Venice: Days Five and Six

Before we left Florence, we climbed the Duomo's dome. When the church was built (1300-1435, 135 years) the technology didn't exist to span the dome, so it just had a hole in it until someone felt up to the challenge (Brunelleschi). 463 steps to the top, and totally worth it. It took about 15 minutes to climb up on very narrow stone steps that made me feel like the princess in the highest tower. No wonder she never came down and had to be rescued, it was exhausting. But like I said, worth it. It was breath-taking, literally.

It was early morning, and the first non-rainy day of our visit. But it had rained that night so everything felt fresh and clean. The view was perfect.

We got there first thing in the morning, around 8am, so we were able to hear all the church bells going off at around 8:30. The same bells that woke us up that morning at 7am. For some reason my video wouldn't load, sorry. It was idealic.

We took a three hour train ride to Venice, and although we did get seats this time, we weren't sitting by eachother. That wasn't cool. Aaron was across the aisle from me and I was by the window, three seats in. The scenery was so much prettier on this trip, but unfortunately the windows were dirty so I couldn't get a good picture. Rude.

Of all the places we visited Venice was probably my least favorite. Oh, it was beautiful, but it felt an awful lot like a theme park. Very surreal. And LOADED with tourists. And the food was less than authentic, way less. However, due to the popularity of Venice with tourists, the upside was that it was very clean. And no, it doesn't stink. It's in the ocean, so, yeah, it smells like the ocean, but that's not a bad smell, really.

So, yeah, we didn't take a gondola ride. Granted the price for one, you probably wouldn't either. It was about the equivalent of $120 in US funds for a 45 minute ride. No thanks, I'd rather eat. We took the slow public transit water-bus down the grand canal for a 12 euro, 45 minute tour of the city. Much easier on the wallet, and I'm sure just as fun.

Venice is well known for it's Murano glass. An island nearby, part of greater Venice, has a glass blowing factory where they make everything you can possibly imagine from glass. Everything from Chandeliers to chess sets, jewelry to clocks and glass candy. Pretty cool.

St. Mark's square is the main attraction on the island. It is surrounded by the Doge's Palace (The Doge was the political leader of Venice), various public buildings, St. Mark's Basilica (where the "supposed" bones of St, Mark are buried), and the Correr Museum. We visited all of these, but no pictures were allowed. The history of Venice was fascinating, I highly encourage you to read about it.

Us, waiting in line to take to elevator to the top of the bell tower in St. Mark's Square.

View of the Grand Canal from the bell tower. The canal branches off to the right in the middle of the picture. The triangular building in the center was the customs house for all shipments coming into Venice, it was being restored at the time. The strip of land at the top of the picture is Giudecca, the residential island.

This was taken on our way to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, definitely my favorite part of our stay in Venice. It's a modern art collection housed in the former retirement palazzo of the American heiress, and includes works by Picasso, Dali, Pollock, and Chegall. It was awesome, and, of course, no pictures. I love modern art, it really makes you think, especially if you read the titles and try to figure it out, it's fun. It was funny also to see Peggy's tombstone, and right next to her are all of her "beloved babies." It took me a moment to realize that they were her dogs (there were about 20 of them and they each only lived about 10-12 years). Some people are so strange.

Parting shot: Our last night in Venice, we just walked around and enjoyed the surreal beauty of a city that is basically decaying, and sinking. But, as long as tourism exists, Venice will survive.

On the way home the next day, we stopped in Switzerland, and based on their airport I'm convinced of their sophistication as a society. It was the cleanest and quietest airport I've ever been to. And not for lack of traffic. There were thousands of people there. But no one was stressed out, everything flowed smoothly, everything was very easy to understand. Then there were the two black ladies at the customs check point, who reminded me very much of the southern-gospel type we know so well in the states, only they had swiss accents. Imagine that, it was hilarious. Definitely want to go back there and visit the whole country.

Next stop was Washington D.C. On the whole, much less impressive. Noisy, hot, crowded, and dreadfully slow moving through the customs check points. Bleh!

Next stop, San Francisco (where, ironically, we saw Ian Johnson, our local celebrity). I hate it when they do that whole east coast to west coast in one flight thing. It's exhausting. So,it was 8pm when we got to SF, but to our bodies it was about 6am. When we finally got home at about 2:30am, we were definitely ready for bed. Fortunately we recovered quickly, and that's the end. :)