A Venezia (In Venice)

Venice in early April

“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.” --Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities


Out of all the cities that I have visited, Venice is without a doubt one of my most favorite, if not the favorite. Magical, romantic, and surrounded by water--it's a place I want to visit again and again. Luckily, we will only live 2 hours away from Venice for the next few years! I hope we have many occasions on which to return to this city.


Impressions:
We arrived late at night by train. Our first view was of the water and it was beautiful even by night, shimmering and reflecting all the lights from the street. We had to make our way to our hotel through winding streets that were filled with bridges. There were so many bridges! Every 5 minutes of walking and there's another bridge. Presumably this is why it's sometimes called "The City of Bridges". The city is like a labyrinth, which is part of its magic. They say the #1 thing you should do while here is get lost. Because it's like a maze, you'll find yourself wandering past the same store you saw earlier that day, but you'll still be kind of confused about where you're going. It doesn't matter, because eventually you find your way back home.

One of my favorite movies is "Labyrinth" and actually this city reminds me very much of the movie! There's the obvious labyrinth-like quality of the city, but more than that, you get the feeling that anything could happen in this city. You could see many Jim Hensen-like creations being totally at home here! All the masks and costumes that are here for Carnevale are much like the costumes seen in the ballroom scene of the movie. Venice is often foggy, which only adds to the mysterious atmosphere. Maybe when I was strolling the streets there was always the possibility that David Bowie would come strolling out of an nearby alley saying "Tra la la!". Or that this guy would invite me in for tea with the missus:

Sights:
Piazza San Marco is the main square of Venice. Napoleon (may) have called it "the drawing room of Europe." During the day, it's filled with tourists and many fat pigeons being fed by tourists. It also has numerous expensive shops lining the square where you can buy jewelry or have a bellini that costs 18 euros!

Piazza San Marco in Venice

 There is also a beautiful church in the piazza (it was under construction):

St.Mark's Basilica

A famous coffee bar in the city square is Caffe Florian. Goethe, Charles Dickens and Casanova all hung out here; it was one of the only places that served women at the time. That must be why Casanova went there! I wanted to have a bellini there (bellinis were invented in Venice), but I decided that 18 euros was a bit much for a drink.

Caffe Florian

I ended up having a bellini at a cheaper cafe, but it was still delicious and came with some little snacks which are called "cicchetti"!

Bellini and snacks

Another famous bar here is Harry's Bar which was a favorite of Hemingway:

There were also many stores where you could buy intricate masks and costumes for Carnevale. I would love to come back for Carnevale next year.

Costume Shop in Venice

Doesn't the costume shop remind you of the ballroom scene in Labyrinth?

Labyrinth Ballroom Scene

One great way to view the city is to take a water bus (vaporetto) along the Grand Canal. If I remember correctly, tickets are around 7 euros a piece. Here are some pictures I took along the Grand Canal:

Then of course, we went on the prerequisite gondola ride! Our gondolier was excellent and spoke to us in English about what we were seeing. He told us that celebrities often come to Venice, in part for the Venice Film Festival, but also because privacy is a lot easier here. Often, the only way to get to a building in a tiny canal is by private boat or gondola. Here are some pictures from our gondola ride:

Where we found our gondola

Mozart lived here for a period of time

Favorite Memory:

One of my favorite memories of Venice (and of my entire life now, no lie) was the evening of Tyson's birthday celebration. When the night first started, Tyson's mom had made plans had a fancy restaurant booked by the hotel and they had prepared a special tort for his birthday. However, when we arrived at the restaurant, things started to go wrong. We looked at the menu before going inside and they ONLY had seafood and very specific things like squid. The problem was that no one with us really liked seafood all that much and this place had no other options. We ended up having to cancel our reservation and I could tell by Tyson's face that he was irritated and disappointed that the hotel recommended this place knowing we wanted steak or something similar. It turns out this mistake was the best thing that could have happened to us. 

We started walking around town, hoping we would find another restaurant open that late and that would take us without reservations. We were starting to lose hope when I spotted a place with a trip advisor sign on the door. It was called "Al Vecio Portal" and we decided to take our chances with it. Let me tell you, this place was amazing! The service was absolutely perfect, with our attentive waiter speaking both English and Italian for us. We were made very merry by several bottle of wine. We received complimentary appetizers and when the meal was over, Tyson received a complimentary tiramisu (originally invented in Venice) and everyone at the table received free limoncello! Talk about an awesome and generous restaurant.

Here are some pictures from our feast:

Divine Ravioli from Al Vecio Portal

We sang "Tanti Auguri" for Tyson

After dinner we were all happy and laughing when we realized that the streets were completely flooded. I had heard this would happen, but it was surreal seeing it in person. Piazza San Marco was filled with water and they placed some platforms throughout the city that you could walk on to avoid the water. The whole world had turned into illusion and mirage and we couldn't stop laughing. It was raining as well and Tyson's mom eventually got hungry and started eating rain-soaked pizza from a to-go box as we tried to navigate our way to the hotel. 

The world couldn't have been more beautiful than it was that night:

Piazza San Marco flooded by night

Shaky photo of San Marco by night 

At one point, we had Tyson's brother scouting ahead to see if our hotel was around the corner. He had to walk through knee-deep water in jeans and sneakers. We couldn't stop laughing at him wading through the water and strangers on the street actually stopped to laugh at him too. By the time we found our hotel in the maze that is Venice, we were thoroughly soaked by the rain. Sometimes when something goes wrong, it's the best thing that could have happened.

And that my friends, is why Venice is one of the best and most magical places in the world! 

"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is--Venice is better."-Fran Lebowitz

Arrivederci,

Susie