venice

we packed up, and left at 11:30 to go to venice.

the first time i went to venice, it was in summer. i was on a solo whirlwind 3 week tour of europe. it was towards the end of my trip. i was tired and venice was hot, humid and stinky. the canals do get stinky. i wasn’t impressed (though, i do have a fond memory of being woken by the garbage man going by at 5 in morning singing opera)

the second time i went to venice, it was in winter, many things were closed and i couldn’t find any restaurants. so i wasn’t too impressed then, either, and had no interest in going back. apparently jj had been talking about venice and has been wanting to go for years. i must have blocked it out of my ears since i had no desire to go back. but, luckily, p was booking the flights and included venice in our itinerary. as we approached time to depart, i got more and more excited. i opened up my mind again to the idea of venice. spring is a very good time of year to be there.

following the direction of the owner of the b&b, we drove over the bridge to the island, parked the car in the giant parking garage and took the boat bus.

as the boat pulled away, the scenery was quite industrial. i pulled out the book that a friend had lent me on venice restaurants. when i looked up from it, i was struck by the scene in front of me. we were on the grand canal lined with the houses of islamic influenced style. it was beautiful. we actually took the boat-bus in the wrong direction, the long way around, but we didn’t mind, as we got a lovely tour. we got off at our stop and walked through the little alleys and along canals. i thought the address was for a little street that wasn’t visible on the map, but we discovered that the addresses were merely a number and a district. each house has a unique number in that district. the addresses do not include the street name. you have to know the district to know where the house might be. it’s not a great system (but not as bad as tokyo, which apparently has houses numbered in ascending order based on when they were built). we called the owner again and he told us the name of the road. it was a nice b&b in a very old building, on a little road that led to the lagoon. we had a decent triple. the first thing we did was to plug in our computers. we had been without internet for 5 days and i had this feeling that the agent helping us to rent out our house, might be trying to reach us. i was a little nervous about being out of touch. (p said he thought i was addicted to the internet. i said, “yes, i think i am addicted to the internet too”. he said “the first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem”. i replied “i didn’t say it was a problem”). in fact, our agent was frantic, trying to reach us. someone DID want to rent our house in boston and she couldn’t get hold of us. we made contact and then we went out into venice. we walked through the silent narrow streets.

the striking thing about venice is, how quiet it is. (if you are away from the touristy areas). there are NO cars, NO mopeds, NO motorbikes. in fact, it is not a town friendly to any kind of wheels, motorized or not. the many foot bridges crossing canals, made of stone with a few steps up and a few steps down would make using a bike a pain. the cobblestones and the risk of falling into canals would make skateboarding or rollerblading dangerous. unfortunately, it is certainly not wheelchair friendly.

the only motorized vehicles were boats on the canals. along the smaller canals, the gondolas slowly make their way, so there were no noisy speeding boats there either. because of all these things, it is very peaceful, and i felt a sense of calm.

much of the city is made of narrow alleys and canal-side walkways. it is a remarkable feeling, knowing that the easiest way to get anywhere in this town, in this age of motorized everything, is to walk. everybody walks. we would be walking along a path and suddenly a wave of walkers would flock by at a brisk pace.

the main area of venice is divided into 2 by the grand canal which flows like a backwards S. the only bridge that attaches the 2 parts is the rialto bridge, a big stone bridge which is divided into 3 lanes and is made of stone stairs climbing to the center and descending down the other side. in the center lane are touristy shops facing inward. it leads down on one side to the fish market. the rialto bridge could be said to be the center of town.

we walked towards the center, but my first intended stop was a bar called “fiore”. venice has a tradition of little dishes served in bars, similar to tapas. one of the things people do here is to bar hop and eat little dishes along with drinks. fiore was quaint and small. we had a few nibbles and a drink and went out looking for a more substantial dinner. i had the book with me and we made our way to a recommended restaurant. unfortunately, it was now prime dinner time and there was a line out the door. this is one thing that really drives p crazy, because, unlike me, he can’t imagine that any meal is worth waiting on line. so i didn’t insist, and he humored me as we went looking for other recommended restaurants. the next one was closed and the one after that was really too much like a bar for jj to feel comfortable in. we tried 2 more, and then i gave in and said, ok, whatever place you pick is fine. we settled for a touristy joint in a plaza. it was not terrible, but it was mediocre. it’s sad to have a mediocre meal in italy where there is so much fabulous food, but, i had tried to find us a good place. i will prepare myself in advance for our next dinner.

we set off to find our way home through the alleys. it reminded me of the early computer game “adventure” which had an area of “twisty, turny, mazelike passageways”. the game must have been invented by someone who had been to venice. we let p get us home, knowing that he would enjoy this game. it wasn’t easy, even with the map. but it was lovely out, the temperature was perfect - a bit cool, but not cold. our b&b is right near peggy gugenheim’s house which is now a museum – so not too shabby a part of town.

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