TUESDAY JUNE 3rd: A GONDOLA IN VENICE

As we’ve already written, Venice is made up of eighteen islands of various sizes, separated or joined (depending on your perspective) by canali (natural “channels”, before they were tamed into being “canals”). The Canale Grande separates them into two uneven groups: a smaller one to the west and larger to the east—except that the Canal's sinuous path, from northwest to southeast, makes the islands look like one mittened hand (to the left) grasping the thumb of another (to the right), with the right hand also grasping the fingers of the left; or like two snakes biting each other’s heads.

The Santa Lucia railway station, where we arrived from Mestre, is on the larger island-group, but at its extreme western end (its mittened “fingertips”). Alongside the piazza lying between the station front and the canal are landing stages for vaporetti (Venetian water buses. As a vaporetto stop, the landing stage is called “Ferrovia”, which means “railway”.) We bought two 48-hour passes and boarded the number 1 route to San Marco (St Mark’s), which lies at the outer base of the thumb of the “right hand”.

Along the way we saw numerous wonderful (but dilapidated) palazzi, many fascinating glimpses into little side canals, and many little details of architecture or decoration—balconies and windows with profusions of red flowers, ornate archways, or little gardens on terraces. There’s also the Rialto Bridge (the covered one which many people mistake for the Bridge of Sighs).

Approaching St Mark’s along the canal, the first thing you see is the Campanile (bell tower) behind the canal-front buildings. (The canal by this stage is the Canale di San Marco, a much wider canal separating “Venice” from the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, St George's Island.) As you approach, you can see the open space of the Piazetta San Marco, with the famous pair of pillars bearing statues of St Theodore and St Mark’s Lion, and the decorated frontage of the Palazzo Ducale; but you come to the landing stage well before you get to the piazetta, and you have to walk past a torrent of souvenir stalls, some of them selling quite excellent artworks, and some selling the kind of tourist tat we’re actually interested in (magnetti, fridge magnets, because we have to travel light).



Bypassing the piazetta for the moment, we looked down the small canal that runs up the east side of the Palazzo and Basilica (the rio del Palazzo), and saw the real Bridge of Sighs. It's detaling is quite decorative, but its overall shape is reminiscent of the upper half of a skull, which is appropriate because it leads from the Doge’s court rooms to the prison (whence its name).




Besides the Bridge of Sighs, there are three immediate attractions at St Marks: the Doges’ palace, the cathedral, and the campanile. We chose the latter first, and (the day being sunny if somewhat hazy) had wonderful views from the top (several photos from up there!). The bells were of technical interest because of Don’s past involvement with bell-ringing, but we were glad that we’d got down from the tower and into the piazetta when they started ringing them! We took that as a sign for lunch, so went and explored a couple of side alleys and found the Pizzeria Marciana, where we had antipasto and delicious formaggi misti (mixed cheeses).

Afterwards, we went through to the adjoining (and larger) Piazza S. Marco, which forms a right-angle with the piazetta, photographed the red porphyry lions, and joined the queue to get into the Basilica. When we got to the front, we were told that our backpack had to be left at a nearby church (S. Basso?), so Margaret waited while Don rushed off to find it—which wasn’t easy, in fact, since it’s down a side alley and not signposted. But back at S. Marco, the “left-luggage” ticket got Don straight to the front of the queue.

There was far too much for us to describe here, and it was all hugely impressive. You can find out a lot via the Interweb thingy, so let’s just say that its glittering assemblage of treasures looted from other churches (particularly from Byzantium) is utterly beautiful and completely breathtaking. Oh, we’ll also report Mark Twain’s unkind but amusing comment: that its diverse mix of cupolas, domes, and spires makes it look like “a vast warty bug taking a meditative walk”.

After St. Mark’s, we went back to the stalls again and bought the fridge magnetti, and also a T-shirt for Don, then got two Coca light (yes, that bit’s in Italian) and sat a while in the Giardini Reali (Royal Gardens), a pretty and shady park. There we watched a man amusing his daughter by trying to feed pigeons, and getting covered in them.

Then we took the vaporetto back up the Grand Canal, to the stop before Ferrovia (Riva di Biasio, on the San Polo side of the canal), walked a little way, and found ourselves a gondola. Our gondolier was Fabio; unlike many that we saw, he wore The Hat (straw boater with ribbon), a privilege which apparently gondoliers have to earn. Also unlike other gondoliers we saw, he actually sang us romantic songs (Santa Lucia, O Sole Mio, Volare—that sort of thing). His gondola was named Sebastiano (he told us), or possibly Ginevre, since one name was painted onto one side of the boat, and the other on the other side. Either way, he was a mine of tourist info about Venice, and we immensely enjoyed the ride, and his company.

The ride lasted about three quarters of an hour. Afterwards, recognising where we were, we retraced our path from last night to Trattorio Da Silvio, where we had a light dinner before walking back—more directly then before—to Ferrovia and taking the train back to Mestre.

The weather had been "chancy" all day, shifting between sunny and hot and clouded and showery (we had to buy brollies at San Marco!). Now it was a cloudy night, but not raining; but as we walked from the station to the hotel, there was a brilliant summer lightning storm over the mountains to the west. We heard no thunder, but great bolts of lightning, about two seconds apart, shot horizontally between clouds made white and purple by the glare. A spectacular end to a wonderful day!