Day 72 (6/1/11)

This morning we finished up our last minute packing and cleaning before saying goodbye to our apartment and heading to the bus. On the way out of the city we got to see the EUR one last time, which was pretty exciting. The ride was very ordinary, filled with wonderful views of the landscape in between naps. We did see a few of the cities we had stopped in during our travel week, which made leaving Rome that much sadder since the speed in which this trip is ending is insane. We stopped for a break and got more gummies before continuing on (more nap) and stopping for lunch at a large stop similar to one you would see somewhere in Ohio. Although this area was pretty lame we did see a nice Maserati and a decent Ferrari, which made it mostly worth it. As we kept on trucking towards Venice we talked a lot about things to do there and how the city works, which was a little unfortunate because the common theme seemed to be that this city is not so great (super crowded, infested with mosquitoes, smelly, etc.). When we finally made it to the coast we saw some cool stuff like a shipyard where thy build cruise liners (there was a skeleton of one there!) before crossing the massive bridge onto the “island” of Venice (flashbacks of Cedar Point kept coming to me). After some tricky maneuvering by the bus driver we parked and disembarked to begin our walk into the city.
After crossing a truly awful bridge that was entirely stairs (not so great when you are carrying everything you own), we walked along the Grand Canal through crowded (but not unpleasant) streets filled with shops. When we finally made it to our hotel we checked in and came to the smallest four-person room that I have ever seen. However, the view out of our windows into the piazza below is fantastic and we don’t plan on spending much time here anyway, so it was ok.
Our first day in Venice began once we had dropped our stuff off in our rooms and reassembled in the piazza downstairs. We mostly just explored many small little streets while enjoying our first views of the many canals in the city. The density and variation in style, scale and color of the buildings along the water was fantastic and made every small little street that we looked down new and interesting (I began to wonder if by the end of the trip I would have more pictures of water-filled alleys than buildings). We did stop at a few buildings along the way including a pretty great little church that was tucked away in the fabric of the city. We continued along countless back streets that led to an infinite number of different bridges and piazzas (technically called Campos here but that’s irrelevant) before coming to the Rialto Bridge, which provided fantastic views down the river as well as great moments on top, very similar (but less crowded) to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. After some more streets we came to St. Mark’s square, home to the Basilica of the same name, which is the most famous building in the city and one of the best in Italy. We did not go in at this moment, however we did enjoy the pretty great and highly detailed façade. The church is much smaller than I anticipated, but the varying scales and designs of the different parts of it combined with the views of its multiple domes make it extremely interesting nonetheless.
We looked around the piazza for a while and enjoyed the view of the massive bell tower, or campanile (not original since the first fell down in the early 1900s) as well as the fantastic buildings surrounding the square beyond St. Mark’s. The three of them (the Basilica is the fourth side) are all extremely detailed but thanks to the flat light and oddly spaced perspective start to appear fake as they travel farther away. This moment was pretty great, and if it weren’t for the construction occurring on the side opposite the Basilica, I could have been fooled from where I stood. From there we continued out to the waterfront where we enjoyed this magnificent view out to the harbor, to an island with a great church beyond, and along the edge to the great collage of buildings that follow the curve of the land.
From there we walked down the major shopping street of the city and looked at the awesome masks that are the specialty here before stopping for kebab and heading home. I am coming to realize how drastically off base everything we have been told about this city was. The people are amazingly pleasant, the city is gorgeous, there are no mosquitoes that I have found, and the concentration of tourism in a select few spots makes navigating the rest of the city a blast. Once we got home we goofed around for a while waiting to buy football tickets (our shoddy internet made an already horrifying process that much worse) before heading off to bed.