Day in Venice - 31.aug

Alarm went off 8:45, bright and early. I was able to roll myself out of the bed a bit after 9 - shower and quick breakfast downstairs and off to explore Venice we went! There are 177 canals in this city, 8 different types of boats navigate on those waters. Bikes are not allowed in Venice so the choices are limited to walking or to taking a gondola/some other boat to get around. AND there are no stop lights to be seen at all :)

First stop was the train station to find out how we get to Padova tomorrow - seems super easy, there are many machines around to buy the tickets electronically, won't be a problem at all.

Now about the city. We started out from Ferrovia by crossing a new canal every 5 minutes, staring at the passing gondolas and admiring the tiny windows of the buildings. All there is is water, sidewalks and buildings and yet it all seems green thanks to the multiple plants on the windows and on the balconies. Water is cleaner than I thought and it does not even smell too bad around here - I expected the smell to be a whole lot worse but in reality it is not bad at all. Couple of times got stuck at dead end streets where the street simply ends with water and no sidewalk anywhere, still gotta walk to the end to see on which side the closest bridge is :)

Visited Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari on our way. As our guidebook says it is a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture, it took more than 100 years to build this 15th century church. Inside there are works by Titian and Bellini, many tombs, monuments and statues. Was quite magnificent. All the different monuments must have been built throughout hundreds of years as you could see overlapping of the materials and various different styles of statues. Whole church was a bit eclectic, but definitely worthwhile to check out.

Next strolled south through Dorsoduro district to Punta della Dogana and then back towards Ponte dell'Accademia. One can find many small bridges across the tiny canals, but when wanting to get across the Canal Grande there are only few big bridges (although there are boat services across every now and then). Canal Grande is called Venice's "highway", it is 4km in length, 30 to 70m in width and about 4.5m in depth. Traffic on this canal is something one has to see by him/herself - it is fun to see the boats rush by. At one point I kept looking at the boats and didn't notice the waves rolling in - got my feet all wet as there was no place to hide from the water :) Oh well, gotta expect of getting your feet wet when there is all this water around.

San Marco district with many sights got our attention next: La Fenice, Piazza & Basilica San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Riva Degli Schiavoni which is a nice waterside promenade, lots of tiny streets and canals, Ponte di Rialto, San Giacomo di Rialto, Rialto market and finally a stop at Chiesa di San Giacomo dell'Orio. That was quite a walk :) Legs were aching already at 1pm and we reached our final stop around 7pm.

Stopped at a hostel to rest our legs for a bit and then on to find a nice restaurant for dinner. This time went towards Piazzale Roma and found a cosy restaurant by Rio Nuovo. It was strange to see the buses and cars when all you have seen all day is boats and people walking. Found ourselves in civilization again :) Although it was nice to not have cars all over the place, the sound of waves hitting the edges of canals is much nicer than the sound of car engines roaring.

Ice cream - gelato! It is everywhere here :) Had it twice today, yum. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream usually, would go for chocolate instead at any moment, but just had to try the famous ice cream here in Italy. And yes, it was delicious. Lemon one was awesome and then hazelnut one too. Yum-yum.

A bit of a history lesson from our guide book as well:
Famous artists in Venice - Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 and Titian 1488-1576
Outstanding Venetians - Marco Polo 1254-1324, explorer who is responsible of introducing pasta to the western world. Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741, an accomplished musician and influential composer, his famous work The Four Seasons was only one of his 500 concertos. Vivaldi spent extended periods teaching music at Pieta home for girls here in Venice. Giovanni Casanova 1725-98, romantic figure who was also a diplomat, scholar, trainee priest, adventurer, gambler, notary's clerk, violinist, womanizer, exile, millionaire, writer and a spy - whatta character :)

Venice is full of all sorts of masks - handmade in papier-mache and glittery plaster. Those masks are now strictly tourist fare, but they were once essential attire during Carnival, allowing aristocrats to enjoy themselves in anonymity. Carnival is held in February-March as a count down to Lent, it lasts for 10 days and the grand finale is the explosive Mardi Gras.

Just a note for all of you waiting next looong posts, there is no Internet here anywhere (as I should have known). And I'm in Italy, can't be much better in Africa ;)