Tag: Venice

Europe · Italy

The Venetian Islands of Murano and Burano – Europe Travels September 2022

twosnatravels2 Comments

This picture may look like it was taken in Venice, but it is actually on the little island of Murano.

Many shops in Venice sell Murano glass, and it is interesting to look in the windows at them. All of the glassblowers that make this famous glass are located on this island, and early on the Sunday of our visit we went to visit them.

We walked to the Fondamenta Nova vaporetto station to catch the Number 12 Vaporetto (city water bus) line to Murano. It was only a short ten minute ride. We were a little early for the glass blowers to be open, so we had a small refreshment in a sidewalk cafe.

Visiting the glassblowers of Murano is more a window shopping trip than it is a look at the craftspeople in their workshops. I did peek into a few, but on a Sunday they are not working. For sure, the shops are open, and there is plenty of beautiful glass to see and little shops to peek into.

Some shops specialize only in jewelry. This one has a beautiful facade.

Of course, I couldn’t buy hardly any of this. It would be in shards traveling around Europe in my suitcase. I did purchase a couple of necklaces with glass pendants for gifts, though.

The reason that all the glass makers in Venice are here on this island goes back to the 13th century. The story goes that they were moved to the island to avoid the risk of fire to wooden structures in the already over-populated city. In reality, the motive was to isolate the craftsmen so that they wouldn’t disclose trade secrets. Venetian glass was already of the finest quality.

We had gotten off the boat in a quieter part of the island where many of the glassmakers are. By the time we worked our way to the main area, things were already hopping. Murano has canals just like Venice does because it is actually seven small islands connected with bridges and a Grand Canal.

We made our way back to the vaporetto stop for a ride to Burano, only to discover we were at the end of a very long line waiting in the hot sun for the next one. Would we even be able to get on it when it arrived? As we were pondering this question, we noticed a gentleman working the line. He and his partner offered a ride for 10 Euros per person to ride in his speedboat to the island.

Circumstances sometimes call for quick thinking and a large helping of trust in our fellow man. The price was right. We took the deal and we were not the only ones; the two enterprising gentlemen soon filled up every seat in their little boat with other takers.

We zipped across the lagoon and found ourselves docking in Burano in half the time it would have taken us to ride the vaporetto. Besides that, it was fun!

Burano is a smaller island than Murano. It is traditionally known for its hand-made lace and its colorful houses. Leonardo da Vinci visited here, purchased an altar cloth, and the lace began to be exported all over Europe. Today, tourism has supplanted the lace-making industry. Lace is expensive and time consuming to make. I only remember seeing one or two shops and didn’t take pictures. I read later that most of what is sold now is machine-made.

No matter, I was mesmerized by these colorful and picturesque little streets and homes.

What is it about hanging laundry that makes everyone want to take a picture? Me included.

Traditionally, the houses were painted different colors so that fishermen returning home could easily see their own house while still out at sea. Today, the color of a house is regulated by the government; only certain colors are allowed for each particular lot.

I thought it was interesting to take a look at all the fishing gear in this small boat.

Murano may be tiny, but it still has its share of canals, plus a church with a leaning campanile.

This time, upon leaving Murano, we took the vaporetto. It was not crowded. Since we were now further out from Venice, the ride was longer, and I had time to observe the “highway” in the lagoon. Posts help to keep everyone in their lane and prevent head-on collisions.

There are many things to be seen along the way, such as ancient buildings long abandoned:

and a lighthouse at one of the vaporetto stops.

It had been a lovely, relaxing time on the islands of Burano and Murano, and just getting there and back was half the fun.

Next time: Boating to Padua

Europe · Italy

Venice’s Gems – Europe Travels, September 2022

twosnatravels2 Comments

Besides the enjoyable walks all over Venice, I wanted to get inside some of her buildings. I had picked up a pocket guidebook of Venice for this purpose somewhere on our travels, and knew where I wanted to start: the Scuola Grande San Rocco.

The monumental building is described as a “confraternity”, established in 1478, for a group of wealthy Venetians. It is next to the church of San Rocco which holds the remains of this saint, who was believed to be a protector against the plague. Basically, it’s their meeting place. There are two levels.

By Didier Descouens – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65403655

I was bowled over when walking into this room.

The other piece to this story is that the group commissioned a Venetian painter named Tintoretto, one of the leading painters in the era. He produced his finest work here over 23 years in the late 1500’s. There are paintings dedicated to the life of Mary, and, on the ceiling, scenes from the old Testament. Basically: huge, massive paintings everywhere. On the first floor, there are also paintings by an acclaimed artist named Titian.

Tintoretto’s painting of the angel’s appearance to Mary as she is doing her sewing
Mary’s ascension, also Tintoretto: I love how the little cupid is pulling on her foot, or giving her a push upwards.

As we climbed the stairs to the second level, the Old Testament scenes with swooping angels were over our heads. As Tintoretto painted, the plague was sweeping through Venice, and the paintings were meant to give solace and comfort. Tintoretto’s paintings on this floor were of crucifixion, resurrection and hope.

But it was the wood statues on the second level that really fascinated me. These were made by a sculptor named Francesco Pianta in the mid-1600’s. Each one is different and an allegory to such things as Melancholy, Honor, Spy, Science, Ignorance, and so on, as well as five shelves of a library carved all in wood. I didn’t know any of this when I was looking at them. I just thought they were interesting.

I went a little crazy taking pictures of these and couldn’t decide which ones to include!

This organization still exists today and they are focused on charitable causes.

We went to cathedrals: the Church of San Rocco is next door to the Scuola and is its associated church, with more works by Tintoretto and other Renaissance artists. Tintoretto painted many scenes of the San Rocco’s life (St. Roch, in English). The saint helped heal people during the plague. We saw the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. It is the largest church and the artist Titian is buried here. I walked into a couple more on other days. Cal was tired of cathedrals at this point and was content to sit outside in the shade and watch the people go by.

One of the most memorable gems of Venice, however, was our tour of the Doges Palace. I booked ahead for the “Secret Itineraries” tour because with this we were able to see some places not normally seen on just a walk-through of the palace. It’s not possible to purchase a timed ticket for the main rooms, so this enabled us to “skip the line” for that. Our tour began early in the morning, so on our way to the palace we saw everyone starting their day:

Hotel linens loaded on to a boat, and a walking tour getting started

It was always fun to look in the shop windows along the way.

In this picture, the Doges Palace can be seen at the front right. On its left are St. Mark’s Cathedral and St. Mark’s Square.

The palace is the residence of the Doges of Venice, originally built in 1340. Of course, it has been enlarged and modified over the years. I looked this up out of curiosity: tradition holds that the first doge was Paolo Lucio Anafesto, who was elected in 697. I guess he and many subsequent doges had to do without a palace for several centuries. A doge was chosen from the ruling families of Venice and held his office for life. The last doge was Ludovico Manin, who lost his seat when Napoleon conquered northern Italy in 1797.

The Doge’s Palace held not only the apartments of the doge, but it was also the seat of government and had courtrooms and a jail. A doge’s position was largely in attending ceremonial events and receiving foreign dignitaries. He also presided over all meetings, but had no executive authority. Venice dominated trade in the Mediterranean between the 1200’s to the 1600’s, so the doge also commanded Venice’s vast military and naval fleet. A doge was not allowed to leave the palace.

The first place we visited on the Secret Itineraries tour was the prison cells. Three to four prisoners would have been in one cell. A cell had no windows and was subject to canal flooding, which brought in vermin. Even in its day, it was considered to be the worst of the worst.

Up near the attic, there were another set of cells which were for the royal class. These prisoners got their own room and all the comforts of home except, of course, they were locked up. Casanova, the famous lover, was imprisoned here in the 1798 and is the only prisoner to have ever escaped. He went on to lead a long and interesting life, mixing with famous notables of his day, and even wrote a memoir. His room was here:

Looking out a window, we could see the steps in the courtyard in which Casanova made his hasty escape.

Venetian society was very secretive. Scribes would copy out city information and perform other administrative tasks. They could only work for one month so they wouldn’t learn too much.

There were other things to be seen on this tour, including the Council of Ten Secret Headquarters (one of the governing bodies of Venice), the Chancellery, where drawers of top-secret files by the spy network were kept, a torture chamber, and displays of medieval armament.

The Secret Itineraries tour was over; we entered the main palace, which looked vastly different from the chambers we had been in.

The main palace dealt with higher-level administrative tasks. This included keeping the names and records of who was considered to be part of the ruling class in the Coffer Room.

If your name wasn’t in here somewhere, you were definitely not part of the aristocracy.

Part of the main tour is entrance to the “new” prison, which was built in the 1600’s. It was only a slight improvement over the old one. Going through to the new prison, we passed through the Bridge of Sighs. It is so named because prisoners heading to their cell would look out the window at their beloved city and know it was their last look for many years, if ever again.

This is the view of the Bridge of Sighs (and us) from the outside. We happened to be chatting with a family of other tourists here, and we all took each other’s pictures.

The new prison is on the left and the Doges palace, which includes the old prison, is on the right.

When we were in Venice for that one day years ago, we had one of those gondola rides that Venice is famous for. It was a cool evening and the gondolier had blankets for us. Behind our little flotilla of gondolas, a singer was in his own gondola singing traditional Venetian songs. People popped out of windows and waved. In short, it was a perfect, still-remembered experience, and I saw no need to even try to duplicate it. Many gondoliers today no longer wear the traditional costume and I never heard any music.

We are always happy at the end of the day to sit and relax. We discovered “Aperol Spritz” in Venice because that was what everyone was drinking. It is a light, refreshing drink which is alcoholic but I don’t ever feel the alcohol in it. On some days, that became our perfect drink for sitting in a little outdoor cafe to pass time before dinner.

One evening, we found a perfect spot for a Spritz while waiting for a pizza. It was on a small canal with gondolas occasionally going by. Hearing one of the gondoliers speaking English to his passengers, I asked him if he ever sings while he paddles. His reply? “No ma’m, you would not wish to hear me sing.”

Well, I guess that’s that.

Next time: visiting the little islands of Murano and Burano

Europe · Italy

Six Days in Venice, Italy – Europe Travels, September 2022

twosnatravels3 Comments

Six days. That’s how long I wanted to stay in Venice. Despite its reputation for having entirely too many tourists.

We’d been here, once, long ago. It was a ten-day romp through Italy from Germany on a great big bus. I don’t remember if we received an orientation to the city, only that we had just one day in Venice. We roamed about on our own, probably had some spaghetti or pizza, and the day was over much too soon. It’s always been my wish to come back and have plenty of time to explore. Six days this time was perfect.

This is the sight that greeted us when we stepped out of the train station upon our arrival from Bolzano. The body of water is the Grand Canal, which is the main boulevard in a city that has no streets for motorized vehicles. No cars, buses, trucks, emergency vehicles, motorcycles or even bicycles are allowed here. So it follows that there are no traffic lights or horns blaring. Except for one day that we left the city, we were blessedly relieved from normal everyday traffic noise. Everything in Venice goes by boat or on foot.

From the train station, we navigated the labyrinthian streets of Venice carefully and with an eye on our Google map. To get to our AirBnb we needed to cross the great bridge over the Grand Canal, walk along the pathway on the other side, execute a series of turns down various pathways, and cross smaller bridges. We followed a nun shepherding some other folks from the train station, until we went our separate ways.

I juggled my suitcase and interrupted the GPS on my phone to take pictures as we walked.

I did not want to lodge in the San Marco area, which is crowded and is where most of the tourists are. Venice has several neighborhoods and our AirBnb was the farthest away from it in Santa Croce, an easy walk from the train station. We could look out to the piazza from a small bedroom window. It was always interesting to see what was going on out there. Sometimes the restaurant was bustling, sometimes not. We had a couple of good meals there, and if we were back by late evening, we would watch the servers unfurl the umbrellas, whisk the linens away, and push all the furniture back to the side of the building.

In Venice I heard the term “tourist river” for the first time. Of course Venice has lots of tourists, although by now we were in late September and it was not too terrible. Tourist rivers are areas where a lot of people walk in a crowded stream to see sights or to shop. At times there was a light tourist river on the back of our piazza, where the person in red is walking, because we were on a pathway to the train station.

The joy of having time to explore Venice was being off of tourist rivers and into the quiet neighborhoods. This is the very definition of slow travel.

Yes, we found plenty of busy passageways. Even here there was so much to look at. There are not only tourists in Venice. There are students going to school, employees hurrying to work, and folks doing their marketing or crowding the tiny grocery stores for some lunch.

But then, there were plenty of quiet ones, too.

We would wander about, vaguely trying to get somewhere without any assistance, just enjoying the neighborhoods and the canals. A passageway would lead nowhere, or take us back to a piazza we had just walked through. We would finally have to give up, look at either our paper map or GPS and discover that we had been walking in circles. That was OK too!

In the middle of the picture below, you can see a passageway that just ends at a canal with no walkway or bridge. That happened to us quite a bit while wandering. We would have to turn around and retrace our steps.

Bridges are always picturesque, providing a view over canals large and small.

The famous Rialto bridge is the oldest of four bridges across the Grand Canal. Construction on this bridge began in 1588. We crossed this one on our way down to the San Marco neighborhood, and I got good photos of it on two separate occasions.

Venice is a faded lady. The city is over 1,200 years old and some of the buildings are 800 years old. Most, though, date back to the 1500’s. That was Venice’s Golden Age, which lasted a couple of hundred years. For good or for ill, it was one of the most richest and powerful Italian cities, with a stable government to keep everything in check.

The water in the canals are actually very shallow, only about ten to fifteen feet deep. The city was founded in the fifth century AD, and it was built in a lagoon, with small, marshy islands. Natural canals in between the islands were gradually enlarged and reinforced with bricks and other materials. There are 150 canals running through the city, connecting 118 small islands with a mixture of salt and fresh water. The local government works to keep the canals looking clean.

We didn’t always have to go on foot around the city. The canals have a system of vaporetti, or water buses, that run frequently and punctually on the Grand Canal. A vaporetto is docked at right in the picture below.

I took this picture while riding on a traghetto.

Along the entire length of the Grand Canal, there are only four bridges, and sometimes you just need to cross the Grand Canal where there isn’t one. For that there are traghettos. On one of our wandering excursions, the walkway ended at a traghetto stop. For two euros we could ride across. That looked interesting, so we hopped aboard. According to the sign, this is the Traghetto S. Sophia coming across for us.

What about commercial transport in a city like Venice? Everything comes in or goes out by boat. Then it is transferred on carts down the pathways. The carts are built so that they can negotiate the steps, too, and people who pull them are good at getting up and down.

Package delivery on a crowded passageway near San Marco Plaza

The Grand Canal is used to transport everything, including perhaps the boxes that this DHL person is delivering.

One evening a strong wind blew in, followed by gusts of rain. From our window, I watched diners hurriedly finish eating and paying at the restaurant on our piazza. The servers scurried around swooping everything off tables and trying to fold up stubborn patio umbrellas that wanted to blow the wrong way. It was still raining in the morning. With the gloomy weather, I decided it was a good time to visit the Jewish quarter, in the Cannaregio neighborhood.

We crossed the Grand Canal on the bridge near the train station, where there were lots of people already out and about.

A few twists and turns, and we were in the quarter. It was a Saturday and the Sabbath, so a service was getting ready to start in a nearby synagogue. Despite that, some stores and cafes were open.

The “Golden Age” of Venice did not apply to Jews. In 1516, they were all made to move to an area where foundries, called “geto”, had been in ancient times. The area that included the ghetto is an island, since there is no way to get to it other than bridges. It got so crowded in the ghetto that buildings were made taller with substandard apartments. On ground level, smaller apartments were squeezed right next to each other.

Looking about, I noticed pictures on the piazza wall. They are tributes to those arrested and murdered by the Nazis between 1943 and 1944 in this piazza.

It was sobering to ponder what happened here, but I think it is good to pause and reflect on these things.

All is not gloom and doom. The Jewish community is still here, with five synagogues and a library. Venetian Jews today number about 500, but only a handful live in the former ghetto.

I found a small art gallery where a gentleman had some cats lounging about. He takes pictures of scenes around the quarter and sends them to Israel, where an artist paints them onto canvas. I fell in love with one picture that included his cats, but I did not want to purchase anything.

We stepped into a small cafe to warm up and have a cup of tea (for me) and coffee (for Cal) with a cannoli. Cal was pretty happy with this stop. After thinking about it over my tea, I went back to the gallery and purchased my picture. It is now hanging up in my RV bedroom.

This was our only rainy morning in Venice, and the sun soon appeared to warm the day.

We did not just wander around Venice the whole time. There are golden treasures here: the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, the Chiesa del Gesu and other churches, the Doge’s Palace, Bridge of Sighs, and Piazza San Marco. That’s for next time!