With less than simple maps directing you through thousands of scattered alley-like streets to numerous piazzas and over tons of bridges that all look alike, I am proud to say that we were never too lost in Venice. It was a really unique city where life completely revolves around the canals and lagoon surrounding the island. Not just for touristy gondola rides, the water is the way of transportation other than walking (no cars allowed). From delivery boats to ambulance and police boats, even a public transportation "vaporetto" bus-like system, you can expect every house and business to have their own dock. Families just hop in their boats with stroller and/or dog to head to another part of the city.
When we arrived on Thursday, we mad our somewhat confused way following the internet directions we had to Ca Maddaelena, a Venetian house where a woman rents out rooms as a bed & breakfast to guests. As instructed on the website, we called after getting off the train only to receive a flustered response from a very kind Venetian woman- Elena. Evidently, she hadn't recived our reservation but did have an open room and told us to continue to her house so we could work things out. We soon realized that our map was missing several small roads that our directions told us to take. Heather went in a store to ask for help and despite our lack of the Italian language, the super friendly owner came out and showed us down the street. Elena greeted us full of apologies and smiles and helped us carry our luggage into the beautiful living room of her huge house filled with patterned rugs, paintings and victorian furniture. She showed us our room which her mom and cousin were still preparing for us and tried to find an explanation for our lost reservation.
After settling in our room, we stopped in the first square we came to for lunch and then headed out to explore the city towards Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's Square- the most touristy areas in Venice. Venice is a series of 18 small islands connected by over 400 bridges. Rialto Bridge the oldest of the 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal and houses shops along the sides of its incline. The bridge provided a great panoramic view down the canal and proved to be one of the most open areas in the cities. I had to pinch myself when I realized I was actually seeing gondolas float down the Grand Canal!
Next, we followed the few signs to the Piazza San Marco area which houses St. Mark's Basilica, Clock Tower & Capagnile; Correr Museum; Doge Palace; several upscale cafes with orchestra quintets; hundreds of pigeons and of course lots of tourists. The square is the largest in Venice and the long buildings forming its enclosure were home to all of the important offices of the Venetian Republic. While admiring the unbelievable architecture and view of the lagoon, we ran into Anna and Matt- two students from Heather's study abroad program in Paris.
We ended the day at Hard Rock Cafe, where we intended just to look at the merchandise store but as horrible as it sounds- ended up eating dinner there too. Finding our way back to Ca Maddaelena's proved difficult in the dark and with our unreliable map but a nice elderly security guard who spoke no English led to our street repeating the address aloud the whole way!
On Friday, we got up early for breakfast and went to tour St. Mark's Basilica. Afterwards Veronica and I walked along the lagoon and went up into St. Mark's Capagnile (bell tower). It was a great view of the entire city and smaller islands separated by the lagoon. We wondered in and out of some shops while we waited for Heather and her two friends to finish touring at the Doge Palace. Since we couldn't come to Venice without a tour of the city by water, we all decided it was a great day to take a ride in a gondola. We were prepared for some price haggling and had done our research to explore our options. The first gondolier we talked to was of course way out of our price range; however, after we walked away we were consecutively approached by 4 other gondoliers all offering decreasing prices. We picked one striped shirt and straw hat clad gondolier who spoke English pretty well and embarked on our hour long ride. Venice seems like a completely different city from the canals and our gondolier pointed out properties of former Doges, Marco Polo's house, and other sites of interest. We also rode under the Bridge of Sighs and Rialto Bridge. It was a wonderful experience which we followed by a group dinner and stroll through Venice at night.
Heather returned to Paris early on Saturday morning while Veronica and I went to Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (Doge Palace) for a "Secret Itineraries" tour we had booked in French. Upon the entrance to the former palace of the Venetian Doge is the "Mouth of Truth", a sculpted mask in the wall where citizens could anonymously submit letters with the wrongdoings of their peers to the Council of Ten. On the secret tour, we started through a barely noticeable door at the top of the Golden Staircase that always remained locked except to a few trusted men of the Republic. We entered into a drastic change in decoration from the elaborately decorated hallways to completely wooden interior, low ceilings and small individual rooms with tiny windows. These were the offices of those who worked behind the scenes of the Republic- the Ducale Notary and Secretary. Then it was to the Secret Chancellory where the Chancellor wrote and kept all of the Republic's secret documents. From there we passed into the Torture Chamber where prisoners were tortured before the grand inquisitors and on to the prison chambers where the notorious lover, Casanova, was held. Next we went into a vast attic area over the Great Hall. The last two rooms of the Secret Itinerary of the Doges Palace Walking Tour belonged to the State inquisitors & three judges of the council of ten. Some of the original palace furniture here included a cabinet for court documents with three keyholes that meant all three judges had to be present to open the cabinet. We emerged from the judges chamber via a secret passageway and out a door disguised as a cabinet into the Chamber of the Council of the Ten. Then we were free to explore the rest of the palace's grand rooms where various councils and groups rule dover political and administrative affairs of Venice as well as the apartments where the Doge resided. We also walked through the Bridge of Sighs which connects the palace with the large prison. With small slats for windows, the prisoners traversing over the bridge would sigh at seeing their last glimpse of Venice. The palace was definitely one of my favorite things in Venice!
After feeding the pigeons in St. Mark's Square, we grabbed our own lunch and went to catch the vaporetto to Lido Island- a beachy island off the coast. It was a cute resort-ish island with a homey touch and we walked along the beach picking up a few of the thousands of shells strewn across the sand. From Lido, we took the vaporetto to Murano, the island know for its glass-blowing. Most of the town was closed down as it was early evening so we didn't stay long before catching our boat back to city. We spent the night just chatting with some other students also staying in our hostel.
On Sunday we had an 8 hour train back to Chambéry and I was sad to see the amazing week of vacation end!
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