First, they sank the Loveboat. Now they’re working on Venice. (6-8 Septembre 2006)
Everyone always told me that Venice is a ‘floating city’. But when people say things like that, it does tend to sound like they are exaggerating. At least a little.
So when we arrived in Venice, got out of the train station and were faced with an enormous canal, it felt a bit strange. When there are no cars even allowed in Venice centre and ‘le bus’ timetable actually refers to the ferry timetable, life seems a little warped. But it gets stranger and stranger. As we walked down the streets, we noticed that people’s backyard doors were actually half underwater- which I think makes Venice a sinking city as opposed to a floating one (but don’t tell the Venetians that).
There we were: my parents, Sam and I, sinking with Venice. My dad was convinced that the canals are full of everyone’s shit- “can’t you smell it??!!!” he would say. But no, neither Sam, my mother or I could smell anything resembling sewerage. But dad was adamant and that made me feel a little more hesitant about sinking on this end of the world. About one month later, we met a traveler who had spent a lot of time in Venice and learned that Venice has one of the best sewage systems in the world. So maybe that was just a brown fish after all!
Venice is also famous for serving the most enormous single slices of pizza. We were all totally captured by the sheer size and greasy cheese, but then bitterly disappointed by the taste. In fact, Venice was one place we kept trying to find gourmet Italian food and were incredibly disappointed.
Despite the food, we were still so excited to be seeing Venice. Amazing frescos, museums, cathedrals, and palaces that got even me standing in queues. There’s not much to say about the golden statues and all the unique things you can find inside and around these places, I know it can get boring listening to museum stories. If you do go, make sure you have knees and shoulders and boobs covered, no matter what the temperature! Otherwise, the churches are off-limits.
Sam’s favourite place in Venice was a room in the Doge’s Palace; the map room. Here was the google earth of the C16th in two globes: one for Earth and the other for the Heavens.
We also looked in, and out of, the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners had their last glimpse of daylight en route to the state-of-the-art prisons, right next to the centre of government.
We also got excited over this new form of paddling: notice the people are STANDING
As well as this, i totally indugled in the tourist culture. Blown away by the thought of carnivale, i bought me a little souvenir:
After two days we were sad to leave, but consoled ourselves by theorizing that the closer we get to Bologne, the better the food would become.
ps more venice photos will come up but for the mo our blog is being a bit tempramental
Everyone always told me that Venice is a ‘floating city’. But when people say things like that, it does tend to sound like they are exaggerating. At least a little.
So when we arrived in Venice, got out of the train station and were faced with an enormous canal, it felt a bit strange. When there are no cars even allowed in Venice centre and ‘le bus’ timetable actually refers to the ferry timetable, life seems a little warped. But it gets stranger and stranger. As we walked down the streets, we noticed that people’s backyard doors were actually half underwater- which I think makes Venice a sinking city as opposed to a floating one (but don’t tell the Venetians that).
There we were: my parents, Sam and I, sinking with Venice. My dad was convinced that the canals are full of everyone’s shit- “can’t you smell it??!!!” he would say. But no, neither Sam, my mother or I could smell anything resembling sewerage. But dad was adamant and that made me feel a little more hesitant about sinking on this end of the world. About one month later, we met a traveler who had spent a lot of time in Venice and learned that Venice has one of the best sewage systems in the world. So maybe that was just a brown fish after all!
Venice is also famous for serving the most enormous single slices of pizza. We were all totally captured by the sheer size and greasy cheese, but then bitterly disappointed by the taste. In fact, Venice was one place we kept trying to find gourmet Italian food and were incredibly disappointed.
Despite the food, we were still so excited to be seeing Venice. Amazing frescos, museums, cathedrals, and palaces that got even me standing in queues. There’s not much to say about the golden statues and all the unique things you can find inside and around these places, I know it can get boring listening to museum stories. If you do go, make sure you have knees and shoulders and boobs covered, no matter what the temperature! Otherwise, the churches are off-limits.
Sam’s favourite place in Venice was a room in the Doge’s Palace; the map room. Here was the google earth of the C16th in two globes: one for Earth and the other for the Heavens.
We also looked in, and out of, the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners had their last glimpse of daylight en route to the state-of-the-art prisons, right next to the centre of government.
We also got excited over this new form of paddling: notice the people are STANDING
As well as this, i totally indugled in the tourist culture. Blown away by the thought of carnivale, i bought me a little souvenir:
After two days we were sad to leave, but consoled ourselves by theorizing that the closer we get to Bologne, the better the food would become.
ps more venice photos will come up but for the mo our blog is being a bit tempramental
posted by Mayan at 7:20 AM
2 Comments:
nothing like goin to a church with fish swimmin around your ankles!
keep up the bloggin, i'm lovin it.
oh and napoli's the best place for food, especially pizza. are you heading there? and calabria/sicilia... il sud e bella! (scuse my italian)
:P
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