Venice, and less than 2 wweks left!!!

Well, here I am, about to leave Venice for Switzerland. Less than 2 weeks to go, and I board a plane for LA. My, how time flies, if I may use a cliche.

Before I go into the last few days, I have to tell you about something that happened on my first day in Venice. How I forgot it the last time, I'll never know, as it was the highlite of my day. On the vaporetto (I've learned to use the Italian word for water bus. Sounds a lot more romantic, doesn't it?) to Piazza San Marcos, I noticed a Lonely Planet Guide on the suitcase of one of the passengers. Couldn't help but comment, as it's my bible. Turns out it belonged to one of two young ladies from . . . . . . No, not Australia. They must still be boycotting Italy. These two were from . . . TA DAH!!! New Zealand. Four NZ'ers in 4 days, after none in nearly 3 months.

Moving on. My first full day was a walking tour, unguided, of Venice. Just wandered around. It's impossible to get lost here. Just keep heading in the direction you think you should be going. You'll either get where you want to be, run into water, and make an adjustment, or find something you hadn't planned on, but are happy to discover. In fact, I discovered a piazza that had been converted into Christmas piazza. even selling Christmas trees. And some delicious goodies that tided me over very well until supper time.

The next day, Tuesday, turned out to be a bit drizzly, so I decided to make it a museum day. But on the vaparetto to San Marcos, my chosen starting point, I realized that the vaporetto went all the way to Lido. So why not? Glad I did, as it turned out to be a nice, relaxing visit. Lido is the summer beach area that, I assume, all Italians strive to get to. A really pleasant, wide, long beach with several classy hotels (closed for the winter) and a huge number of cabanas to use when the sun is too much. I expected to find a typical CA winter beach, with lot's of surf, etc., considering the weather. But it was really very calm. Reminded me of Carpinteria, for those who know it.

On the walk back to town, I found myself in the local open air market. Several blocks of fruit, vegetable, cheese and sundries. I decided I hadn't had been getting as much fruit as normal, so decided to buy an apple. Picked out a really big one, and asked the vendor how much. He, I think, said "Just one?" When I said yes, he told me to just take it, courtesy of the house. Wouldn't accept any money. Really nice, don't you think? Then for lunch, the proprietor of the shop I stopped in couldn't understand any more English than I can Italian. Sign language wasn't working either. fortunately, one of his customers had a bit of English, and I got the best ham and cheese sandwich I've had in a long time.

Back to Venice on the vaporetto (now that I know it, I sure use it, don't I?). Decided it might be unique to get off at each stop along the way and walk around a bit, so I did. Not that there was much to see. hardly anyone around at the first few stops (5 in all). Guess they all go to work in Venice during the day. But how many people do you know who've debarked at all the stops between Lido and San Marcos?

When I arrived at San Marcos, I went to the Correr Museum and the Archaeological Museum. Correr has a number of copies o Greek sculptures from the Roman days. The Romans must have liked the Greek work, as they sure copied a lot of it. Also a number of paintings, a coin collection that covered nearly all the major coins of Venice from perhaps the 10th century or so forward. Also the usual display of arms and armor.

The Correr and Archaeological Museums share the same building. Correr closes at 5:00 PM, but they start herding you out at 4:30. Arch. doesn't close until 7:00PM. The two are in one building, with nothing but a door between them. I had checked my umbrella in the Correr, but retrieved it. I couldn't convince the Arch. folks that I was OK. They insisted on escorting me back through the Correr to retrieve the umbrella. The docents spoke very limited English, and just spoke Italian to me. Some fun. The most interesting part of the Arch. was a hall dedicated to manuscripts of Don Quixote. Probably 12 display cases full of various editions. I wish the descriptions had been in English, as well as Italian.

So on to today, Wednesday. I failed to mention that by the time I got back to San Marcos, it was really raining. So today, my last day, dawned bright and sunny, thank you. I had one more museum I wanted to see, the Modern Art Museum. I'm glad I had time for it. late 19th thru mid-20th century artists. I really enjoyed it. One display was Rodan's "The Thinker". He really did some fine work. No more of it here, though. I have to say, as I think I did once before, that I enjoy the 19th and very early 20th cent. artists more than the more recent ones. Guess I'm just not abstract enough.

Then for my last ride on the vaparetto. Rode it as far as San Marcos, taking pictures all the way. Then into San Marcos Basilica. Here and Florence are the only places I've been where they charge admission to the churches. I also went up into the cupola of San Marcos, with a nice view of the piazza. But nothing to compare with the view of Venice from the Bell Tower! That was really something. And it hasn't changed in centuries. Yesterday, I saw a pencil sketch of Venice from the 15th century. I swear it could have been drawn today, it looked so much like Venice does now.

The rest of the day was spent proving my point that it's impossible to get lost in Venice. And in spite of all the wrong turns, I made it back to the hotel, copied my photos to CD, and headed out again for more. At least until it got dark, and was time for supper. Did that, and now this.
Trivia time. Do you think that in 2000 or 3000 years, someone will uncover NY or LA or Sydney or wherever and marvel at what we did with no more technology that we had at our disposal?

If you get to Italy, you'd better like oil and vinegar dressing on your salad,'cause that's all there is. And no more cucs and tomatoes. at least fresh tomatoes. These must have come with me from Istanbul.

I wondered the first day why there were no vendors setting up and selling their wares from the multitude of tables that were in the middle of many of the major walkways. I've since found out they aren't tables. They're walkways for the really high tides, which occur now and then, particularly during winter. About 2 to 3 feet above the sidewalk, and 4 or 5 feet wide, they are stacked all along the major thoroughfares in readiness for when needed.

The vaparetti are very utilitarian, and run with great frequency, but are just no match for the glamor of the Water Cats in Brisbane.

If you are in Italy, be conditioned to seeing nothing on TV in English but CNN and/or BBC. At least in Athens, I found a movie channel with spoken English and Greek subtitles.

Lastly, I' heard that some European countries were requiring Internet Cafe users to provide a Passport or other valid ID before using a terminal. It's true, not all over, but here in Italy, I've only found only one place that would let me on without recording my Passport number. I guess it's to aid in tracking down terrorists using the Internet.

And that's really it for the night. Wish me luck on my train trip to Bern tomorrow.