A World of its Own

Our final stop in Italy was Venice, the city of canals and gondolas and romantic bridges. . . We arrived early afternoon in brilliant blue sunshiny weather - a marked contrast to that which we had left in Florence. The train station fronts onto the Grand Canal, and the view is stunning as you walk out.

We had booked to stay in the HI hostel on the island of Guidecca, some 30 minutes away by vaporetto (water bus). We availed ourselves of travel passes and set off. The hostel is in a large red brick building on one of the main canal routes, and was very pleasant (despite lodging us on the third floor. . . no elevators. . .). Having arrived there on a Sunday, we nipped over to a supermarket to obtain our special Sunday lunch (albeit somewhat late in the day) - roast chicken and potatoes, with a special dessert. We weren't able to find an evening service to go to, so we had our 'i-pod sermon' overlooking the water and the lights of San Marco Piazza.

Our first full day in Venice was spent on the islands of Murano and Burano, famed for glass- and lace-making. Murano was a largish island, and only one in every five or six shops on the main street was not dedicated to glass in some form. We enjoyed seeing a couple of glassblowers in action, and also found the glass museum interesting - it was amazing to see that some 'advanced 'techniques have been around for centuries (millenia, even!). Burano was also beautiful. It is quite a small island, and has the most brilliantly coloured houses along its streets and canals. The lace shops had intriguing mixtures of the most tasteful linen alongside gaudy blouses. Unfortunately we were too late to visit the lace museum, but we enjoyed our wander and stayed on the island for dinner - pasta and tartufo in a little ristorante with a waiter who seemed determined to ignore us. It was quite amusing. The trip back to Guidecca was quite long, but nice and relaxing as we could enjoy leaning back and looking at the lights and sights as we bobbed along.

Our second morning was spent on the main island, where we discovered some lovely bead and mask shops, and explored the streets leading to Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square), crossing the Bridge of Sighs on the way. We weren't actually that impressed with the piazza, though I fear that was mainly due to the inordinate amount of people and even more inordinate amount of pigeons. The place was covered with them! This fact, combined with the heat and hungry tummies, put us off slightly, and we headed off to see the Peggy Guggenheim museum. It turned out to be closed on Tuesdays, so we rethought our plans and decided a trip to Lido, the beach resort island, would be nice. On arrival we were confronted with a place hiring out those four wheeled pedal carriage-y things - we were instantly tempted. Taking one out for an hour, we were immediately dissolved into fits of giggles. Robyn started off in the driver's seat, but both seats had steering wheels to hold and, as the passenger one wasn't fixed but spun freely, I kept trying to correct our course when I felt we were too close to the kerb, or not turning where we should. It was also somewhat discombobulating to drive on the right. . . scary, when one gets to an intersection. I fear my life span has diminished somewhat. We also indulged in a small race with a carriage of young chaps who came up behind us and started pedalling like crazy. It felt like something out of Ben Hur. It was a great way to get an overview of the island, and on our return we hunted for a fish and chip shop to satisfy our craving (the salt air, or something?) Italians don't seem to do fish and chips, however, so we settled for pizza on the beach, and very nice it was, too.

Our second attempt at the Peggy Guggenheim was more successful than the first. It is a very well set out museum, in a courtyard and several rooms of Peggy's home. Modern art isn't generally our 'thing', but there were some fascinating works to look at, and some pieces that we both admired.

A church along from where we had been staying had been interesting me, and we found time to stop off and explore it on Thursday morning. It was an intriguing mixture of styles - one can see lots of influences of the Orient here - no doubt due to Marco Polo (a Venetian by birth). It was very plain inside, not heavily frescoed like many churches, and very appealing. We decided to take a trip up the campanile (bell tower) to get a different view of the city. Ascending by lift, we had a fascinating conversation with the bellboy/ticket seller who sits on an office chair and goes up and down all day. The views were gorgeous. We could see the city spread out in all directions, with a little marina below, and all the other campaniles poking up here and there. Some of them lean quite dramatically, though ours didn't. We spent almost an hour aloft (some time view-gazing, and then leaning on the sunny sills and reading), as we decided we'd like to stay and hear the bells peal. It was impressive, and deafening!

The original Jewish ghetto was a must see on my list, and we went over and through the Museo Elbraico (small, but interesting. Some very cool artwork). Out in the piazza we were impressed by a series of bronze relief plaques depicting the horrors of the Holocaust for the Jews in Venice.
They were very starkly done, and were quite moving.

Our last evening in Venice we spent overlooking a canal, eating our picnic tea and experimenting with different settings on our cameras - great fun. It's a lovely city, and I'd like to spend more time there. One day. . .