Venice, a group of 117 small islands, is different from any other European city. Stunning architecture is everywhere, travel is accomplished on water or via lots of foot bridges, and getting lost is fun (since you are on an island there is only so lost you can get, ultimately you will get to the other side of the island, get on a water bus and come back home).
Venice became a crossroads in earlier times because of its location between Europe and Asia and it’s natural ability to accept ships. The Canal Grande snakes through the city of Venice in a large S shape, traveling from the Saint Mark Basin on one end to a lagoon near the Santa Lucia rail station The canal is an ancient waterway, lined with buildings – about 170 in all – that were mostly built from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Most were constructed by wealthy Venetian families and is “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”. The majority of the city’s traffic cruises up and down the canal, be it private boats, vaporetti (water buses), water taxis or the famous gondolas. We even went to the gondola building/repair shop, this place is 800 years old and still in business!
Our lodging, however, was on a small canal, luckily our B&B had a outside patio where you could enjoy a glass of wine and listen to the music on the boats. We were serenaded with guitars, accordions and opera singers. Our lodging was a 5 minute walk from St Mark’s square, so we passed through it a various times, sometimes packed with people, other times quiet and you could hear the still live bands playing music at their restaurants while you are invited to drink a cappuccino and people watch. We did not sit and enjoy a coffee, they wanted $12 per cup! We went to a symphony of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, in a small church where he actually played in his day (He was born and composed in Venice).
One of the smartest things we did was download Rick Steves audio tours of Italy. We could wander the town with headsets and take in lots of stories about art as a bounty from wars, or architecture that was specific to Venice, or frescoes that were meant to tell bible stories to people who could not read. We were also in St Marks on St Marks feast day. The city turns out to celebrate with the Venetian flag, a lion with wings, the personal symbol of St Mark. Hundreds of flags greeted us on that day. (I thought it had to do with football, can’t you tell I’m from Denver.)
