route “home,” we encountered university graduation ceremonies, being held in the square.  While there were lots of people and laurel wreaths at one end of the square, there was virtually no wait to enter the basilica, so we seized the opportunity.  The church’s golden mosaics are astounding, as we knew from a previous visit, but they are illuminated for only a short time each day.  This afternoon almost all the accent lights were off and we had an effective demonstration of how much difference that makes; it really wasn’t possible to experience their outstanding beauty.

When we’d had enough walking and gawking, we regrouped a nostra casa and used online maps to help us locate the restaurant we’d chosen for dinner.  We knew it was nearby but, given the unusual numbering system for addresses in Venice, the narrow calli that change names great frequency, and the similarity of some street names, we hadn’t been able to find it when we went out earlier today.  Thanks to modern technology, we found our way to Osteria Ai Do Gobbi and had a terrific dinner, starting with a delectable fish carpaccio (Venetian sushi??) and including a couple of wonderful seafood and pasta dishes.  I know we’ll be thinking about those just-caught delights once we’re back home in the desert.

Tom went to the Riva for some more night photos of the lagoon and that was it for this fine Sunday.

Friday, April 19, 2013 -- Padova to Venice

Though Padova is only about 30 minutes’ drive from Venice, we spent most of the morning getting from there to here.  Instead of taking the Autostrada, we drove a route along what’s known as the Riviera di Brenta.  The Brenta is the canal that links Padova to Venice and, back in the day when wealthy Venetians felt they needed to escape their city, they built enormous villas along the Brenta.  Now, there are small towns and cities along the canal, though some of the villas, in various states of repair, can be seen.  Some are open to the public, but we passed on that experience.

We were eager to/fearful of turning in the car and finding out how much our encounter with the wall in Riomaggiore was going to cost.  Our imaginations had been in overdrive all week, wondering what the bottom line would be and, unbeknownst to each other, we’d each even wondered if we needed to think about how much it would cost to buy the car!  Let’s just say that the news we got at the Hertz counter left us pleasantly surprised and in a bit incredulous.  Tom is still waiting for another shoe to drop, but we’re feeling that we made out better than the car did!

The Hertz office was across the street from the train station in Mestre, so it was an easy transfer to Venice from there.  We took a water bus from the Venice station to Arsenale, just a few bridges from San Marco on the Grand Canal.  Our hostess met us there and led us down a couple of narrow calli to our very comfortable apartment.  We’re very close to San Marco, ground zero for Venice tourists, but in a quiet spot in a real neighborhood.

We had lunch and then set out to spend the afternoon walking through this amazing city.  We had no destination, no set itinerary, so we just wandered through narrow “streets”, over countless bridges, and through any number of squares, large and miniscule.  There is only one piazza in this city, San Marco, any other piazza-like space is referred to as a campo.  We may have been off the beaten track in other places on this trip, but not here.  It seems as if the world has come to Venice on this warm and sunny day; the city is bursting with tourists!

Once we were walked out, we found a market, bought some supplies, and headed for our Venetian home.  After dinner, we walked along Grand Canal at San Zaccaria and Riva Schiavone to San Marco to enjoy the much quieter evening scene and, of course take some pictures.  The piazza was lovely on this mild night – uncrowded, with music from the Caffé Florian and the Grand Caffé gently competing from their opposite sides of the square.  If your mind conjures up an idyllic scene when you think of a spring evening in Venice, that’s pretty much what it was like.

Thursday, April 18, 2013 -- Doubting Thomas Meets Padova

We spent the day in a city that was new territory for each of us, that Mary Ellen had put on the itinerary, and about whose attraction Tom wondered.  It turned out to be time well spent in a city that stands on its own merits, though it’s evidently seen as a base for visits to Venice, which is less than an hour away.

Again, the historic town center and main tourist sites are easily tackled on foot.  We walked along the narrow Bacchiglione River to a nearby bridge in the shadow of La Specola, the city’s historic astronomical observatory. 

 A bit farther on, we were in Prato della Valle, Italy’s largest piazza, with a canal-encircled green island, bordered by almost 80 statues of notables who had some connection with the city.  We used audioguides we’d downloaded from the city’s tourism authority to help us appreciate this square, and many of the other sights we saw throughout the day.

The Basilica of San Antonio was nearby and we were impressed by the reverence with which this city holds its patron saint.  For Padova (Padua) there IS only one saint, and he is simply referred to as “Il Santo.”  The Basilica is a pilgrimage site, as the faithful come to visit the tomb and relics of Anthony.  His tongue, vocal chords, and jaw are prominently displayed in a dedicated chapel.  The chapel containing his tomb is adorned, not just with marble reliefs and monuments, but also with displays of touching letters of gratitude for answered prayers, photographs, and petitions to the patron saint of lost things.  I said a prayer for myself and for some of those dearest to me (You know who you are!) who could use the good Anthony’s assistance.

 

Dodging bicycles, we headed for the city’s main squares, a short distance from the Piazza del Santo.  The Palazzo del Bo, the seat of Padova’s ancient (second-oldest in Italy) university, fronts one of the main squares, and it was a lively scene today.   

 

Traditionally, as students approach graduation, they each appear in the square with a poster detailing events of their university life.  As they read from the poster before assembled family and friends, they drink a bottle of wine and are challenged to perform certain tasks by their assembled entourage.  As they complete their challenges, those gathered begin to chant, “Dottore, dottore, dottore,”(the Italian term for college graduate) and the graduate is crowned with a laurel wreath. We’d read about this ritual and were so excited to witness several groups of happy graduates, raucous friends, and proud parents and grandparents bringing the tradition to life.  The university where Copernicus studied and Galileo taught lives and breathes today and we could only imagine what it must be like to be a part of such an institution.

We enjoyed the huge markets in the Piazza della Frutta and Piazza delle Erbe, and the ancient astrological clock tower in the shadow of the massive Palazzo della Ragione, the medieval town hall of Padova.  The huge room that composes the upper storey is said to be the largest room unsupported by columns in Italy (built in 1420-Tom) and its size (think football field) is overwhelming.  It is topped by a soaring, barrel-shaped wooden roof and the walls are covered with several tiers of frescoes, which our audioguides helped us appreciate.  The room is also used for exhibitions and we were able to see an interesting one featuring prehistoric archeological finds of theVeneto region.

Using another downloaded audio tour, we visited the remains a Roman arena, the Church of the Eremitani, and walked along the Via Altinate to the oldest church in the city, St. Sophia, and then to the city gate at Riviera dei Ponti Romani.

After a stop at the cavernous duomo, we walked home along the river.  This was a lovely day, and Padova has made a believer out of Tom!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 -- Ferrara and Vicenza

With one last short walk through the beautifully warm-hued streets of Bologna, we reclaimed our car from the garage and hit the road again.

Our first stop, less than an hour away, was Ferrara, where the civic, religious, and historic centers are all adjacent to each other.  The Este dynasty were the powers to reckon with in Ferrara, and their patronage of the arts helped make the city a mecca for writers, painters and sculptors. The municipal offices are housed in a former Este palace and its courtyard is a large, pleasant public space.  Immediately outside the courtyard is the beautiful façade of the duomo, whose interior is huge, but not particularly inspiring.  We walked through a pleasant pedestrian shopping area to the medieval quarter, with its narrow lanes, breeched by arches.  The massive Este castle -- moat, drawbridges and all – looms over all of this.  This Centro Storico is compact and largely a pedestrian zone, but we found that the enormous number of bicyclists pedaling everywhere meant that we still had to be very aware of vehicular traffic.  

Then, it was on to Vicenza, a sacred city for architects, as it is the home of so many palazzi, villas and public buildings designed by Palladio in the 16^th century.  We visited his Olympic Theater, an indoor theater modeled on Roman arenas, whose backdrop of five “streets” is renowned for its extraordinary perspective.  We strolled along Vicenza’s main street, Corso Andrea Palladio, which is lined with its namesake’s work, and then to the city’s main piazza, which is dominated by his first major work, the massive Basilica (public meeting facility) and one of his last, an unfinished loggia.  

Before leaving this quiet and orderly city, we stopped at the Santa Corona, a church built to house a thorn from the Crown of Thorns.  The altar piece, of marble mosaics, the intarsia (inlaid wood) of the choir stalls, depicting scenes of the city, and a Bellini painting of the Baptism of Christ made the small church a special place, even though its most important relic was not on view.

Today’s destination was Padova (Padua), and we arrived late in the afternoon.  Our apartment is very spacious, with a huge terrace and glass-enclosed rooftop room, and the building faces a river that encircles the old city.  We walked along the very pleasant riverfront park to find a supermarket, and then headed home for the evening.