Saturday
We left on Saturday afternoon, planning to catch the Aircoach & instead being taken by cab, after a cabbie pulled up to the stop & said, "You want to go to the airport for the same price as the coach? Hop in." Turns out he was going to the airport anyway, so he drives along the aircoach route & steals passengers, which I think is hilarious. Also, he reminded me very strongly of Sanjay from Slings and Arrows, which was even funnier. We did the whole airport rigamarole, but we got to board our aircraft by walking across & climbing stairs!
I know, it's silly for me to get excited about that but it feels so fabulously old-fashioned, like I ought to be wearing a hat and gloves to get on board the aircraft. There were some beautiful views out the airplane window as well:
We landed in Venice, and took bus to Piazzale Roma (a transportation depot, the last place cars can go in Venice) & then a vaporetto (water taxi) to our hostel. The vaporettos are wonderful, old clunky flat boats with a covered seating area. They stutter along the canals making noises that sound like they will just give up at any moment, and they pull up to the docks with a huge listing clunk. I love them.
Sunday
We woke up early on Sunday to avoid the tourist rush across to the main islands. I stumbled blearily out of bed, spent a long time in the bathroom arranging my towel so I could reach it but it wouldn't get showered on, and then spotted a window in the corner. I stumbled over to it, looked outside, and woke up instantly:
Yeah, so, we're in Venice. No doubts! We got breakfast at the hostel, and took the boat across to Piazza San Marco, where we spent a little time just taking photos and being touristy:
Basilica di San Marco. Gorgeous golden mosaics...
The clock tower, with the ubiquitous St Mark's Lion up there.
Then we went to the Doge's Palace (Palazzo de Doge). Sadly no photos were allowed inside; I would have loved to show you some of those rooms. They were gorgeous, all blue and gold ceilings, and Renaissance paintings everywhere, carved marble fireplaces. Hidden behind a doorway to a staircase that went nowhere we were allowed, we found a fresco by Titian of St Christopher carrying Christ across the Venetian Lagoon. My favorite room by far was the Shield Room, in which there are no shields but the current Doge's coat of arms. But the walls are all painted in maps of the 16th century, and there are two enormous globes--I mean enormous, maybe three feet in diameter--one of the earth, one of heaven. All old, and brown, and beautiful.
I did, however, take plenty pictures of the courtyard....
The stairway on which the Doge was invested. That's Mars on the left and Neptune on the right.
The view from the top...
After the Palazzo, we headed for el Teatro Fenice (the Phoenix Theater), via a church where we caught the second half of mass, a cafe where we grabbed some lunch, a gelateria, and various other mazes and amazing places of Venice:
The church where we went to hear mass, or rather, stumbled upon mass being held. We'd planned to find one somewhere, but this was the best we got....which really wasn't bad. It was lovely in Italian, and the church was beautiful.
And this is the sign posted in the entryway of the above church, which I adore. In case you can't read it, it says "You are in a Church. You are not allowed to behave indecently."
We sat by a canal to eat lunch...yum.
And el Teatro! It was beautiful...and ironic. This theater, and the company that built it, has survived and rebuilt from several fires, each time renovating the theater to look as close to the orginal designs as possible. Except for when Venice surrendered to Napoleon, & they took out several small boxes in the middle to make a royal box (which is riduclously sumptuous, all red velvet and mirrors and gold).
So, we weren't actually allowed to take pictures inside El Teatro, & in the auditorium and seats there were very attentive guards; but in the other rooms no one was around, so I stole a couple photos just to show you how amazing the entire place was:
One of the rooms the audience would mingle in during intermissions. I mean. Wow.
That carpet is rose colored (the photo's a little dark), like the seats in the auditorium. Everything was golden and cream and rose & pastel blue. Beautiful.
And this is the outside.
Just past the Fenice is a beautiful little courtyard. That small building in the back is a hotel, & is, I've decided, where I'll stay the next time I go to Venice. (When I am rich, apparently, and can afford it...)
I could spend so long here...
And the rest of this I'm doing as one great lump, because there's no set pattern to any of this... Here are pictures of masks, of bridges, of buildings, of why Venice is strikingly and disgustingly picturesque:
I took rather a lot of photos of bridges...there are over 200 bridges in Venice, and I feel like I photographed most of them. This was one of my favorites, though.
After the theater, we wandered a little further & found a great little cafe selling pizza rolls (tomato, fresh mozzarella & rocket leaves rolled up in dough & grilled in a panini press...the best lunch ever), and we ate second lunch while wandering toward somewhere. This stall was selling masks, etc, near the cafe:
So I had to take a photo of the sign. I didn't touch the masks, though!
Lee, in the pair of cool sunglasses we found at a stall near the Ponte Accademia. You know they're cool, because they say so on the tag. No other sunglasses are cool like these ones are cool. Remember that.
& this is just a taste of the incredible window displays that the mask shops had:
More to come, I promise you.
And these are some photos of our favorite mask shop, just around the corner from the Campo dei Frari, which we were looking for when we stumbled on this place. It's gorgeous, full of beautiful displays (as they all are, really). But this one was really lovely; & there was a girl working there who was so super-friendly, who kept going into the back & coming out with other masks & saying "try this one...oh, it fits your face shape!" or "this one for the color of your eyes!" She was so nice. We talked to her while she worked, gilding a mask with gold leaf, about how she got into this job (she wants to design costumes for theater & film, maybe opera houses in Europe, & practical experience is the best way to get jobs). I don't know her name. But I really liked her.
This is one of the Carnevale costumes. The larger mask shops also sold & rented costumes of all kinds. I would give my left leg to go to Venice during Carnevale...except that I'd need it for dancing.
Lee, in one of the gorgeous metal masks we found. So pretty. So, so expensive.
A somewhat overexposed (but artistically so!) photo of a mask in black velvet. It was the kind of velvet that had various other tones in it, so depending on where you were standing it looked tinted with gold or brown or red. Mmmm.
Another costume.
After we tore ourselves away from the mask shop, we walked the few short steps to Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, an enormous church, all brick and stone, housing a lot of art, mostly in the form of elaborate tombs.
The outside of the church....it was huge! It reminded me a lot of Spanish cathedrals...
We went back toward the grand canal, & found a trattoria on a small canal over a little bridge (....which I realize in Venice means nothing), where we came in just a little before opening time. We hung out at a table while the owner chatted with various people who were in there, and set up, we assumed, playlists on his computer. The playlists were amazing...I know at one point there was a cover of "Light My Fire" followed by a cover (I think so, because I didn't hear any singing) of "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues. Several other songs were just as fabulous. And speaking of fabulous, did I mention the food?
Insalata mista & spaghetti pomodoro...simple, plain, expected maybe. But oh, so good.
During our wanderings near the Ponte Accedemia, we ran into a young man in a red cloak holding a sign that said OPERA, so we stopped to see what was going on. He was selling tickets to a variety of events, at a discount; so we bought tickets to a string quartet concert at a church, which we went to after dinner. It was lovely...felt very civilized. They played Vivaldi, Handel, Pachebel's canon, some Mozart...& there was a mezzosoprano singer for some of the pieces. So sophisticated.
So that was Day One of Venice. But I got back to Dublin today, have spent a lot of the day doing laundry & uploading pictures, & I am tired. A lot of my clothes are still wet, I have to pack again because we're going to London tomorrow...& we have to catch a bus at five am. It's 10:25pm right now. So y'all are going to have to wait for more Venice. I will probably do a ridiculous round of Venice & London posts when I get back, after I see my parents!
& now I really do have to pack. And sleep. Love all. Ciao.
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