God, Glass and Gondolas – Venice, Italy in a nutshell.

But first a couple of thoughts on our May 16th drive from Switzerland… The Peugeot 5008 that we are driving has an excellent GPS system – Margaret (ie. Thatcher) gives us great directions with a beautiful BBC British accent (“at the roundabout, take the third exit”) and so we have relied on her to get us where we need to go.  But, unfortunately, nobody tells her when mountain passes through the Swiss alps are closed after traveling 75 minutes and through 100 hairpin turns. Although the drive was both exhilarating and beautiful – it was very frustrating to turn around more than an hour into our journey.   So… if you have plans to travel through the Swiss Alps – make your route AROUND the mountains until the middle of June.  Once you get to the flat lands, the drive east is easy albeit very crowded with both cars and HUGE trucks.  So it was a very tiring and yet, beautiful drive.

Our arrival in Venice was somewhat stressful as well.  Cars are not allowed on most of the island. Fortunately, we had arranged to rent an apartment from a terrific guy who thoroughly explained exactly what to do.  We drove to an industrial area used for loading, parking and cruise ships and met Sebastiano there. He even hopped in the car and took us to the huge public parking garage and showed me how to work the automated machines.   Thank goodness he was there – the Italian I learned during the 1990 World Cup wasn’t helping me much.  He then hired a transport company to deliver our bags to his apartment and led us to the city via a quick train ride (called the “People Mover”) and a 15 minute walk.  The three photos below show Sebastiano leading the way and then two views of the street we lived on.

   

   On Friday morning, May 17th, the sun didn’t shine much (except in Falmouth, MA where Kathleen’s mom was celebrating her birthday).  But since we only had spots of rain we were able to do some sightseeing. We bought tickets for the longest vaporetti (Boat Bus) route and traveled down the Grand Canal – in the rain.  We had the Rick Steves guidebook with us, so we were able to learn a lot.  But perhaps what we’ll remember most was a woman sitting near us in the front of the boat going absolutely berserk after the driver asked her to close her umbrella so he could see to drive and dock the boat.  OMG, she screamed every cuss word known to man in both Chinese and English.  She ranted on and on for about 20 minutes about how awful Italy is, about how stupid all Italians are, and how she’d never come back to Italy again. It was both funny and frightening for the girls, but I think the Italians were glad she wouldn’t returno….

   

  

Let’s start with glass. As you wander around the narrow streets of Venice you see more touristy nick-knack stores selling all kinds of bright, glittering glass stuff it’s easy to get a bit numb to it all.  Well okay, it was easy for me to get numb to it all.  The girls never tired of it – Kathleen included – they loved the glsss.

The big deal is all about Murano glass.  Murano is a little island about “a nine iron” away from Venice.  It’s there that the best of the glass is made.  But it’s easy to copy and it’s hard to know if what you’re buying is made nearby or in China.  Although it was closed when we had a moment to see it, the factory store is located right behind St. Mark’s square.

From Glass we move to God.  He’s big in Italy, as you may know. And although we saw some pretty amazing houses of prayer in France, even Erin at 10 years old, had to be impressed with what we saw in Venice. We started with San Marco’s (Saint Mark’s) Square.  Our first impression is simply jaw dropping wow… In the photo below you can see the girls taking pictures from the back of the square facing the Cathedral. The buildings on the right and left, once the government buildings of the Venetian Empire are now office buildings for Europe’s largest insurance company… some things never change….

As usual, they are doing work on the facade of Saint Mark’s Cathedral but if you click on the photo to see a larger version  you can still see how magnificent it is. To the right of the church is the house of the Doge – or Governor of Venice –

   

Photos are not allowed inside the cathedral, but I took some anyway.

 

Even the floor is amazing.

 

Next we traveled across the Grand Canal to Santa Maria della Salute of the church of Saint Mary of Health. It was closed for “siesta” but we had a nice rest on the steps to watch the hustle and bustle at the mouth of the Grand Canal looking across to San Marco.

 

The Photos below are of the two smaller churches in our neighborhood. Both amazing and beautiful. Like I said, God is Big here.

   

By far the most peaceful and expensive way to see the city is by gondola.  There’s a good feeling one gets by supporting the skill and expertise of these 400 men and one woman who inherited the right to be a gondolier from their fathers.  Primogeniture is alive and well in Venice.  Our guide was named Andreas and he spoke very good English. He truly seemed to enjoy paddling the canals and giving his fellow gondoliers a hard time. He not only used the paddle, but quite often used his feet to push off the buildings and propel the boat.  He explained the gondoliers’ disdain for the motorized water taxis is due to the torrents they create which are ruining the foundations of the buildings.  Andreas also explained how Venice is very quickly dying as a vibrant city.  It is so expensive to live there, that as property owners get older and find it necessary to move away, their children do not want the property and cannot sell it.  Young families do not want to live in Venice – there is very little open space to play, they have sewage and flooding problems, and the cost of living is prohibitive.  Venice is almost purely a tourist city – “a sinking tourist museum” Andreas called it.

   

One of the more odd juxtapositions we encountered was being in a gondola as cruise ship entered the grand canal area.  I suggested to Andreas that a cruise ship seemed a bit large for Venice.  He agreed and suggested that they be outlawed… but said it would never happen, as the city needs the tourists and their money!

     

I think we need one of these boats to cruise the Charles River in Boston!!

   

Finally… some lasting memories from this beautiful city…

 

Two major purchases we made.  One was a painting of the city that we loved from this very gentle and kind artist and the other was a leather bag that we all agreed, Kathleen NEEDED….

     

Two cool things we saw. One was a very talented street performer who played crystal glasses that echoed off the walls of the nearby buildings… the sound was mesmerizing.

The second was a very cool boat, docked across the “street” from a vegetable store… We thought the floating annex was pretty clever.

   

And finally, just some nice views on a beautiful day with the family in Venice, Italy!!

 

ON TO ROME……