Venice

travel & arrival Monday, May 8th

1:35 p.m. plane from Jerez to Madrid and just the right amount of time to get to our next plane. Arrived at the Venice airport a bit after 6pm. Catching a bus to the island and a vaporetto (water bus) after that was all quite easy. Our B&B is only a few minutes walk from a vaporetto stop and we were checked-in well before dark. First priority was some dinner so we wandered not far in two directions and picked a place. It was tasty and today is done.

Tuesday, May 9th

La Madonetta B&B is actually just the flat of a woman who rents out rooms and provides breakfast. It's quiet though we can hear the lapping of water in the small canal outside our window. We can also hear the gondola singers as they go by - most people don't pay extra for a singer but there was one in "our" canal that had both a singer and a musician. We're on the 2nd (1st in Italy) floor but the windows are single-pane otherwise we probably wouldn't be able to hear the water. Breakfast is good enough and includes: bread, coffee, juice, cheese, fruit, yogurt, and tomatoes.

We bought a vaporetto pass and after breakfast we used it to go to St. Mark's Square. We used Serena's ipad to listen to a Rick Steve's audio tour of the square then went into the Correr Museum at the square (first floor shows off the rooms and their decorations, 2nd floor has art). Jeff's favorite was a woodblock carving and the subsequent print of an aerial view of the entirety of Venice. This was done long before there was anything close to an airplane so the ability of the artist to "see" AND carve it all is quite impressive. It is exceptionally detailed. Serena appreciated the artistry and quality of that but as in the Prado (not allowed to take a picture of that table) she was more entranced by pieces with very fine stone inlay scenes. We bought a museum pass which includes nearly everything we want to see while here in Venice. Today is all about the activities around St. Mark's Square but the cafe's here are super expensive - possibly because each one has numerous liveried waiters and 3-4 live musicians playing for their patrons. So, we just got some take away calzone and a sandwich roll from a shop on the edge of the square. Picnicking in the square is not allowed so we ate at the water's edge by the gondola station.

In the afternoon we stood in line for a bit so we could go to the top of the Campanile. It was a nice view but we were a minute too late to be at the top while the bells were tolling. We heard them from in the elevator and they certainly got louder as we ascended but finished essentially as we arrived. 

Back down at sea level we toured the Doge's Palace. Our museum pass didn't include the Doge's apartments which are housing a temporary exhibit of Hieronymous Bosch (we saw some Bosch in Madrid). Since there is an art exhibit there and the Republic of Italy and the Doge ceased to be in 1757 it may be that the apartments retain very little of their look from 2 1/2 centuries ago. The parts of the palace we toured was essentially like wandering around the government buildings of Washington, D.C. (albeit, quite a bit more frescoes). We saw all the rooms where the various branches of government met and the rooms where they made visitors wait until they could be heard and where justice hearings were held and more. It was all beautiful and impressive (designed to be). We also got to walk across the Bridge of Sighs, which connects the palace to the prison next door. That's a convenient setup when people are convicted of something within the palace judicial area. We got to walk through the prison too.

Took a vaporetto back to our place briefly then walked to our bar tour appointment. 

Alessandro's bar crawl is recommended in Rick Steve's book. We were three couples and at least one of the other couple's were actually doing a tour through Rick Steve's travel. Alessandro took us to three different bars and we had snacks (added up to be enough to call it a light dinner) and three different experiences. At the first we were inside at a table and had the house wine from a carafe. It might have been vino sfuso (loose, aka unpackaged wine served from a demijohn). Certainly this is where we learned about this inexpensive way to drink like a local. At the second bar we were outside in the plaza and had bottled Cabernet Sauvignon and it was tasty. At the last bar we had prosecco and stood at the edge of the Grand Canale and watched the boats and the water. Alessandro spoke great English and we learned lots (Venice is made up of 117 islands and over 400 bridges) and it was a great tour. We scheduled this at the beginning of our time in Venice to help us get acclimated and it succeeded. In part because we now know that our accommodations are not a difficult walk from the Rialto bridge.

Today's weather started out with light rain and a lot of grey overcast but by the afternoon it was lovely and sunny.

Boats in Venice

There are no cars or scooters within Venice; we didn't even see a bicycle. So there are many kinds of boats. Of course there are the gondolas (around 500 and always black) but also taxis (shiny lacquered wood) and the vaporetto (public transit water busses which run on time!!). Beyond that we have seen: police, fire, ambulance, garbage, more than one refrigerated boat, a DHL boat, and a few that have equipment for earth moving or pile driving. If the boat has a rear tiller attached to a long handle the guy (it seems to always be a man) is standing and steering the boat with his butt - not really a stick up his ass but kind of. There are also several HUGE ocean going yachts moored along the water's edge sort of in the vicinity of the palace. We've seen only a couple of speed boats. There are lots of different sorts of privately owned boats and you can tell which ones get used most often by how much greenery is growing on them at the water line. 

The gondolas can get pretty much anywhere because they are so skinny and not super tall (some of the bridges over the smaller canals are a bit low). The vaporetto are limited to the grand canal and around the outside of the island. Lots of traffic and some horns but no real water rage going on.

Wednesday, May 10th

It was lovely to wake without an alarm - we are still catching up on sleep from the race weekend. Weather for our time here in Venice has been predicted to be mixed with today being one of the better days. So we're off to the island of Murano and shopping for glassware - Serena  is specifically looking for some champagne flutes from the CC Zecchin factory. 

Quite a bit of the day was going in & out of the many shops comparing selection and prices. Along the way we had lunch and visited the Glass Museum of Murano. This museum has been in existence since 1861 so aside from good information about the history of glass production in this area they also have a lot of actual examples (many donated by the artists themselves). It was well laid out and plenty of English-language explanation. 

Back in our neighborhood we had dinner at a local pizzeria. Eating out in Venice is definitely more expensive than we had become accustomed to in Spain. 

Thursday, May 11th

Got to our first museum for today right as they opened. Like several others this is a combination of showing off a palazzo as the family would have had it and putting art in it too. Ca' Rezzonico is very large and unfortunately bankrupted the family that commissioned it. But then someone else bought it and finished it and life goes on. 

We have some familiarity with tromp l'oeil (trick the eye) painting but have never seen anything so well done until this trip. Literally there have been rooms where we had no clue until reading the brochure that things we were looking at were 1D paintings and not 3D plaster or sculpture. Here at Ca' Rezzonico there were pillars in the entry room that "tricked the eye" right up until you could almost touch them. Some nice marble sculptures and intricate wood carvings upstairs as well as examples of inlay that so fascinate Serena.

Next we visited the Peggy Guggenheim collection which is on display in the house where she lived; you can google to find out how she ended up in Venice with the collection of art that is here. This was not included in our museum pass but was interesting and worth it. We have seen pieces by some of these artists elsewhere and many of course we had not. They also had a temporary exhibit and a wing of art that was donated by one of the founders of the museum (ask Serena later about the Schulhof collection).

After the Guggenheim we walked to La Fenice (the Phoenix) Opera house. We're not certain when it came to be called La Fenice but it has burnt three times (the last time due to arson in 1996). It wasn't completely destroyed in any of the fires. The super impressive part is that they have worked exceptionally hard to recreate the original (mid 1800s) look in it's entirety. It is beautiful and if there were a performance on while we were here we would have gotten tickets. The current iteration of the La Fenice has numerous improvements to enhance audience comfort and adaptability to a variety of performances besides opera. But the aesthetic aspects have been recreated faithfully both inside and out. They were able do do this since they had the original scale model, descriptions and many photos and other documentation.

We're done touring for the day so now we're on a wine hunt. Alessandro told us about Vino Sfuso (loose wine). This is unbottled wine sold by the liter (2-3 euro/liter) from demijohns. Various websites have given us a hint where to look. In the end we found the first shop we were looking for when we had given up and we're trying to find the second shop. Lucca was very friendly and we were able to taste before buying. The wine wasn't great but it was as good as what we've been able to buy in the shop in our neighborhood and cost half as much. In Spain we sort of knew what to buy in the shops and it turned out that decent wine wasn't expensive. We haven't figured that out for Italy yet.

We are here during the full moon and tonight we're cruised around on the vaporetto looking at the city at night. It happens that it's also a high tide and perhaps it's due to the moon but it's high enough that the sidewalks immediately adjacent to the canals are getting little bit flooded. We even had to switch vaporetto more than once due to the high water; they looked the same height but we were told it was due to the high water. We've seen a sign or two showing the high pathways in the city for when the usual ones are flooded (happens most often Nov-April). There are also stacks of benches in misc places that are placed on top of the walkways when they flood to provide an elevated walkway.

Friday, May 12th

We have managed already to see/do all the things that were our priorities so today we didn't really have a plan. Started first near St. Mark's trying to visit the naval museum but it was closed. The area was quiet active though since this is possibly the main area of the Bienniale (a MAJOR art show). It officially opens tomorrow but it appears that today is a pre-opening since there are lots of people all heading in the same direction and along the way there are people handing out a variety of exhibit guides.

Went back to St. Mark's and into the Basilica (free). This church is much different from all the others we've been to. Lots of gilt mosaics, quarter sawn stone walls and intricate mosaic floors. It's a bit dark inside but for an hour each day they light it up and we were there when they turned on the lights.

Took a vaporetto toward the Jewish quarter and it was pleasant to find a quiet neighborhood. We did end up on a shopping street but still not crowded and the shops were a different variety - more practical and even some fresh fruit and vegetable vendors. We had a nice lunch then went to the Jewish Museum. Afterwards we spent the evening at our place, with some takeaway pizza and vino sfuso, getting ready for traveling tomorrow - blogging, packing, organizing photos.

Miscellaneous

Public toilets are very few and in the tourist areas will cost possibly 1.5 euros. But Rick Steve's guidebook has clued us in to locations of some free ones (sometimes you might need your own TP). Combine that with taking advantage of facilities where we eat and in museums and everything is okay. Toilets in both Spain and Italy are very inefficient with water. But, virtually every restroom will have an air hand dryer rather than paper towels.

Seems to be less smoking here than in Spain.

Similar # of German tourists but many more Asian tourists.

Beautiful terrazzo floors everywhere - possibly because they are impervious to flooding? Although that shouldn't matter above the ground floor.

Vaporetti are convenient and we've got the hang of reading the schedules and routes. maps.me has been useful for getting us home the times we let ourselves get "lost".

View of the Doge's Palace from the canal. St. Mark's Square is on the other side from this view.

World's first digital clock. The Roman numerals on either side (below the lion and above the clock face) change every five minutes. The statues on top move on the hour and ring the bell.

One wall of one room in the Doge's palace.

"Bridge of Sighs" between the palace and the prison.

One of many weapons displays at the palace.

Campanile in St. Mark's Square.

One of the several cafes with live music around the square.

One of the five bells at the top of the Campanile.

View of Venice from the top of the Campanile.

View of the lagoon from the top of the Campanile.

An inlay scene on a table at the Correr Museum. It's lovely but not as fantastic as the one at the Prado that Serena wasn't allowed to photograph.

A small "cabinet" with inlay scenes, columns, and gold gilding.

Up close shot of the front center scene. This scene is somewhat smaller than half a piece of printer paper and all "painted' by inlaying different colors of stones. Including semi-precious ones such as lapis lazuli for the blues.

On our bar crawl tour with Alessandro.

Boat traffic. The large boat in the center of the canal is a vaporetto (water bus).

Taxi boat

Gondolas

Trash boat. Staff wheel carts around the streets and bring them to the boat to be emptied.

Jeff on the vaporetto

One of the several yachts.

Public art - Glass of course since this is on Murano. Glass factories were exiled to the island of Murano to prevent them accidentally catching Venice on fire in the course of their work.

Glass "dessert" on display at the glass museum. These pieces that mimic real-life locations were displayed at parties to advertise how wealthy you were.

A Murano glass chandelier.

Sample of what the rooms look like in Ca' Rezzonico.

And this is what the ceilings look like. Massive frescoes.

Unless the ceilings look like this. Once upon a time people would have done this in plaster but this is paint. Tromp l'oeil.

More Tromp l'oeil

This hung above/behind Peggy Guggenheim's bed. She used it to hang her jewelry on. She commissioned Alexander Calder to make it for her. There were other original pieces by him at the house.

Inside of La Fenice opera house - this is looking from the stage toward the Royal Box.

There was a bit of ballet rehearsal going on while we were in the theater.

The ceiling and chandelier of La Fenice.

Public Art. We don't know if it's permanent or for the Biennale.

Ditto. And there is a white version of this same sculpture elsewhere on the canal.

This one is a temporary piece for the Biennale.

Jeff in Venice.

The Rialto bridge

The other side of the Rialto bridge at night. And you can see the water flowing over the sidewalks.

Unlikely that Venetians would consider this flooded but we thought it was interesting. The sidewalk edge of the canal is on the left of that outdoor dining area.