Italy 2010 - Day 2 - Venice

[deathpixie]

After a night well-spent in my air-conditioned shoebox, I caught up with D and E after breakfast and we caught the bus into Venice again. This time we had a map and a plan, and headed in the direction of Piazza San Marco, following the handy signs on various walls. On the way we stopped for the traditional gondola ride, one of my favourite parts of Venice. Our gondalier was, like many of them, the latest is a line of a family of gondaliers plying their trade on the canals and had been doing so since he was 18. In his fifties now, he was whipcord lean with a deep tan and knew his trade, calling out a loud "Oi!" at blind corners to avoid collisions and telling us about the city while he poled along the canals. Gondaliers have four exams to pass before they can be licenced, including history of Venice, and with only 120 licences granted at a time, it's very much an elite trade.

The first ever female candidate, we learned, will be taking her exams soon.

The trip lasted about 45 minutes, taking us through the winding 'back street' canals of the city as well as onto the Grand Canal, where many of Venice's elite in times gone by lived in large 'palaces', such as the infamous Casanova. Our guide proved to be an entertaining one, and not a bad photographer!

We continued towards Piazza San Marco via the Rialto Bridge, one of four that span the Grand Canal. The Rialto is known for its market area, with shops lining both sides and various carts along the centre selling everything a tourist could want (or buy on impulse). We had our first travellers' tiff along the way, with E's love of shopping clashing with D's loathing of it and over lunch, which was at another of those small trattorias we had a knack for finding, we agreed to a compromise - E would leave us to shop to her heart's content while D and I explored the Piazza and environs, and meet later.

(Aside: It's a good thing I'm not vegetarian any more - more cold meat appetiser, yum!)

E came with us to San Marco Piazza after lunch as planned, however, shopping did not eventuate as she couldn't resist the lure of the San Marco Basillica. If you think the outside is magnificent, it's a pity we weren't allowed to photograph inside - it was incredible. After the Basillica, we circled the piazza itself, a sea of people from all over the world, baking under the bright hot sun.

The Bridge of Sighs was disappointing - huge banner advertisements for Seiko watches were draped over the buildings behind, the bridge itself crowded with tourists.

We cntinued along the waterfront until, overcome with heat and crowds, D and I took refuge in a small park while E looked for gifts. Later that afternoon we recrossed the Rialto, where I bought myself a t-shirt with the sketch of a bicycle from DaVinci's notebook on it, and we ate dinner at another small trattoria which specialised in local fish. An early night for us after that, as we were catching the train to Rome the next morning - and I still had to buy a ticket.