Let's Talk Venice!

An all-day train trip brought us into Venice after dark. However, they left the lights on for us and we drank in the familiar row-house views along the Grand Canal. Marco, our property manager met us at the Rialto Bridge and navigated us to our new home for the week. We had the first floor (which would be our second floor) apartment of a home tucked around the corner of busy little district. Perfect place. We dropped off our bags and decided to leg it for a couple of hours. Venice is said to be one of the very safe cities in the world. Except for a few bars and restaurants, Venice says Buona Notte about at 7PM!

Good sleep in our new digs and we threw open the bold green shutters and let Venice inside while we breakfasted. Typical hurried Italian chatter floated in from the street below. We were ready to take on the day. A visit to the Doges Palace and Saint Mark’s Cathedral were the day’s highlights. Of course we made time for a couple of bakery (sadly disappointing) and gelato (most enjoyable) stops every day.

We are very much “off the beaten path” kinds of people always in search for the traditional, local and the unusual. I’m not sure we discovered the unusual elements of Venice. Blazing in for a day is certainly much different than vacationing for a week. We didn’t find the Venetians to be wonderful hosts... much like the feeling we sensed in Rome two years ago. They didn’t seem to care whether we ate in their restaurants, bellied up to their bars for coffee, or purchased any of their products. For the most part, we found the locals to be quite unfriendly. Clearly, we must have been sporting “American Tourist” in neon letters flashing on our foreheads!

One day trip took us to Verona….. home to the virtually intact Roman arena. So intact that it still hosts operas and concerts etc. today. It seats upwards of 20,000 people. A trip up to the top of the bell tower gave us incredible views of the city and surrounding areas. At Madison’s request we hunted down the home of Juliet and of course the famous balcony. Scores of people were lining up to the bronze statue to rub Juliet’s right breast for good luck. Go figure? Inside the house, there are several computers where one can write letters to Juliet… letters have been left for her since the 30s. Just like the movie, they are now answered by local ladies as part of the Club di Giulietta. I believe around 5000 letters are received each year…… so much emphasis on a fictitious figure.

Another day trip took us on the vaporetti to the islands of Murano and Burano in the Venice Lagoon. Murano, of course, is home to glass blowing artisans and Burano, the home to lace makers. Having seen a piece two years ago that we didn’t purchase, I was on a mission to find the same piece and snatch it up this time. We did!!

Burano was a new place for us….. it’s a small island and bright coloured, perfectly painted homes are situated along both sides of the canal. It made us happy! It was almost 7PM when we got there and so the shops were starting to close. We walked around the entire island before catching the vaporetti back to Venice.

Our last days in Venice were spent visiting museums, churches and the less touristy area called the Jewish Ghetto. Jews were forced to live in this area (contained by two gates manned by guards - paid for by the Jews to protect them) of an abandoned iron foundry site from the 16th to 18th century. Napoleon freed them he conquered Venice and they were allowed to live anywhere in the city. It's a beautiful square and one of the more noticeable things is that their homes are significantly taller than other Venetian buildings.