Venezia

Within minutes of arrival in Venice, Colleen and I fell head over heels in love with the city. Venice was an Italy that we had not yet seen. After experiencing the outrageousness and brazeness of Rome and the glamour and sophisitication of Florence, we were relieved to find that Venice, with its quiet canals, was a place where real people lived. We passed shopkeepers and grocers on the street. We walked through grocery stores and farmer's markets in the piazzas. We saw grandparents pushing their Italian grandchildren through parks, and we watched kids play on playgrounds.

After dropping our stuff of at the hostel, we spent the day walking through Venice.
Here's the city that captured my heart:









This is the Realto Bridge at night:



Venice's transportation system is quite unique. Because Venice is a series of islands, there are few cars that can be found in Venice. The public transportation system is not comprised of a series of bus lines, but a series of boat lines. The Valporetto is the city's equivalent of a metro or subway system. As a passenger, you wait in a covered dock for the boat line you would like to arrive. Then, you hop on and cruise the waterways until you arrive at your particular stop. This is a typical Valporetto stop:

Even the ambulances in Venice arrive by boat!



During our second day in Venice, Colleen and I decided to make use of the city's public transportation system. We spent the day riding the Valporetto and island hopping. Our first stop was Lido - a quiet, residential island with a beach! Colleen and I were pleased to spent part of our morning on the water, but we were completely unsure as to which body of water we were at.



The first question we had to answer was whether the water was salty or fresh. So, I tasted it. (Colleen was disgusted and began lecturing me on diseases.)




Through this taste test, I discovered one thing and was reminded of another. First, my discovery: the water was definitely salty. Second, if you stand too close to the water as the waves come in, you will get wet! And in the winter, the water is COLD!



One of the other interesting things about Lido was the artwork that was scattered throughout the island. Here is our favorite piece, and here is Colleen adding her own artistic vision:



After Lido, we headed to Murano, the little island with a big reputation. Murano is known across the world for its production of Venetian glass. There were glass jewelery shops and glass sculptures everywhere.





My favorite part of Murano (and perhaps my favorite part of Venice) was watching the glass-blowing demonstration at the glass factory. I was surprised to learn that it takes a minimum of twenty-five years of hands-on apprenticeship before a person can be considered a glass master. I have decided that if I am ever independently wealthy, I will move to and live on Murano and learn how to blow glass.

In these pictures, the glass-blowers were blowing a vase right before our eyes!







Our last island for the day was Cimiterro, which is Italian for "cemetery." Because land is precious in water-locked Venice, the Venetians set aside an aside an island as the final resting place for their dead. This is the view of Cimterro as you would see it on the Valporetto.



This is the church on Cimiterro.



This is the path to the cemetery.





Colleen and I were both impressed with the holiness and "set-apartness" of the island. Cimiterro was beautiful.

Our ride back to the main island was also beautiful. The sun painted blues and pinks across a golden sky before it went to sleep. In these pictures, you can see the Italian Alps in the distance.





As Colleen and I were packing on the morning of our last day in Venice, two of our hostel-mates burst into our room after an early morning of sight-seeing hollering that Venice was flooded. They were planning on hanging out in the hostel until the waters receded. I was thrilled at the idea of seeing a flooded Venice and announced to Colleen that we were going to exploring!

This is Venice at flood levels.











The flood waters didn't stop the Venetians for a second. In fact, I was impressed with the way in which the people pulled on their knee high or thigh high golashes and splashed their way to their jobs.

During our stay in Venice, we had seen this sign everywhere:



In case the print is small, the sign essentially shares a flood contingency plan. Whenever Venice floods, the city will lay out and connect a series of long, wooden platforms for people to walk on as they go from place to place. This me walking on the platforms on the way to the bus station on our last day in Venice.



Colleen and I slowly made our way across the city on these crowded platforms. When we arrived at the bus station, we were shocked and dismayed to learn that there were only going to be two buses out of Venice going to Vienna and both buses were full. We rushed to the train station to see if there were any trains that we could take -- only to discover, that to leave Venice would cost us the equivalent of $500 a piece. (We would learn later that there was a transportation strike and only limited buses and trains were running on that particular day.) It looked like we were going to be stuck in Venice for another day. Thankfully, neither she nor I had to be anywhere immediately, and the extra twenty four hours didn't hurt us.

We explored the far corners of Venice that we hadn't yet had a chance to see. Here are some of our pictures from our "bonus" day.





The next day, we were able to catch a bus to Villach and a train to Vienna. Little did we know that our Italian Christmas Adventure was going to end with a bang... I'll fill you on the details of our New Years soon.