Venice: Ghost Town Part 1

Chiesa de San Marco (Church of Saint Mark)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

I love Venice. Truly. It is the place I will take my beau to. There is something magically romantic about Venice. Florence has its artsy charm, but Venice is where lovers roam. It probably has something to do with the water, the lack of mechanical interruption (there are no cars/buses on Venice!), and the gorgeous buildings and history.

To start off my journey, we had to be on the other side of the city by 7:30 in the morning. We left a little late, but arrived on time to our location. And slept. Well, I did not, but it was a quiet bus ride. Makena and Leah (apartment-mates) also went on this trip. I met our hotel roommate Andrea on the bus. For most of the trip, we all roamed together.

How we got to the vaporetto that would take us to Venice!

We did a lot of waiting for tickets and passage into Venice that morning. Did you know that you have to pay to get into Venice? It is the most expensive city in Italy. Only 60,000 people reside in Venice. Averagely 300,000 tourists are there daily (give or take weather). Can you imagine? That is why I call it a ghost town. Many houses you pass in the streets are empty. Get that? One of the most sought after tourist spots has run out the native population.

At first, I thought these were a weird Venician-thing,
but it turns out they are their docks!
Well, they keep their boat/gondolas tied to them.

The waiting room for the
vaporetto--which is pretty much
a waiting boat!

Onwards to Venice! After an hour ride in the vaporetto, first. We took the taxi/bus/boat to the island of San Marco (there are over 100 islands, but you cannot tell that because all the bridges connect them!). San Marco has a famous church with the namesake. It is a unique church in that it was first build during Byzantine influences, so a lot of the artwork is mosaics instead of frescos. It took a good six centuries to finish it, so some of the mosaics look more Renaissance influenced than the first Byzantine ones. I could not take pictures inside (like always), so I have outside pictures to share!

Here is a good example of side-by-side differences.
The mosaic on the left is Byzantine, and
the mosaic on the right is Renaissance!

A really nice tour guide lady gave us a great tour of Venice-proper and the church. Turns out, the church was originally just the personal church of the leader of Venice (nobility). It became public after Napoleon's invasion.

Whenever the tide is high, these are set up so people
can still walk around!

In the same piazza (square) as San Marco was this building. It is super cool for several reasons. The first is the clock in the middle. It is actually a constellation/navigation thing. Because Venicians were merchants and seamen, this dial can be seen everywhere around the city. Above that is a statue of Mary and the child Jesus. And above that is Venice's symbol: a lion with an open book reading 'peace' in Latin (I think). This statue is all over the place also. On the San Marco, in the San Marco, on random walls throughout the city...

Anyhow, at the top of this column is a bell. This bell rings every hour. How is this cool? It is hit by two statues on either side, one an old man, one a young man. First the old man hit it the number of times for the hour. Then the young man hits it five minutes later. It has been running since it was made in the Renaissance! Quality, anyone? I believe so.

Into the streets! We were taken to this palace owned by one of the nobles of Venice. The reason it is brought up in the tour is that the "backyard" of the house was modified because the family was either bored or wanted something changed. Here is the back:

It is super nifty! A cement/stone spiral staircase that connects all 4-odd floors to the small courtyard. The interesting thing about all Italian houses/living situations/apartments are that you never know what is on the inside. We did not go into this house/palace, but unless there was this gaudy staircase, it would not be notable between the other buildings around it.

Turns out that a lot of the buildings have frescos in them. Other then that being really cool, that is one of the reasons people do not live there anymore. Because of the climate/humidity, the frescos need yearly upkeep. The government apparently highly encourages the owners of the apartment to pay for the necessary preservation. It is expensive.

After a few more stops at some other prominent buildings, we were let go to do a short break in Rialto. It is pretty much the shopping district of Venice. A huge bridge, that we saw coming in from the vaporetto, connects one side of the district to the other. I was not really interested in shopping, so after some mediocre gelato, we headed to the canal-side and hung out the rest of our break.

Going down into the shops.

Fun fact: the police and ambulances are boats!

This couple was just too cute not to take a picture of.
I did a sketch of this later.
Once I get is scanned, I'll upload!

The day was pretty uneventful after that. We took the vaporetto back, got on the bus, and headed to the hotel. Dinner was two hours later. I was beat afterwards and just went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be glass blowing in Murano!

Oh yes, and the rest of the good photos I had taken! :D