On our train ride to Venice the previous day, I began reading Tanith Lee's Faces Under Water, a novel set in medieval Venice. I'd deliberately saved Faces Under Water for this leg of our journey. I didn't expect the modern Venice to live up to the one in the novel; Tanith Lee's novels are generally set in lush, over-the-top, decadent locations. While the real Venice wasn't nearly as dangerous as the one in the book, I was surprised to see how much of today's Venice was like the one Lee presented. Venice is like nowhere else I'd ever been. At all times you get a distinct feeling that you are somewhere extremely old—but it's a different sort of feeling. I think it's because Venice isn't tourist-driven the way Rome and (to some extent) Florence are. That's not to say that parts of Venice don't cater to tourists; the Rialto, St. Mark's, and gondola rides are all very much meant for visitors. At the same time, the rest of the city is very much untouched by the outside world. You don't get the impression that the rest of the city is looking for tourists. To be fair, if you go far enough out in Rome and Florence you no doubt get the same feeling, but it's different here. Maybe it's because Venice is so self-contained; there are no such things as suburbs. At all times you're near the bridges and canals that make Venice so famous. Venice is also a smaller city than Rome or Florence, with a population of 72,000. Whatever the reason, Venice is a very unique place. We started our day by going back to St. Mark's. The church was nice but extremely crowded, being one of the few tourist hubs. (I must admit that by this point, all churches were starting to look extremely similar.) Of more interest to me was the Ducale Palace next door. I discovered rather quickly that no pictures were allowed, which was frustrating. The Map Room reminded me of the one in the Vatican Museum, with large and not entirely accurate maps of the known world. Heading deeper into the Ducale Palace, we came to the Bridge of Sighs, which connects the Palace with the prison. Once you cross the Bridge of Sighs, you need to start going down... and down... and down. Venice is no stranger to flooding, and one gets the distinct feeling that the Venetians didn't really care if the cells flooded while prisoners were inside. The ceilings were also very low in the prison—that way they could fit more cells in, and it's not as if they cared too much about the prisoners' well-being. We wandered around Venice for a little bit afterwards, just enjoying the ambience. It's very difficult to get lost in Venice—you'd really have to try! At regular intervals, there are signs that point you in the direction of some of the more famous landmarks (St. Mark's, the Rialto, and so forth). The upshot is that you can meander through Venice to your heart's content, and then just follow the signs to get yourself back to a major spot within the city. Before long we decided to head over to Murano. Murano is an island just off of Venice, where all of the glassblowers are located. The glassblowers were deliberately moved outside of Venice itself because if one of the buildings caught on fire (glassblowing requires incredibly high temperatures) it wouldn't set the entire city on fire. Murano was a neat place, with one main canal running down the section we were in. It's a very quiet place, like so much of Venice.We watched one glassblower shape raw glass into a cat, and I bought a paperweight for my boss. Murano is the second island off of Venice, the first being the cemetary. It may sound grisly but as we passed it on the way back into Venice I actually found myself wishing that we could have gone there—from the outside it looked really interesting. (I like cemetaries. So what?) If we were willing to go an hour further off of Venice there was the island of Burano, which is where a lot of lace and flowers are prepared. It sounded nice, but it was starting to get late and we were all tired. As much as we were enjoying our trip, I think it was around here that we all started to burn out on Italy. I know, I know, it's heresy. Still, there's only so much one can take of being close (incredibly close!) to your family for such an extended period of time, especially when a lot of creature comforts (your own room, a full wardrobe) are missing. In the future we decided that a seven day trip would be sufficient. That night for dinner we decided to do something a little different... and went to a Chinese restaurant. This was a very different experience for us; for starters, all the names of dishes were translated into Italian instead of being left in Chinese. There's something unsettling about seeing spaghetti on a Chinese menu. It was also a bit amusing to hear the restaurant staff talk to each other in Chinese, only to turn to us and speak Italian. I'm so used to hearing bilingual Chinese restaurant staff that something was very strange about the second language being Italian, I'm not sure what. At any rate, the food at Il Giardino di Giada was nothing short of incredible. It's a stone's throw away from the fish market, so it had a very large seafood selection. The shrimp dumplings were incredible (we had more of them for dessert), the chicken, shrimp, and bamboo shoots were great, and the rice was to die for. All of this, plus low prices. I can't recommend this place highly enough. After dinner we decided that we might never be in Venice again, and despite the incredibly high price we should go on a gondola ride. The price was 150,000 lira (yikes!) but we talked them down to the daytime rate of 120,000 lira. I hate to admit it, but a nighttime gondola ride is really worth it. Moving through the canals at night is an incredibly peaceful and serene experience as you glide through the darkness. Maybe a daytime gondola ride feels more crass and commercial, but our trip was perfect. By the end of the trip we were all a lot more relaxed and rested than we had started out. It was somehow fitting that our trip ended this way, since my book Faces Under Water began with a gondola ride by night. I have fond memories of our entire trip, but it's not at all difficult for me to pick a favorite place: Milan. Just kidding. It's Venice, of course. I'm ready to go back. |
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