Last day in Italy

Our last day was in Venice and it was a gorgeous clear warm day with crystal blue skies. We woke up early, like we had been all week, as not to waste too much time sleeping. We boarded the vaparetto and headed down to the Rialto market.

The Pescaria (fish market) and Erbaria (produce market), which combined make up the Rialto Market, have been located here since the 11th century. This is an exciting venue with which to mix with the local Venetians. Barges arrive at dawn with their crates of produce to be unloaded.

We checked out the Arsenal, an immense uninhabited space which, in the 16th century, was the site of the largest ship industry in the world. The whole exterior has been renovated and is very peaceful with a couple of cafe/bar/restaurants in the piazza outside the main entrance. What you see in the picture is the imposing 15th century gate-entrance to the Arsenale.

We hoped on the vaporetto over to Murano Island. On the way we sighted this church as our vaporetto made its way to Murano Island. The Dorsoduro church known as the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.Murano’s reputation as a center for glass making was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction to the city’s mostly wood buildings, ordered glass makers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291. Murano’s glass makers held a monopoly on quality glass making for centuries, developing or refining many technologies including crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. Today, the artisans of Murano are still employing these century-old techniques, crafting everything from contemporary art glass and glass jewelery to Murano glass chandeliers and wine stoppers. It was very similar to Venice, but quieter.

After Murano, we made our way back to St. Mark's Square taking in some more sights on the way. It is so much fun exploring Venice. Most of the walkways are narrow. At the end you choose, left or right. In either case you may not be able to see a bridge or a canal. If you can see a canal, you may be surprised to find the walkway dead ends with nowhere to go except by boat or back the way you came from. On one occasion we had to back track several minutes to find a path going in our direction. Even with a map it was easy to get lost in the maze. But that was one of the most fun things about Venice -- getting lost over and over again.


We decide to tour the Doge's Palace (adjacent to St. Mark's). The Doge's Palace is a Gothic palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice. Unfortunately we only had a little over an hour before closing, so we were kind of rushed through, but it was AMAZING!!!
As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city. Venice was ruled by an aristocratic elite, but there was a facility for citizens to submit written complaints at what was known as the Bussola chamber. Ornamentation is everywhere. The interior (no photos allowed) are lavishly embellished with paintings and carved and gilded wall decorations. It is drewl-worthy.


In the basement were several prison cells, which housed convicts awaiting trial. When the “new” prison was built on the other side of the Rio di Palazzo the facility was no longer used. The new prison was connected to the palace via the now famous Bridge of Sighs. We got to walk through it.This flight of stairs led to the Doge’s private quarters, known as the “Scala dei Giganti” and is flanked by huge statues of Mars and Neptune.

It was then time for the famous Bellini at Harry's Bar.

The Rialto Bridge is the most famous bridge in Venice, we crossed it many times.

An Ambulance

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo: Scala del Bovolo

We tried to absorb as much as possible in the short time we had in Italy. I think we did a pretty good job of seeing alot and doing alot. It went by so fast, and we know we want to go back!

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go." --Truman Capote

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Venice - It's called La Serenissima, "the most serene,"

The Grand Canal

After breakfast, we had one last walk around the Duomo area before departing from Florence. The train ride took three hours to Venice (ah, Venice) and it was pleasant and comfortable.

Basilica di S Maria della Salute from Grand Canal

Venice is one of those cities that everyone knows of, but it’s definitely one of those ones that you just have to go to and absorb for yourself. No matter how many times you've seen it in movies or on TV, the real thing is more dreamlike than you could ever imagine.If arriving in Venice by train this bridge over the Grand Canal is probably the first one you see, Ponte degli Scalzi.

The Firehouse ( no trucks here, only fire boats)

I don’t understand how the place still exists, to be honest. The buildings are hundreds of years old, jammed in cheek to cheek, with brick and plaster walls bowed, cracked and eroded. And yet just inside the crumbling facades and weathered window shutters are marble interiors and double glazed windows. And of course, half of these buildings are standing with their feet permanently wet in the canals. As you round another tiny laneway, it opens up to a square with yet another beautiful old church, most in astounding condition, and built on such an enormous scale for such a cramped city.

Venice is the place to get lost in. Deliberately. There is a main tourist strip located around St Mark’s square, where you can drown yourself in Gucci and Prada and any other designer label you can care to mention. Yet venture off in any other direction, and you’re soon immersed in the equivalent of (inner city) suburbia. This is where the real heart of Venice is to be found, with small alleyways and locals going about their business. Today, only about 60,000 people reside in the historic center (compared to an estimated 180,000 in the heyday of the Venetian Republic)

St. Mark's Square

Across the smaller canals, there are lots of bridges of all shapes and sizes and age. Each one began and ended with a tiny alleyway between buildings, but to someone at sometime, it must have made perfect sense to build one there, and not one laneway in another direction that may have been more open and inviting. Must have provided a shorter path to Mamma’s house. Across the Grand canal, however, there are only three bridges. If you want to cross anywhere else, you can take a ferry across, as they zigzag from bank to bank, just to add to the confusion. Alternatively, for 50 euro you can stand up in a Traghetto, which is an even longer than usual gondola. Ten or twelve people all standing up in a long thin boat bobbing across the water; a certain recipe for disaster, but it works.


The Vaporretto, or water buses, are a great way to get around. We got a 2-day pass so we could get on and off as many times as we wanted. Pretty much everything is delivered by boat……tourists, laundry, food, supplies of all kinds with garbage boats hauling off the refuse.


In Venice as with all cities in Italy, window boxes of flowers (real flowers) are everywhere. Usually geraniums. Flying like flags everywhere else is drying laundry.
Also everywhere are places to eat. They range from ‘bars’ (not the alcohol purveyors that they are here) to trattoria to osteria to ristorantes. And, of course, pasticcierias for pastry and gelaterias for ice cream.

The grand churches that consigned work from the most prestigious artists of the time are more magnificent than most museums around the world.
A tradition unique to Venice is a pub crawl (giro d'ombra). Venice's residential back streets hide plenty of characteristic pubs (baccari) with countless trays of interesting hors d’oevres (cicchetti) and blackboards listing the wines that are uncorked and served by the glass. Cicchetti bars have a social stand-up zone or a few tables tables. They’re similar to Spanish tapas. In some of the more popular places, the local crowds happily spill out into the street. While you can order a plate, Venetians prefer going one-by-one...sipping their wine and trying this...then give me one of those…and so on. This was right up our alley. We went from one place to another sampled a few things and a glass of ombra rosso and then moved on to discover another place. A small glass of house red (ombra rosso) was €1 per glass in some of these places, and I didn't have one bad tasting wine!!! There were literally 30-50 of these Cicchetti bars each unique with different food and different atmospheres, some were part of a larger trattorias or osterias. We got to meet alot of different people this way.

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