Venise

Our airplane made a low pass over the lagoon as we banked towards the mainland. As I looked out below I saw a cluster of at least a dozen large islands with a long highway connecting the largest with the mainland. Through the center of the main island flowed a gently curving river. Catching the sun’s reflection as we flew lower, I could see that the river was connected to hundreds of small channels crisscrossing throughout the island. We had arrived in Venice.

Since the airport was located on the mainland we needed to take a shuttle into the lagoon to find our hostel. The bus took us along the long bridge and dropped us off at a parking lot on the main island cluster. After crossing a bridge and leaving the busses behind we would not see another vehicle for nearly three days.

Venice is the world’s only true all-pedestrian city. Sitting in the middle of a lagoon a few miles out from shore the city is made up entirely of narrow roads connected by hundreds of bridges that cross the canal system which goes throughout the entire city. All tasks that would normally be preformed by trucks or cars are replaced by a combination of man-powered carts and boats. Many families own a boat that is moored in the canal directly outside their home. Garbage is collected by hand carts and loaded into garbage boats that cruise up and down the canals before returning to the mainland full. Deliveries for stores and restaurants are unloaded from the nearest dock. Police, fire, and even ambulance services are all accomplished using waterborne vessels.

I don’t believe a single person has visited Venice without getting lost in its vast maze of small alleyways and roads that wind amongst the land between rivers and canals. Even the best map of the area can only show so much detail making navigation between landmarks more of an educated guessing game than anything else. However, many will say that this is the charm of the city and that by getting lost in its back roads one finds the best plazas and the most picturesque canals.

Transit in such a city is very interesting. Walking is obviously the primary form of transportation much to the chagrin of tourists with large bags who wish to be dropped off directly in front of their hotel instead of wheeling large suitcases up and down small roads and bridges. There are private taxis that one may take, of course in the form of motorboats painted in a taxi color-scheme with an “on duty” light and a meter in the wheelhouse. However, the main form of public transportation is the city’s vaporetto system which one can equate to a metro system but taking place on the water instead of below ground. The ‘stations’ are floating platforms either along the main river or the outside perimeter of the islands. Each station has a color-coded route number and direction, much like a regular metro station. A map shows the different routes, labeled with numbers like in New York City, their stops, and a timetable. A vaporetto will arrive and get close enough to touch up against the side of the dock at which time a worker will open a gate letting people on and off. I can only assume he also says the Italian equivalent of “mind the gap”.

Since you are on an island there is a limit to how lost one can get. In addition, at every major road and plaza there are signs pointing to the two nearest vaporetto stops that you can orient yourself with. At any given point you have a fairly good idea of your general location so if you meander long enough in one direction you will find your destination. The address system is smart in it that it uses island cluster numbers, rather than relying on the small and short streets for location. To find an address one just has to get to the correct island and follow the numbers either going up or down.

We did just the same thing to find our lodging for the night. From what I could tell online, Venice does not have a single hostel, so we chose to stay instead in another Bed & Breakfast. The building we were looking for was located at the end of an alleyway off the main road so narrow that if you stretched out both of your arms, you could touch the walls of both buildings on either side. There were several homes along this road with the large door at the end of the alleyway belonging to our lodging. It was funny to see a building so hidden away like it was and it must have had the same effect on others since we had our picture taken by passing tourists coming and going from our hotel several times throughout our stay.

The large door opened up to a small garden surrounded by a high brick wall and two buildings, one for our host, and the other the guest house. Both were very old, as we would find nearly every building in the entire city to be. Our room was nice, hosting two large beds and a private shower.

Being a small city starved for living space, there was not much in the way of large attractions nor huge parks or gardens as one is accustomed to in other European cities. Aside from two large plazas by the universities, there is no notable nightlife to speak of. Thus, the majority of our visit consisted of walking around the streets discovering old buildings, churches, hidden plazas, small gardens and squares, and looking at the luxurious shopping and eating that was available for the extremely wealthy tourists that the city attracts.

Like Rome, all of the people in the tourism industry spoke several languages including English and French. True, we noticed that the majority of tourists there at the time were speaking French, I even found a discarded Paris metro ticket on the ground outside our hotel (I almost didn't notice it at first since I had become accustomed to seeing these small tickets littering every public space in the city and surrounding suburbs). Though we didn't have the time in our short stay to leave the main island, we adventured through as much of it as we could occasionally stopping in to museums, churches, and, for Kaitlin, Italian shoe stores of which there was an abundance. The Italian bakeries were out of this world and made fresh pastries, pizzas, and focaccia breads that we opted for instead of an actual meal a few times.

Walking down the stone-paved side streets with children playing soccer, women hanging laundry out to dry, and men chatting and smoking cigars, one could feel that they were in a small seaside town. On the other hand, the main roads along the water were thriving with life, street performers, cafes, and all sorts of goods for sale.

We enjoyed some time at a cafe on the waterfront with outside seating that looked over one of the main roads of the city. We also were able to see a funny cat and mouse game between the local police and the gentlemen illegally selling knockoff goods in the street. The venders would set up ‘shop’ on a park bench or bridge for a while then all of the sudden would gather their goods in their arms and start walking quickly in one direction. Some ran when the police grew closer. We saw one guy being chased in circles around a kiosk like in Scooby Doo before eventually darting off into in alleyway away from police.

I find street vending amusing because each city seems to have a specific item that people tend to sell. For example, in Madrid every block you would run into a man selling whistles whereas in Rome all the people were selling gel animals that when thrown on the ground would flatten out completely before returning to their original shape. Of course in Paris everyone sells Eiffel tower keychain rings usually walking around with a large ring of them like a warden would keep his keys on simply jingling them back and forth. Then there are always the people selling “authentic” Louis Vuitton handbags and Prada sunglasses for 10% of the price. I am always surprised how many people seem to sell the same trinkets in each city. With so many sellers, I would think the market would quickly saturate, but there must be enough tourists buying these things to keep them in business. Of course, none of these people who sustain themselves by selling these goods can afford to live within the touristy parts of the city and thus must make a commute in from the less affluent suburbs. The funniest sight in Venice was seeing the main train station just after dark when crowds of people with handbags, boxes of sunglasses, toys, and costumes for street performances were all waiting together for the next train to the mainland.

It is hard to pass through the center of Venice without running into Piazza Saint Marco, with its basilica and bell tower. Once called “the drawing room of Europe” by Napoleon, it is one of the only places in Venice that can hold sizable crowds of people. We were lucky enough to happen upon the city not only on the day of the founding of Italy, but on the exact 100th anniversary of the restoration of the tower. To celebrate there was a full concert orchestra and several other musicians playing from the balconies in the square accompanied by a light display from huge projectors onto the sides of buildings. We stayed an watched for a while before heading back for our last night in Italy.

The next day Kaitlin woke up early to catch a plane back to England. I slept in a bit later and checked out of our bed and breakfast. Stopping at a café for some breakfast I noticed many people out carrying or selling roses. As it turns out it was St. Mark’s Day, where the tradition is to give a rose to your sweetheart. All morning I saw men buying roses to bring home later and women walking in groups each holding on to a rose given to them earlier. After a great breakfast and my last Italian coffee I made my way out to the train station. I made sure to grab a sandwich and drink for the road since it would be a nearly eight hour train ride that would bring me through Austria all the way to Germany for the next and final leg of the trip.