Exploring Venice
Wasn't able to get to an "Internet point" last night before they all closed. Venice is not exactly an all-night town; they seem to roll up the canals around here around 11pm (sorry, 23:00).
We've been having a great time so far. As I was saying in the last post, entering the city was a great experience, especially when we made our way through the smaller canals and entered the Canal Grande. The Grand Canal lives up to its name. It's about 50m across, much wider than most of the canals, with vaporetti (water buses), water taxis, and private boats.
Along the sides of this and the other canals, many buildings have doors that enter directly onto the water, without even a little patio that I could see. I suppose you just step right into your boat.
Here's Dad greeting the city:
Mom was enjoying herself as well:
After checking in to our hotel yesterday, we walked to Ponte Rialto, the biggest bridge in Venice.
We just walked through the streets and kind of followed the signs, when we could find them. Nothing here is laid out in any kind of order; little streets and alleys and tunnels just kind of grow off of each other in all directions. There isn't consistent signage, and when there are signs, the are just painted right on to the sides of buildings. Even with a map, it's often very hard to figure out where you are or where you're going, unless you're trying to find a major tourist point, like Rialto or Piazza San Marco or the Ferrovia (railway), in which case there are usually enough signs pointing the way.
We were planning to go on to Piazza San Marco, but between the walking, the sun, and the jet lag, some of us were getting pretty tired, so we hopped on a vaporetto back to the hotel, where we all crashed for a little while before going out for a late dinner. Today we did make it to San Marco, where there is San Marco's Basilica (a cathedral), the Doge's palace (a doge is basically a duke), a clock tower (which unfortunately was covered up), and the Campanile, a bell tower that, at ten stories, is one of the tallest structures in Venice. There we encountered this guy, whom we dubbed the Birdman of San Marco, feeding about a hundred pigeons:
We went up the Campanile and got a great view:
I guess when they built Venice, there was only one supplier of shingles. Maybe he was an ancestor of Henry Ford (you can have any color you want, as long as it's red).
This is the view looking to the East. The building in the lower half of the picture is the doge's palace:
The Italian-speaking is going well. I can't exactly carry on sophisticated conversations, but I am able to ask simple questions, buy tickets or stamps, and order food, mostly without restoring to English. I got my first opportunity on the plane to Milan, actually—the flight attendant came by and said "something something carne o pesce?" and I was able to say "carne, per favore." A little later I even was able to ask the same guy, "quando arriviamo?" (when do we arrive?) and understand when he said "otto e quaranto cinque" (8:45). Of course, when you speak Italian to people, you run the risk that they will speak it back to you, as when I asked the water taxi driver "Che cos'e quello?" (what is that?), pointing to a structure on the side of the Grand Canal, and he said: "somtingo een radpido italiano Leonardo da Vinci musem." I had gotten that much from the big sign. But usually even when I ask in Italian, I get a response in English. Guess I give off the American tourist vibe.
Or maybe they're just making a good guess, because I think the prior probability of any given person in Venice being an American tourist is about 60%. As far as I can tell, tourists outnumber real people here by about two to one. I swear I've overheard more conversations in English than in Italian.
Overall, we're really enjoying it here. Venice is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the charm of a city that doesn't seem to have changed very much for several hundred years. As far as I can tell, there are no cars or streets in Venice, which contributes to a slow pace. Everyone walks or gets around by boat. And I mean everyone—we even saw a UPS boat while hanging out at Rialto.
David's been taking a ton of pictures; I will upload some highlights later when I get more time online.
We've been having a great time so far. As I was saying in the last post, entering the city was a great experience, especially when we made our way through the smaller canals and entered the Canal Grande. The Grand Canal lives up to its name. It's about 50m across, much wider than most of the canals, with vaporetti (water buses), water taxis, and private boats.
Along the sides of this and the other canals, many buildings have doors that enter directly onto the water, without even a little patio that I could see. I suppose you just step right into your boat.
Here's Dad greeting the city:
Mom was enjoying herself as well:
After checking in to our hotel yesterday, we walked to Ponte Rialto, the biggest bridge in Venice.
We just walked through the streets and kind of followed the signs, when we could find them. Nothing here is laid out in any kind of order; little streets and alleys and tunnels just kind of grow off of each other in all directions. There isn't consistent signage, and when there are signs, the are just painted right on to the sides of buildings. Even with a map, it's often very hard to figure out where you are or where you're going, unless you're trying to find a major tourist point, like Rialto or Piazza San Marco or the Ferrovia (railway), in which case there are usually enough signs pointing the way.
We were planning to go on to Piazza San Marco, but between the walking, the sun, and the jet lag, some of us were getting pretty tired, so we hopped on a vaporetto back to the hotel, where we all crashed for a little while before going out for a late dinner. Today we did make it to San Marco, where there is San Marco's Basilica (a cathedral), the Doge's palace (a doge is basically a duke), a clock tower (which unfortunately was covered up), and the Campanile, a bell tower that, at ten stories, is one of the tallest structures in Venice. There we encountered this guy, whom we dubbed the Birdman of San Marco, feeding about a hundred pigeons:
We went up the Campanile and got a great view:
I guess when they built Venice, there was only one supplier of shingles. Maybe he was an ancestor of Henry Ford (you can have any color you want, as long as it's red).
This is the view looking to the East. The building in the lower half of the picture is the doge's palace:
The Italian-speaking is going well. I can't exactly carry on sophisticated conversations, but I am able to ask simple questions, buy tickets or stamps, and order food, mostly without restoring to English. I got my first opportunity on the plane to Milan, actually—the flight attendant came by and said "something something carne o pesce?" and I was able to say "carne, per favore." A little later I even was able to ask the same guy, "quando arriviamo?" (when do we arrive?) and understand when he said "otto e quaranto cinque" (8:45). Of course, when you speak Italian to people, you run the risk that they will speak it back to you, as when I asked the water taxi driver "Che cos'e quello?" (what is that?), pointing to a structure on the side of the Grand Canal, and he said: "somtingo een radpido italiano Leonardo da Vinci musem." I had gotten that much from the big sign. But usually even when I ask in Italian, I get a response in English. Guess I give off the American tourist vibe.
Or maybe they're just making a good guess, because I think the prior probability of any given person in Venice being an American tourist is about 60%. As far as I can tell, tourists outnumber real people here by about two to one. I swear I've overheard more conversations in English than in Italian.
Overall, we're really enjoying it here. Venice is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the charm of a city that doesn't seem to have changed very much for several hundred years. As far as I can tell, there are no cars or streets in Venice, which contributes to a slow pace. Everyone walks or gets around by boat. And I mean everyone—we even saw a UPS boat while hanging out at Rialto.
David's been taking a ton of pictures; I will upload some highlights later when I get more time online.
posted by Jason Crawford at 5:32 AM
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