20100119 – First Two Days in Venice

I have to apologize. It really seems for the first time that I don’t 100% feel like blogging about my trip. I think that it was the frigid weather today that did it. As you can tell, I am still writing. But if it is not up to the usual standards (good or bad), that is probably why. We started walking and exploring Venice today at around 8 and a heavy mist enveloped the city. It was also very cold. We walked around for about 2 hours as we half-heartedly made our way to the Piazza San Marco. This Piazza is the Venice you see in postcards. Well, this square and the canals with the omnipresent gondolas. The square contains the Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale.

After arriving in Venice yesterday, we did meander through the city, and we did stop by this square, but today we wanted to venture inside the Palazzo and the Basilica. Our first stop was the Palazzo. I mentioned that it was cold outside, but it was just as cold or colder inside the Palazzo. It seems that Palaces are very expensive to heat in the winter. The cold did numb my senses, but I was still impressed with the palace. I especially enjoyed the Sal del Maggior Consiglio (Grand Council Hall), which sports one of the world’s largest oil paintings. We also walked through the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri). The bridge is named because of the supposed sighs that prisoners made as they crossed this bridge to the prison on the other side. We both issued our own sighs because of the cold air that awaited us in the unheated prison. It was also incredible to be in a building that has antechambers to its own antechambers. Finally, if you have the chance, check out the painting: L’Inferno by Enrico Van Les Detto il Civetto. If definitely fits the BA (bad ass) criteria that Jeremy and I use to judge paintings.

After visiting the Palace, we were sufficiently cold to try to eat lunch outside. I’m sure it sounds as if I just complain about the weather. Listen to Brad complain. Bi#*& and moan. There he goes again. Well let me tell you something. I was so cold that I spent an extra 3 minutes in the toilet stall because it had a radiator in it! Sadly, Venice is a terribly difficult place to eat lunch indoors. So I hunched between a few columns in the piazza and ate my sandwich between shivers.

Speaking of difficulties, I have been discouraged by the price of food in Venice. The Lonely Planet said that Genoa was expensive, but Genoa was nothing compared to Venice. Disregard the Big Mac index. In Italy, we use the Margherita Pizza index. In Naples, you could get a Margherita Pizza for 3 Euros. In Rome, it was about 5 Euros. In Genoa, it cost approximately 5 as well. Here, on the main street, a Margherita can run you 9 Euros! It takes some looking around to find a Margherita for 5.50 Euros.

If you want a more reliable and scientifically tested index, try this one on for size. In Sicily, a 5 inch Cannoli runs about 1.50 Euros. In Venice, a 3 inch cannoli costs 2 Euros. You cannot even find a 5 incher.

Finally, who can forget the 9 Euro cappuccinos that are for sale in the Piazza San Marco. 9 Euros! 9 Euros! That is 13.50 US DOLLARS! That don’t make! It just doesn’t make! For 13.50 dollars I should darn tooting well get the biggest darn cappuccino in the world. It had better be served up by a bear on roller skates carrying a golden platter. And it had better be big. And finally, they had better have a free bathroom. Did you know that it costs 1.50 Euros to use a public toilet in Venice? That’s 2.25. Is this civilization here? I know quite a few snobbish Americans who quite contrarily state that Europeans are more civilized than Americans. Well 2.25 to use a urinal is not civilized. It is barbaric. In a city of running water, it is torturous to charge a poor traveler such as myself that much to relieve myself.

Oh, and speaking of torture. In the Palazzo Ducale we saw a chastity belt. And a chastity belt is not the comical metal underpants that Mel Gibsons “History of the World Part I” would have you believe. This bad boy features spikes that would make the worst of bad boys think twice before subjecting himself to that type of pain.

End of rant.

Or is it?

Last night, we thought that we had found a decent place to eat. The menu listed 6.50 Euros for spaghetti and the bread was free. Even better, the gal in front of the restaurant trying to get people to come in, said that there was no service charge. She said that “it is best when the menus are setup like this because there are no hidden charges.” She lied. After we ate our spaghetti, which was okay, we saw that there was an extra 3 Euros tacked onto our bill. When we inquired about this charge, they said that it was the cover charge. It seems that they don’t have a service charge, but they do have a cover charge. We asked what it was for and the pointed to the napkin and the silver ware! I was so mad. We paid and left. I wanted to argue. I wanted to rave. But it doesn’t really help to do any such things when the person you are mad at doesn’t know the language and has all of the power.

Anyhow, our next stop was the Basilica di San Marco. This church is awesome. Beautiful and intricate mosaics cover the ceiling and the floor is decorated with mathematical patterns that are more gorgeous than painted ceilings in churches that I have been in. Yet the neatest thing about the church is that it serves as an in your face reminder about how the city was constructed. Venice is still a swamp. All of the buildings in Venice are constructed on top of brick foundations built on top of wooden rods driven into the bog. Inside the church, the floor has very noticeable dips and curves where the weight of the massive stone church has led to uneven settling of the foundation. It’s simply amazing to think that an entire city is built on such a crazy (?) base.

After leaving the church, we wondered through Venice and eventually found our way back to the hostel that we are staying at. We went to an Irish pub and ordered cappuccinos in order to get some free wi-fi and then went to a pizza place for dinner.

That’s about it for now, but I would be remiss to leave out some of the other neat things that are going down in Venice. First, it’s totally cool to see the different boats that they have here. Because cars are not allowed, and honestly wouldn’t work in the narrow streets, boats are the only mode of transportation besides walking. Thus, you have ambulance boats, trash boats, work boats, gondolas, taxi boats, and even human waste disposal boats!

Second, the mask shops are great. I think that I have seen the Venetian Carnival masks in television shows and in movies throughout my life, so it is very interesting to see so many shops selling them. Many of the masks look just like the ones we have seen in the movies. You have the basic masks, the ones with the long pointed noses, and the half face masks. But there are also animal masks, intricate and detailed masks with gold on them, and we even saw a Harry Potter mask. They run in range from about 7 Euros to up to 200 Euros!

Third, I mentioned this before, but Venice is the most touristy place that we have been. I think that I find this somewhat annoying after some of the other locations that we have been to. It’s not that the Cinque Terra or Rome were not touristy, but they were not as crowded with tourists when we were there. There is just something about Venice that doesn’t make it feel as real was the other places. Perhaps it is the restaurant that we ate at that could just as easily have been in New York. It’s odd to have people standing outside of the place talking to you in English and inviting you inside. It doesn’t feel real. It could also be the multitudes of vendors in the streets, all actively hawking their junky souvenirs. Don’t get me wrong. I like Venice. It is amazing and beautiful. But it is harder here than anywhere else to simply get lost in the streets and to pretend that you are experiencing Italy as an Italian does. I understand that we have probably never done this. But we tried. And sometimes I think that we succeeded. I doubt that it will be possible here with one possible exception. Next Sunday we are going to re-visit Venice with Emanuele and Barbera. I hope that this visit includes some insight that we could never gain as a silly tourist just trying to grasp a thread of what the real city is like.

Fourth, hot wine is good. But Venetian pastries are not as good as Sicilian pastries. And even though the gelato looks good, sometimes it is too cold for gelato.