Three Days in Venice

June 21
We knew the 6:50 flight from Rome to Venice was a killer. Nobody in Rome gets to sleep before 11pm and getting up at 4am to catch the taxi at 5am was a bear. Luckily our friend Francisco the cab solicitor arranged for luxurious Mercedes to pick us up in front of our apartment. “Same price” he kept on saying. “€40, same price as a taxi but much nicer.” He was so right.
We arrived to the Venice airport at 7:30am but couldn’t check into the apartment until 2:15pm. We were told by the apartment greeter to leave our bags at the train station and pick them up later. After arriving to the terminal at the airport, we saw a ticket machine to buy bus tickets into Venice. They offered a €3 ticket to Piazzale Roma or a €3 ticket to the train station. Hmmm, we were told to leave our bags at the train station, but we were also told when we got to Piazzale Roma and walk to the train station. Hmmm, tough decision. We chose the bus to the train station. Wrong decision.

We arrived to the Mestre train station and checked out bags for €12 and then went off to find the vaporetto (water bus) to San Marco. It took less than 5 minutes to realize we were at the wrong train station, and once you pay for checked bags, the system does not allow for refunds.
Two euros later we were on the train to the Santa Lucia train station. Twelve euros later we checked our bags at the left baggage depot. Fifty-two euros later we had a pair of 2 day vaporetto passes in hand and we were on our way into the city.

It was raining, we were tired and within minutes we were intoxicated with the beauty and charm of this jewel of a city. We stopped for a pizza involtini near the Rialto bridge, we wandered through the old vegetable markets, we walked for hours and had no idea where we were going and yet somehow we found a vaporetto stop and arrived at 2:15pm to meet Barbara, our apartment greeter.

The Rialto Project (as the apartment is known) looked great on their website; not so great in person. Yes, the renovation was new and all the equipment was new, but it had no character whatsoever. Sterile would be kind. But who cares? We were only there for 3 days. How much time would we spend in the apartment? We seem to spend pretty much all day on our feet or on the vaporetti.

Most of our second day was spent cruising up and down the Grand Canal from Piazzale Roma to the Lido; getting out for a brief walk to the Lido beach and getting back on Vaportetto and checking out some of the other stops. It’s a great way to see the city. Take the #1 boat. It stops at all the best places.
Our best ride that day was the sunset cruise. There is really nothing like watching the sun set along the grand Palazzi of the Grand Canal. In retrospect we should have bought the 3 day pass for €36. A single ticket is €6.50. Three trips on the vaporetto pays for the day. By the way, the bus tickets between Piazzale Roma and the airport are also included. So are the boats out to the islands of Burano and Murano. Buy the pass, you won’t regret it.

Our plans for the second day were to see some of the smaller museums of the Venice history and culture. The Scuola Grande di San Rocco, filled with Tintoretto paintings was a 5 minute walk from our apartment and well worth the visit. It’s one of the few points of interest in the San Polo sestiere. The Rialto Project apartments are actually in San Polo, but the San Polo project might not attract many customers, and actually, the islands connected by the canals and bridges were once known as the Rialto islands so we really couldn’t fault the owner for false advertising.

Our Tuesday tour program also included a visit to the 17th century Ca’ Rezzonico Palazzo and the brand new modern art museum, Punta della Dogana, an old warehouse renovated into a modern art museum to showcase the private collection of Francois Pinault the owner of the French company PPR. Among Pinault’s assets are, Converse shoes, Gucci, Samsonite luggage, Chateau Latour, the Vail ski resort and Christies auction house. He’s a big art collector, and needless to say, his art collection is one of the largest in the world. His museum, like many others in Venice is closed on Tuesday.

And so we walked the canals, got lost, jumped on and off the vaporetti, got lost, looked through the shop windows at glass, masks, clothing, art, jewelry, food, junk and then got lost again. We finally arrived into the Piazza San Marco and bought some tickets for the following day to the Doge’s Palace and a tour of the Clock tower. The tower closed for renovations in 1998 and finally reopened in 2006. It’s been under wraps for a long time and we’ve never been inside the mechanism. All the English tours were filled so we signed up for the Italian tour.

Around 3pm we found ourselves in front of La Fenice Opera House. There was a big banner over the door that read in response to the economic cuts to the arts in Italy, today’s dress rehearsal of “The Turn of the Screw” is open to the public free of charge.
Let’s see, free entrance inside one of the most beautiful Opera Houses in Europe and free tickets to see the opera? We’ll take two please.
We settled into our seats on the top tier and caught the second act of the Opera “The Turn of the Screw” by Benjamin Britten, based on the ghost story by Henry James. The Opera, commissioned by the Venice Biennale, made it’s first appearance here at La Fenice in 1954. It’s in English but somehow through the operatic delivery the words got lost. We were actually grateful for the Italian translations above the stage proscenium.

On our last day here, we hopped on the vaporetto to the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum and toured the rooms of period furnishings and amazing Venetian paintings.
We crossed the Grand Canal to San Marco. First stop, the Basilica of San Marco; the greatest Byzantine church in all of Italy, possibly in the world. I can’t decide if I’m more amazed at 86,111 square feet of mosaics in the church or the fact that this massive structure has been sitting on a bunch of pilings on a sandy foundation since 1094. The mosaics by the way, tell the story of the salvation brought by Jesus and are read from east to west so you can start in the morning and finish in the late afternoon; that is, of course, if the sun is out. There is no reading of the salvation brought by Jesus on cloudy or rainy days.
The church was consecrated after two Venetians (supposedly) stole and smuggled the corpse of Saint Mark the Evangelist out of Alexandria, Egypt. They hid him in a basket of rotting pork to get him by the Muslim guards checking the cargo before the Venetians left the port. When the Muslims saw (and smelled) the soiled pork, they grabbed their noses, and looked the other way. As the story continues, the ship veered off course and was about to crash on a reef when the Saint mark appear to the crew and guided them safely back to Venice. That was all they needed to build the grand Basilica.

Aside from the mosaics and the great views from the loggia, we had to see the four horses of the Triumphal Quadriga, now housed in the San Marco museum on the top floor of the Basilica. These bronze stallions were fabricated in the 2nd century (although some believe they came from the 4th century BC Greece). They once sat in the Hippadrome of Constantinople before they were taken in the sack of the city by the Venetians under Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204. They were positioned above the entrance to St Marks until 1797 when Napoleon took them to Paris where they were used for the design of the Quadriga on top of the Arch du Triomphe. The horses came back to St Marks in 1815 and returned to their position on the exterior of the Basilica till the 1980’s when copies were made and the originals were put inside.

After fighting the crowds of St Mark’s, we walked next door to the Doge’s Palace for a couple of hours. We’ve been here a few times so it was mostly a refresher tour of the map room (copies of maps made by Marco Polo) and Sala del Maggior Consiglio (the Hall of the Great Council). Three sides of the enormous hall is decorated with large paintings glorifying the victories (and booty) of the 4th crusade in 1204 when Venice sacked and plundered Constantinople. Above the crusade paintings are small portraits of the first 76 Doges; well, actually 75 Doges. The portrait of the 55th Doge, Marino Faliero , has a black veil over it. Falier was convicted of trying to stage a coup to give himself absolute power. He admitted the guilt and was beheaded, mutilated and condemned to Damnatio Memoriae , where all traces of him would be expunged from memory. If they wanted to remove all traces of him in the history of Venice, they should have just ignored him. Now, thanks to the black veil and the story, he’s one of the most famous of all the Doge.

We had just enough time to catch our 4pm tour of the St Mark’s Clock Tower. Even though the tour was in Italian we were fine in keeping up. Our Italian teachers would have been really proud of us. The guide explained that this is the 2nd most famous clock tower in the world. The 1st is Big Ben in London and the 3rd is the Astronomical clock of Prague. Hey, we’ve seen all three!
At the top of the clock tower are two bronze bell ringer, fabricated in 1494. Even though they look like peasants in sheepskins, they are referred to as the Moors, probably in disdain for the eternal enemy of the city. One of the figures is old, representing the past and the other is young, representing the future. The old Moor hits the bell 2 minutes before the hour, the young Moor strikes the bell at 2 minutes past the hour. This way, they figure they’ll get it somewhere near the right time. Time doesn’t need to be that precise here.
One side of the clock, shown towards the Grand Canal, has an astronomical clock with the signs of the zodiac to help the sailors. The other side, through the archway into the merchant shops of the Mercerie is basically a regular clock that tells the shop keepers when to close up, although these days, as long as there are tourists, the shops stay open, at least the countless shops selling venetian glass and Carnivale masks.

Venetian glass goes back to the 13th century. The origins are mixed with Venetian and Byzantine artisans around the same time as the 1204 sack of Constantinople. These days most of the glass comes from the small island of Murano where the same families have been crafting the art for centuries. The colors are bold and bright. The pieces range from large chandeliers to vases, platters, and down to small glass cherries.

The Carnivale masks (from the latin Carne Vale, without meat) have a long tradition in Venice. From 1487 – 1565 Carnivale festivities were coordinated by the Compagnie di Calze, 23 groups all distinguished by the patterns of their stockings. They arranged Balls and private Parties for all classes of Venetian society.

When Venice was controlled by Austria in 1797, masks were outlawed. It was hard enough for the authorities to track down criminals without having them committing crimes wearing masks. In the 1930’s Mussolini banned Carnivale altogether.
But in 1979, local artists crafting leather masks brought back the old traditions and these days, Carnivale has become one of the most popular times to visit Venice. Over 120,000 people come into the city for Fat Tuesday alone. Mask stores rule in Venice.

Most of the 17th century masks come from characters derived from the Commedie dell’Arte, a social satire stemming from the ancient Romans. It’s an improvised play using current events, local gossip around a story of love and deceit.
The main characters are the lovers trying to marry but first they must deal with the incompetent parents Il Dottore and Pantalone, the cunning servants Arlechino and Columbina, the braggarts Il Capitan and Scaramuccia, the clowns Pedrolino and Pagliacci and a whole bunch of others characters from the city. The other traditional mask is the long aquiline face reminiscent of the mask used by 15th and 16th century Doctors while treating patents with the plague, thinking the chamber of the long masks, filled with an antiseptic would filter the air and prevent them from catching the disease.

Three days was a great visit. We left wanting more time here. That’s the way it should be.

We walked from our San Polo apartment to the Piazzale Roma, a 15 minute walk, got the bus to the Marco Polo airport, another 30 minutes and had plenty of time at the airport for a coffee and walkabout before boarding the flight back to Rome.