Venice: Trust Your Imagination
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2007
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3
5
Trip End
Jun 18, 2007
Venice,
Italy
Friday, June 15, 2007
The citizens of Venezia inhabit a real city. They live in real buildings. The sweepers clean real "streets," and the trash collectors push real garbage through the city in carts. Although we experienced this solid reality, our imaginations were overwhelmed by the architecture, canals, crowds, walkways, campi and history that are Venezia.
Venezia is the world's most unlikely city: unlikely that it was built and unlikely that it survives. First settled in 452 by people who were fleeing Attila the hun, "modern" Venezia began with the completion of the Basilica of St. Mark in the 11the century. Trying to grasp the reality of Venezia overloaded our imaginations, and after two nights, our vivid memories included: riding on the Canale Grande, entering Piazza San Marco, staying at Antico Panada, crossing
Ponte di Rialto and discovering new sights (and smells) at every turn.
Lasting First Impressions
As we exited the Santa Lucia train station, Bettie waited at the top of the steps while I scouted the Vaporetto. We never figured out the north-south directions of canal travel but were soon aboard the public water taxi bound for San Marco. The Canale Grande winds through Venezia switching back twice during the 35 minutes from Santa Lucia to the Piazza.
Water taxi #1 docks first on one side of the canal and then the other and provides close-up views of all nine stops.
Grand Canal
When we reached Salute, we got ready to disembark at the next dock, Vallaresso. We hauled our luggage off the water taxi in a crush of people and made for the side of a building to check directions. Up Calle Vallaresso, right at Ala Napoleonica, and all of a sudden we were standing in the entrance to Piazza San Marco. The first sight of the large, lop-sided square, the architecture, the people, and the pigeons took my breath away.Our instructions were to head for the clock tower. I headed for the bell tower, much easier to locate, until Bettie saw the clock tower, and we walked under it into another sea of people filling the narrow street. Directions? Forget them. Street signs? Occasionally, but there aren't any streets, just walkways of various widths and lengths, most of which curve or stop and start for no apparent reason.
After we registered at Antico Panada, the bellman crowded us and our bags into a tiny elevator and took us up two floors. It was down a hall, around a corner, through a connecting passage to another building, up a curving staircase, and down another hall to our room -- a true Venetian hotel. We never learned the meaning of Panada, but Antico was common in shop and hotel names, hardly surprising in an antique city.
Dining in the Campo
During my late afternoon walk, I found four, sometimes helpful, signs intended to guide confused tourists: Per Rialto (to the bridge), Per San Marco, Alla Ferrovia, (to the train station - a long way on foot), and Alla Piazzale Roma (to the car park). Unfortunately, these "marked" routes zigzag, turning right and left until the signs end abruptly. We always knew (too late) that we had made wrong turns when the pedestrian traffic thinned out rapidly and we found ourselves walking alone. Unfortunately, following the crowds didn't work. People were walking in all directions.
Later, Bettie and I set out together to cross
Ponte di Rialto and to find a place to eat. We found a nice outdoor ristorante in Campo San Polo. Venezia only has one piazza, and campi are former agricultural fields for grazing livestock, with San Polo being the largest. After dinner, we strolled for awhile before finding our way back over the bridge to our hotel.
Eating and Shopping
Our hotel breakfast room branched off a central serving area into several small seating areas, reflecting the city's layout. We arrived around 10:05. I had been warned that colazione was only served until 10:30 and to arrive no later than 10:00. Unfortunately, after passing the central fish and produce markets, I had over extended my morning walk following the Alla Ferrovia signs.
Breakfast included the full spread of cheese, ham, croissants, bread, yogurt and caffè Americano, plus an excellent packaged granola. At 10:20, we were asked if we wanted anything else, and promptly at dieci e mezzo, we were asked to clear out. With full tummies, we left our hotel and entered the shopping world of Venezia.
Venezia is known for Murano glass. Bettie bought bracelets for herself and her friends. We found a necklace for a special gift, and we bought ourselves a clock. The merchants also capitalize on Carnevale by selling all sizes of exquisite carnival masks. I bought three "hand-painted" miniatures for the girls next door who looked after our yard.
The two outdoor cafes on the Canale Grande that I had selected for lunch had stopped serving when we arrived. Instead, we found a bar up a side street on the way to Campo San Polo. The food was OK, and we enjoyed watching the other diners and the folks who ran the bar. We were surprised to see our 16 year old waitress smoking by the door after she served our lunch, but we saw many women and men smoking on the streets of Venezia and Roma.
After eating gelato seated on a bench in the campo, we started back. We found the post office by
Ponte di Rialto and bought francobolli to send postcards. It should have been easy to get home from there, but we ended up at Campo Santa Maria Formosa northeast of San Marco. We had taken the long, scenic, circular route to our hotel.
After walking Bettie to the hotel, I looked for a restaurant that that took Visa, had outdoor dining, was off the main tourist paths, served fish, and that I could find again. I found a small place that advertised un giardino interno with a pleasant waiter inviting customers to enter. It was down the street from our hotel, to the left across Campo San Zulian, over a canal, and up a street. I drew a map.
The interior garden turned out to be the common area once shared by several buildings but now used by the restaurant. We dined under a very large umbrella, but we could hear children crying, dogs barking and a television. The food was excellent, the wine good, the service attentive, the desert tasty, but the prices high for dining with the neighbors.
We made friends with a German couple at the next table. It was their first trip to Venezia, a two night get-away from Hamburg. The man explained in limited English that they were celebrating the 40th anniversary of when he had first seen her at 7:00 PM. He had been a policeman and "watched all the girls, until he fell in love." The woman spoke no English, but nodded affirmatively, as her husband told their story. After dinner, we retraced our step and found our hotel without using my map.
Our Final Morning
I began my early morning walk watching the sweepers cleaning Piazza San Marco. The Piazza was nearly empty, hardly a human or a pigeon--what a wonderful time to sense the history of the place. Next I strolled along the shoreline enjoying the view across Canale della Giudecca. My plan was to return to the central produce market to buy food for our train trip, but it Sunday. The markets were closed, and the area was deserted.
After sharing the walkways and bridges with the few residents who were stirring, I found a fruit stand before returning to our hotel in time for a leisurely breakfast. Then we hauled our bags across the Piazza and boarded the Vaporetto. I was all ready to sail until I realized that I was standing on the floating dock not in the boat. Back under
Ponte di Rialto and around the curves we went stopping at each dock until we reached Santa Lucia in plenty of time to catch our train.
Reflecting on the Maze
As I look back at my map, I wonder why I got lost in Venezia. The Canale Grande and the smaller Rios are clearly marked; the calli (lanes) have names; some even appear to run straight. However, on the ground, surrounded by five story buildings, order disappeared. Many calli changed names or had no names. Others curved, ended at Rios or ran into buildings. Stopeggi ran under buildings to connect calli. Campi suddenly appeared, and the same churches seemed to be in multiple locations. My advice is: relax, love Venezia, and let your imagination find the way.
