Venice

Spring came around about about 40 days ago. Spring is easily the best of the seasons in the Middle East: the rains and wind ebb away, Daylight Savings Time begins, the skies are clear, and the temperature is entirely agreeable. Yes, Spring came around, and with it, glorious Spring Break. With a little more than two weeks for break, it was time to dip into some other countries.

Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport has a McDonald's, and like the other McDonalds' in these parts, it is kosher. This is a great visual representation of the kosher ideal: meat at the main counter on the right, dairy products (and coffee drinks!) at the McCafe on the left. The kitchen separator is a small set of saloon-style swinging doors.

I booked ultra-cheap airline tickets on carriers I had never heard of. I figured that becoming a pilot isn't easy, and airplanes are manufactured by reputable companies and strictly regulated for safety, no matter the airline. Above is an AeroSvit jet, official airline of the Ukraine. I was supposed to ride this airline back from my trip. More on that in a few posts.

And here is Aegean Airlines, my carrier to Venice with a quick transfer in Athens. Great airline. Smooth landings, a glass of champagne when you take off, and the in-flight meal is small pieces of boiled octopus with pasta.

After landing, I took the bus from Venice's Marco Polo airport. This girl was reading the classic Piccole Donne by Louisa May Alcott.

This is what Venice looks like on a map. To walk the city from West to East takes about an hour. The diagonal lines on the upper left are the train tracks and motorways coming onto "the island" of Venice, and that's where traditional transportation ends. Upon entering, you are either walking or boating, because, as the adage goes, the streets really are paved with water, or something to that effect. It's helpful to think of the city as two maps superimposed on one another: the pedestrian walkways and the vapporetto waterways. Click on the map to see what I mean. The entire city is a labyrinth of bridges, canals, churches, shops, and dead-ends -- rotting, picturesque, and great for getting lost in. Here are a few representative shots of the city; it's not bike-friendly like Amsterdam, as the bridges over waterways are stairs instead of ramps.

This is the Chiesa San Rocco, a Roman Catholic church in one of the ubiquitous church squares in the middle of the island. The adjacent building on the left is not a church, but contains many works by Tinteretto, a Venetian Renaissance painter.

In the narrow streets, there are many old shops (Venice has been a tourist trap for centuries). Here is one of the more home-like shops where the proprietor makes his own glass figurines.

The Grand Canal, as seen from the Rialto Bridge. This is in the dead center of the city, and a marvelous sight, just to lean and watch the boats. The Grand Canal runs the center of the city in a meandering pathway, and effectively divides it in half. Vaporetti (the Venetian equivalent of city buses) run this route often.

The winged lion bearing a book signifies Saint Mark, and is the adoptive crest of Venice itself. I found this symbology on many of the buildings. Detailed paintings of the lion depict it standing on a shore with its front paws on land and its hind paws in the water, signifying Venice's control of both.

The crush of tourists on top of the Rialto. I wasn't helping.

Piazza San Marco. The main square of Venice, and home to its best museums and St. Mark's Basillica. I couldn't take pictures in St. Mark's, but it was a truly great cathedral.

Gelato!! It's everywhere, and it's delicious. For 2 euro, you can get two scoops of any flavors, and walk around until you find the next gelato stand. My love affair with refined sugar reached new highs (and lows) during this trip.

Night and the City

My hostel had some fun people staying in it, and a nightly pub crawl hosted by Dave, whom I can only describe as the hostel's "social director". He puts on a sport coat and we descent into the now-dark labyrinth. Here we are on the square, enjoying the local Italian drink "Spritz". It's probably refreshing in hot weather, but a chiller in the evening.

Spritz contains Aperol, which I had never heard of. It's kind of orangey.

The Chiesa San Rocco, this time illuminated by lamps at night.

Venice is amazing at night -- quiet and nearly deserted except for pockets of people and the occasional rager at a bar in a church square. I enjoyed wandering the damp, narrow, crypt-like streets listening to my iPod.

Day on Murano

My roommates were a couple of guys from St. Louis, and we decided to take a vaporetto to the island of Murano, a short distance north from Venice's main island. Here is the modern glass-and-steel bridge that runs along the Grand Canal on the west end of the city.

More picturesque.

I saw this small island off the northern part of the city. I later found out it was an amazing cemetery.

Our vaporetto station, departing.

Murano, approaching.

Murano is the home of Venice's glass-blowing community. I hadn't heard of Venice as a glassblowing hub, but nearly all of the souvenir shops were carry "Venetian Glass". Here, a woman creates glass beads with the help of specialized equipment.

And now, a show from one of the masters. 0 seconds -- a molten globule.

18 seconds -- probably a horse.

31 seconds -- it's a horse! This guy makes glass horses like Larry Bird makes 3-pointers. I think he makes them in his sleep, to avoid getting rusty.

Off the beaten track, a bit. We saw an enticing poster for a restaurant and an arrow pointing further away from tourist row, so we followed it. It was great to see the artist apartments and a bit of real living.

The restaurant was the colored thing in the distance, barely visible behind a shed.

And here it was. A great restaurant, filled with Italian workers. You could get ice-cold jugs of wine by the liter (and we did), as well as spaghetti, cheese souffle, pork sausage, and soup. I transliterated my Spanish to try ordering in poor faux-Italian, and it mostly worked. Here's a shot of the bar and counter:

Infrastructure and Daily Life

Now, some quick observations on Venice as a functioning city. This picture is road work back on the main island. Venice is built on pilings, and is probably constantly being renovated. There looked to be silt and concrete under the tiles of the street.

This is the view across the Grand Canal when you exit the train station. Billboards in high-traffic and prominent places, excluding important landmarks, are a common thing.

Since the island is indeed a maze, there are signs at nearly every corner indicating whether you're going in the direction of the Ferrovia Bridge (West end) or Rialto Bridge (East end). These signs are infinitely helpful. I liked the juxtaposition of these two signs.

Since delivery trucks can't come into the city by definition, everything is ported in by boat. Here is a delivery boat from a beverage company tying up at a local store.

And, the green garbage boat, emptying the dumpster. I love that it's called the "Veritas".

The DHL boat. That's when I knew we were operating in a new world of transport.

In the suburbs, far to the East of San Marco, this grocer ties up and sells his wares on a canal outside of a row of apartment buildings. His awnings tell me that he's there for a long time.

In the same suburb, a wine shop where you bring your own jug and they'll fill it up.

An epic statue in a park. I forgot to record who it was.

The Piazza San Marco, taken from a Vaporetto. The Doge's palace is on the right, St. Mark's Basilica and the Campanile in the center. All I could think of was James Bond.

In a Graveyard

This is the large and extraordinary island cemetery seen in an early photo. There are graves, mausoleums, churches, everything, and some of the graves date back to the 19th century. I think this may be the final resting place for every Venetian. It has the feel of a fortress, but with a very large footprint.

The Doge's Palace

This was the only shot I could get inside the Doge's palace. The Doge was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice for over 1000 years. The linked article is worth reading to see how he was elected. This palace was largely constructed in the early 1300s.

Since I couldn't take pictures, I'll describe the most interesting moment of the tour: the Doge's apartments were situated underneath the grand assembly hall of the republic (think of a self-contained governmental office and private home, ala the White House.) The staircase to the council halls is very grand: carved from marble and brightly lit. Once you're upstairs, there is an extremely elegant room with benches. This is a waiting room. The next room is amazing: tall, gilded with gold and heroic paintings from floor to ceiling, with the crests of different families above the four doorways. This is an anteroom. The next room is the council chamber, and it is twice as elegant as the anteroom: paneled with the finest stained wood, the tallest windows, paintings on the ceiling, and long, velvet curtains. "This," I thought, "must be the grandest room in the palace."

But of course, this was a private meeting chamber for the high officials off the side of the Senate Hall, which was the width and height of a large ballroom, panelled in the darkest wood, gilded with almost obscene amounts of gold, vertical windows 5 meters in height with the finest maroon velvet curtains, surrounded by leather seats and detailed murals of biblical scenes and famous battles, and two ancient zodiac clocks depicting the months and days. I must have walked into the main entrance of this room five times, each time trying to imagine entering before the Doge, the council, and the senate.

But, was that really the grandest room in the palace?

No, it was not.

The grandest room in the Doge's Palace was the upstairs Grand Council Chamber. It has the degree of opulence and detail of the Senate Hall, except it's the size of an airplane hangar, and the battles depicted in the enormous paintings on the gilded walls and ceiling are impossibly epic (war ships crammed together in furious battle, close enough to step from one to the other) and a grand mural in front over the senate seats, tens of meters across, depicting hundreds of seraphim and cherubim converging around the visage of Jesus Christ. Am I exaggerating? Only slightly. This is the room where heads of every prominent Venetian family would meet to discuss business with the Senate every Sunday after mass, and where the new Doge was elected.

Some other things

Man with two dogs.

A grand church sitting on a square. Many like this, with signs pointing the way to other landmarks.

A mask store. Many of these, too.

This is what a typical campo, or church square, looks like. Note the old well in the center.

A vaporetto about to depart for the bus station on the West side of the island. They even have the LED reader boards like city buses.

And, the vaporetto's route.

An iconic view of the Rialto Bridge from the Grand Canal. That is a beautiful bridge.

And, finally, the pasta section in the local supermarket. Lots to choose from.

Stay Tuned

After a few days, it was time to leave for points further. I walked to the Ferrovia train station on Thursday night with my suitcase and backback, and hopped on board an East-bound overnight train.