Dear Masked Marvels,
We arrived at Venice and emerged from the train station to be looking at The Grand Canal. At our first glimpse both us exclaimed something a little bit more colorful than OmiGod, but you get my drift. The water was this translucent green which was beautiful, the sky, a powder blue and the buildings a wonderful pastiche of yellows, apricots, russets and taupes. It was bewitching from the get go.
The dodgy (water) taxi drivers (of which there are noooooo shortage in Italy,)tried to get us to pay 60€ for our trip - the local ferry costs 13€ and once on it , two departing Aussie tourists gave us their 24 hour ferry pass to use as well. We arrived at our hotel located right in the middle of the San Marco area ( there are six areas or districts of Venice) and although the place is small, it's good to stay in one of the three closest districts to Piazza San Marco as this is where most things are most easily accessible.
Venice consists of something like 146 marshy little islands of varying sizes, connected by over 312 little bridges with canals, both small and large weaving throughout. The locals simply forced wooden posts into the swampy marsh and built houses on them and then connected them all via the bridges. Venice has traditionally been Italy's most cosmopolitan city having been the trading routes for Turkey, Morocco and a whole raft of other nationalities. It also has the reputation of being the most tolerant and culturally diverse city, having readily accepted traders and Travellers throughout the years as residents. This is very much reflected in the architecture with it's very middle eastern window frames and decorative touches on all the buildings. But sadly not in it's food. The food here is pretty crappy when compared to the rest of Italy. Whilst it doesn't have a traditional Venetian cuisine, it doesn't seem to have embraced the middle eastern or Jewish or African possibilities either!!
Some interesting facts about Venice. It was where the handkerchief was invented and only nobles were allowed to carry one (absolutely no idea why). In the 12 and 13 centuries it was fought over and awarded like a prize between Milan, Florence and anyone else big enough to win a local stoush. Still the Venetians would do business with anyone and being the ultimate pragmatists, didn't much care who was in charge as long as they could earn a good living. Perfume industry was very big here but apparently that was in direct response to the need to compensate one's personal comfort when you lived on a belching sulpherous,(think bad egg gas) group of swampy marshes in a hot summer!
Today it's a tourist mecca and we quickly found out why. You just meander from narrow street to narrow street, never far from the major water ways and beside gentle canals where gondolas pass you by, taking in some of the best shopping. We just loved it. Our first night we watched a bride and groom waltz in San Marco Piazza to the local orchestra, we started the mission for "The Mask", we soaked up the beauty knowing we would never see something so completely unique anywhere else in the world.
Ciao landlubbers
Kelly & Siobahn
long standing
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