No Stamps in Venice

Canals, gondola's, gondoliers, glass figurines, masks, St Mark's Square, St Mark's Basilica, the Campanile, sunshine and gelato. Some of the things that come to mind when you think of Venice. Generally accepted as the most romantic city after Paris, we were really looking forward to a quiet romantic break away for two after a few busy weeks. In between all the tourists and feeling the earthquake in Bologna in the early hours of Sunday morning, we did have a great weekend away.

Venice is only a 90 min flight from Amsterdam but getting from door-to-door takes most of the day. We arrived on Thursday evening with enough time to wander from our apartment to St. Mark’s Square by sunset. Venice is off the mainland and made up of many small islands linked by canals and bridges and is surrounded by other islands. We were fortunate enough to be staying on one of the main islands and quite central too, about 15 min walk from St Mark's Square.

Our first impressions of Venice were that it looks like it is about to fall down any second. The paint is peeling off of many buildings, if indeed there is any paint left at all, and most sport many cracks. The islands of Venice are connected by a series of canals and bridges, some small and some large. Transport in Venice is by foot or boat, there are no cars. The canals are very narrow and there is always someone on them, not always a romantic gondola but often a noisy motor boat. Often the doorway to a building is right on the water. The water gently laps into the doorway and this seems perfectly normal. A lot of doorways, even those not directly on a canal, had a metal frame into which a small metal door can be slid to (hopefully) seal out the water. Glass shops and shops selling masks line most streets to satisfy the 15 million tourists who visit Venice each year. Hoping for a quiet weekend away was probably optimistic, even in early-ish Spring.

Friday was spent exploring the city on foot. We took a slightly different path to amble from our apartment to St Mark’s Square where we queued up to enter St Marks Basilica. Given the length of the queue, we were surprised when it took only 15 min to get inside. It is amazing how many people tried to jump the line especially the closer to the front we got! Due to the number of visitors each day, access to some parts of the basilica is limited. There is a roped off path that you have to follow in the basilica. You are not able to wander freely around the cathedral and you have to keep moving as there is a long train of people behind you. Consequently you move through very quickly and don't get to see all that much. This is a real pity but of course they want and need to limit access to help preserve the church. The roof and walls of the entire basilica are covered in tile mosaics mostly depicting stories from the Bible. Unfortunately you are too far away to make out too much detail and you move through so fast that you are not able to fully appreciate what you are seeing.

Entry to the basilica is free but there is a section upstairs which has been turned into a museum for which an entry fee applies. The museum houses pieces of tile mosaics rescued during restoration processes, the original four copper horses from above the entrance to the basilica and ancient church textiles. This section is a lot quieter; one is able to admire the works at your own pace and a lot closer up. Being in the upper level, there are also opportunities to admire the church below and the ceiling mosaics. From here you can also go outside for views over St Mark's Square and the mouth of the Grande Canal.

After lunch and a gelato, we made our way through the city, across the Ponte dell’ Accademia bridge and toward the baroque church of Santa Maria Della Salute for views of the mouth of the Grande Canal from the opposite side of the city. The city was extremely busy and there was a constant stream of people in all the main streets. We headed back home for break from all the people and walking before dinner in a restaurant near our apartment.

On Saturday we got 48 hour passes for the water bus and headed to the island of Murano. The glass originating in Venice and from Murano is renowned worldwide. Unfortunately there was not much to do or see on Murano, only glass shops. But it was slightly less crowded than Venice and a beautiful warm sunny day for wandering outside. After roving around for a while, and of course doing some glass shopping, we hopped back onto a water bus and headed to the island of Burano. Burano is less well known than Murano but also produces glass and has many more lace shops than we saw on Venice. Not that many tourists make it to Burano so it was much quieter. Burano is also known for its colorfully painted houses. After a long day out in the sun, we had a quiet evening at our apartment with some good Italian snacks and a bottle of wine =)

Sunday started with a walk around in a different direction which landed us at the Arsenale and the home base for America's Cup Sailing tournament. The Arsenale looks like it was a defensive castle of sorts and is now Italian Army grounds. Due to the lack of wind, the boats were all still parked at base but there was still some sailing later in the afternoon.

The rest of the day was spent hopping on and off the water bus, or vaporetto, for a tour of Venice from the water. For public transport, we found the water bus to be rather expensive. A single ticket will cost you €7 and a 48 hr ticket €30, crazy! The boats get very busy and are quite slow. But it is a nice way to see the city from the water and to hop from one side of the canal to the other.

Having seen everything we wanted to see, we had a quiet evening at the apartment packing and getting ready before a final yummy fresh pasta meal near the Rialto, the oldest bridge in Venice. After three beautiful warm sunny days it started to rain on Sunday evening and was still raining on Monday when we departed. We were not happy that our week’s break had come to an end but the rain did make it easier to leave. Before we left though, we decided to write and post some postcards but we couldn’t find stamps anywhere! Not on the island, not at the airport, not even at the trusty Tobacco shops! So apologies to those with Venice postcards with Dutch stamps on them! 

When we left the Netherlands to go to Venice it was still a fresh 13ºC or so with lots of wind, cloud and rain. Imagine our surprise to come back to clear skies and temperatures of around 24ºC! The past week or so has been very sunny and rather warm with temperatures reaching 28ºC. It has definitely been a very pleasant change inspiring impromptu picnics and sun‑tanning in the park. It is due to start cooling down again this week though, with temperatures plummeting to 12ºC again by Friday. Hopefully this is a taste of more good things to come and not the only good weather we will have this summer!

Today is a public holiday in the Netherlands, Tweede Pinkster or Second Pentecost Day. It was this weekend last year that we saw Coldplay at Pink Pop. Justin played his first cricket game of the season for the second team today. He wasn’t that happy with his bowling performance but did take two catches. I have yet to hear what happened on the batting front and what the overall result was. Oh yay for back to washing sweaty, smelly, grass-stained cricket whites again!

Finally, congratulations to our dear friend Suzanne Huddy for finding out today that she has passed her PhD!! So excited and happy for you Sue!

Hope you are all well and have a good week!

x 

Enjoy the pictures!! =)

Piazza San Marco:

View from the top of Basilica di San Marco:

More photos taken around the Piazza San Marco:

Gondolas and Gondoliers:

 Buildings, canals and sights:

Murano:

Burano:

Bron decided to use the Venice trip as an opportunity to re- learn how to operate her fancy camera and try out her new camera bag in preparation for the trip to The States with Justin’s parents in September. See some pics below taken by her.

Bronwen the photographer:

And a selection of her photos: