Venice Day 1

The three photos above were taken from our balcony on our state room as we pulled into Venice midday.  I started to get excited even before we had left the ship.  I knew we were going to love Venice!

Venice is Europe's best preserved city.  It is a car-free city of a hundred islands - laced together by 400 bridges and 2,000 alleys.  In the Middle Ages, Venetians became Europe's clever middlemen for East-West trade and created a great trading empire.  After smuggling in the bones of St. Mark (San Marco) in A.D. 828, Venice gained religious importance as well.  With the discovery of America and new trading routes to the Orient, Ventian power ebbed.  But as Venice fell, her appetite for decadence grew.  Venice partied on the accumulated wealth through earlier centuries as a trading power through the 17th and 18th centuries.  (Rick Steves, Italy)

You can see where the water line moves up to when the tide is in and the water level is at its highest. 



Navigating through Venice can be tricky at times.  The best way is to not follow street names but rather look for the signs on the buildings as above that point you in the direction of the most famous landmarks.  However local merchants have been known to paint arrows pointing in the opposite direction as in the photo above to deter tourists and point them toward their stores.  I was glad that both The Whites and The Johnsons had been to Venice before so that they had a better idea how to maneuver around.  Its easy to get lost in the narrow alleys and get turned around.  It is the best way to find the Charm of Venice however as Rick Steves says.  (Stay off the most famous squares and landmarks and find the back roads). 

We spent a lot of time our first day wandering the back streets and getting a feel for the quieter, less touristy areas. 

We poked our heads into lots of the fun shops.  Masks are a big thing here that tourists buy.  They also have a lot of leather purses, messenger bags, and wallets.   The other main souvenier is anything Murano glass (blown glass).  They sell a lot of necklaces, earrings, and trinkets.  The murano island was somewhere we visited on Day 2. 

The top confections are like a hardened cotton candy.  They crumble as you eat them.  I was not a fan.



As the Sun started to set, we headed over to the more main touristy sections of Venice.  We hit the Rialto bridge right at the golden sunset time.  It was so gorgeous.  The Rialto Bridge is one of the largest in Venice and most famous.  It was crawling with tourists so we did not stay long.  The Rialto bridge was constructed in 1588, and is the third bridge built on this spot.  Until the 1850's, this was the only bridge crossing the Grand Canal.  With a span of 160 feet and foundations stretching 650 feet on either side, the Rialto was an impressive engineering feat in its day.  Earlier Rialto bridges could open to let big ships in, but not this one.  when this new bridge was completed, much of the Grand canal was closed to shipping and became a canal of palaces.  (Rick Steve)

Many merchants line the inside of the bridge making it a commercial apex of Venice. 

Many of the bottom floors of these palaces and buildings have been abandoned as the water levels continue to rise in Venice. 

I was truly fascinated with the Gondolas and Gondoliers with their sleek, black boats.  So fun and unique! 

We eventually wound up at St. Mark's Square.  Nearly two football fields long, it is the only square in Venice to merit the name "Piazza".  It is surrounded by several historic buildings and sights.  St. Mark's Basilica, The Doge's Palace, the Campanile bell tower, and the Correr Museum.  The square is crawling with tourists, pigeons, and history.  I found it to be completely amazing. 

The Clock Tower in the background above was built during the Renaissance in 1496. 

St. Mark's Basilica which we toured on our second day in Venice.  Just the outside was impressive and had a golden glow to all the murals. 

The Grand harborside promenade-"the Riva"

After checking out the harbor and taking in the beautiful night we headed back into town for some pasta at a local restaurant.  I asked for mushrooms at the last minute and didn't know they were special, hard to get mushrooms.  It ended up being like 8 euro extra ($12.00) for these mushrooms.  We about died when we saw the bill.    (Sadly they didn't even taste that unique or different)

After dinner we headed to the dock to catch a Vaporetti (water taxi) back to the ship for the night. 

The La Salute Church: This Church was built to thank God for delivering Venetians from the plague of 1630 which had killed about a third of the city's population.  Like the rest of Venice this huge church rests on under water pilings.  To build the foundation for the city, more than a million trees were piled together, reaching beneath the mud to the solid clay.  Much of the surrounding forests were used to build Venice.  Trees were exported and consumed locally to fuel the furnaces of Venice's glass industry, to build Europe's biggest merchant marine, and to prop up this city in the mud. 

A statue formed from blue and white Murano glass  balls.