We arrived in Venice this morning with a huge sigh of relief and delight. Our luggage made it! It was the FIRST piece out! This is a good sign. Our little travel misadventure was about to turn around. Since the Venice airport is on the mainland and not in Venice proper, we secured a water taxi to take us out to Venice, to our apartment located just a three-minute walk from the city center – Piazza San Marco. A great ride: water, sunshine, temperature. Now this is the Italy we always picture in our minds.
Leaving the Venice Airport in our water taxi for Venice
Venice is built on 117 small islands in a lagoon off the Northern Italian coast. The city did not exist during the Roman Empire period. Occupancy initially occurred in about 400 AD, when mainland people used the islands as a refuge from the turmoil following the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent invasions from the northern Europeans. Since the various military forces were all land based armies, without ship or seafaring the knowledge and skills, the lagoon water served as an effective, safe barrier for the islands.
On the Main Canal, heading towards our apartment.
Working our way to the drop off for our apartment.
Down the alley to our apartment.
Unfortunately, the islands had no land suitable for farming or anything else for that matter. Initially people came for short stays during threatening times, but returned to their mainland homes as soon as it was safe. However, by 421 AD it evolved into a permanent settlement and the city of Venice was founded. Since there were no natural resources, livelihood and the economy had to depend on other sources: trading and shipping were the answer. Venice evolved into a world power. As an example, the Venetian merchant traveler, Marco Polo, while not the first European to reach China, was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. The publication helped to expand the trade channel with the Far East.
Another Venetian navigator and explorer, Zuan Chabotto (1450-1499) driven to find an alternative route to the Far East, reached America a full year before Columbus in 1498. Because Chabotto set sail from England, the Anglo world initially took credit for reaching North America first. Eventually, this was corrected. These days, since England likes to be first, they can own the bragging rights for Brexit as the first country (and perhaps the last) to leave the European Union. Way to go, England!
Oh, lets not forget other notables such as Casanova – famous Venetian. In that vein, our guide claims that the first mass publication of the Kamasutra was printed in Venice – a must read for everyone! Dante wrote the Inferno (first part of his Divine Comedy) in Venice while in exile from his birthplace, Florence.
Early in the ninth century, Venice wanted to improve its position in the world. What better way than to steal the remains of a great saint and build a great basilica around it? This basilica would serve as the religious, cultural, and financial center of the city state. But where to get some remains to fill the bill? So a couple of enterprising Venetian merchants traveled to Alexandria, Egypt in 828 AD to requisition, in the dark of night, the remains of Saint Mark the Evangelist. (A note about St. Mark: St. Mark is the author of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. In about 50 AD, he traveled to Egypt and founded the Church of Alexandria. By 68 AD, the residents of Alexandria were fed up with his efforts to convert them from their traditional, pagan gods. So they tied a rope around his neck and dragged him through the city until he was dead. Unfortunately, this also caused the head to be severed from the body. Somehow the head and body were put into separate ‘final resting places.’) When the two guys from Venice arrived, they stole the body remains, but not the head. In order to escape without detection, they placed the remains in a barrel and covered them with pork to discourage the Muslim guards from inspecting them.
Once the remains arrived in Venice, they were housed in the Doge’s Palace while they built the church to house them. During a rebellion in 976, the church was burned and partially destroyed. But what happened to the remains of St. Mark? No one knew. During the restoration in about 1070, they discovered a bone sticking out of one of the marble walls. It appears that in order to hide the remains during the rebellion, someone relocated the remains to a pillar, covered by marble. Having found them…thank the Lord or some smart clergy, they were moved back under the altar of the church. That is, without the head, which reportedly is still in Alexandria. Fact or fiction? Who knows. Some historians believe that the remains are not St. Mark’s, but probably Alexander the Great’s. Oh BTW, they won’t run DNA tests on the remains….it’s far more convenient to stick with the belief that it’s St. Mark.
Bill, Kelly, Alex and Erin arrive at the apartment. At last we meet up.
We’re all here: Kelly, Bill, Erin, Alex, Roselie, Andre.
Later that afternoon, Bill, Kelly, Alex and Erin arrived from Milan. They had no mercy in detailing what a great place and food we missed in Milan. We didn’t want to hear about it….but they gave us no quarter. Enough about Milan. Venice is a great city with its narrow walkways and alleys, with more than 400 bridges spanning various sizes of canals – from the Great Canal that at times is more than 200 feet wide, to some of the smaller ones, only 15 feet across. This city has no cars, bicycles, motor bikes, scooters or skateboards. The only conveyances allowed are two-wheel dollies to carry goods from boats to the store. It’s fireboats rather than firetrucks, ambulance boats rather than ambulance trucks, construction boats rather than pick-up trucks, dry good boats and not delivery trucks, as well as refrigerated boats for perishables.
Navigating the canal.
Boats and gondolas everywhere.
We spent the rest of the afternoon familiarizing and orienting ourselves. It’s an understatement to say it is crowded. The city has a population of only about 250,000, but will host more than 20 million visitors this year – primarily in the April to September timeframe. The locals refer to Venice as the Disneyland of Italy. Thousands of people during the day, but very few in the evenings. Less than half the visitors actually sleep in the city. Our apartment was down an alley, which gave us some relief in fighting other pedestrians. Our dining restaurant was just around the corner. Quiet! Air conditioned! Delicious! Mussels in a wine broth, baked lobster (nothing like a New England lobster), pasta, pizza, Bresaola, Caprese Salad, and the list goes on. Oops! Forgot to take photos. The wines are excellent and VERY inexpensive. Some of the labels I recognized were only about 20% of the price in California. We’re all looking forward to drinking some great wines.
Sunset ride in a gondola.
After dinner, with the sun setting and the ocean breeze cooling the city down, we hired a gondola to explore some of the inner canals. The gondolier did not sing, but did tell us some interesting stories about the buildings and architectures, as he skillfully moved us through some very narrow and crowded sections. What a fantastic experience as dark settled in and all the lights came on with hundreds of small eateries lining the canals. IT WAS just like Disneyland after dark.
The lights along the canal, on our gondola ride.
Tomorrow we’ll get serious and explore some of the historically important sites with the help of a guide.
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