After a late night of located the hotel, we slept in a bit later than intended for the day excursion to Venice, or Venezia as it’s actually named. After a quick breakfast in the hotel dining room, which we just slipped in to before they closed it, we took off.
The drive wasn’t bad, about 30 minutes, if that, and the signs were easy enough to follow. When you first come over the bridge, which is a rather long causeway, the wharf is immediately to your right, with some parking there. Go a bit further and park closer if you can. Though the rate is just a touch higher, it’s not grossly so. You’ll be walking the rest of the way, as there’s nothing but waterways and footpaths in Venezia proper.
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The drive wasn’t bad, about 30 minutes, if that, and the signs were easy enough to follow. When you first come over the bridge, which is a rather long causeway, the wharf is immediately to your right, with some parking there. Go a bit further and park closer if you can. Though the rate is just a touch higher, it’s not grossly so. You’ll be walking the rest of the way, as there’s nothing but waterways and footpaths in Venezia proper.
We started off meandering our way through the narrow walkways, heading in the general direction of the Accademia Gallery, enjoying the feel of the city. We’d pass by windows and see people going about their every day life. At one point, we passed under a window where a man was painting in the sun with classical violin music playing in the background. To us, that was the classic image of what Venice is about.
The Accademia wasn’t hard to find, though we did take our time and got "lost" a couple places. We spent the better part of two hours wandering through it looking at the artwork. There’s a heavy emphasis on religious artwork, so if you’re not in to that, either steer clear, or breeze through most of the Gallery.
From there we went to Piazza de San Marco. We were surprised at the number of pigeons there, and how "friendly" they were. They were everywhere! The piazza itself, a large square with San Marco’s Basilica at one end, had various street vendors, restaurants, performers, and hawkers as well as a surplus of tourists. We didn’t actually go in the Basilica, as both of us were a bit overdone with religious iconology and artwork. So we took some pictures and headed away from the piazza to find a nice place to have lunch.
We found a quaint little restaurant that had outdoor seating. As Venice is a city dominated by water, the main items on their menu were seafood types. After a meal of local fish, house wine and a local dessert, we started wandering the city again. No real purpose in mind, just wandering.
While we wandered, we passed no end of street musicians and vendors. There was one man that played water glasses. We listened to him for a bit, enjoying a new take on Beethoven and Greensleeves. We watched a couple artists drawing and painting images of the city. I bought two oil paintings and a charcoal sketch and the price to frame them was more than the images themselves.
Down one street we found an outdoor statue garden. The statuary would be considered modern art mostly. Not quite what we would have expected in such an old place, but it fit.
The canalways are all through the city, with various sized bridges crossing them. Sadly, though, the canal itself is quite dirty, and in some places can smell. There’s also a good bit of construction going on throughout the city, mostly along the waterways, which can make some passages even narrower than they already are. The gondolas are far more expensive then one would think, about $70 for a 40-minute ride, so we opted not to add that to the memories.
Most things said of Venice are true. It’s romantic, it’s grand, it’s historic. There’s a lot of history in the city, and you can almost feel it’s age. It’s not oppressive in its grandness, though it’s not humble either. Sadly the vendors know that this is part of the cities appeal and increase the prices. Venice is not a cheap city, by any means. For example, our lunch, which consisted of two meals, one dessert, a glass of wine, and a glass of water for each of us was almost $70. The closer you are to the "hot spots" the more expensive things are.
We only spent a day in Venice, and only walked through about half the city. We walked along the Grand Canal, through the merchants and the crowds, crossed many many bridges, covering roughly five miles and still only saw half of it. We left, however, feeling like we had seen enough. Like we’d seen all we wanted to see, even if it wasn’t all there was to see. It’s said that most people fall in love with Venice. I’m not sure if we did, but we did leave it feeling more content with life and happy that we were part of it for a day.
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