Venezia

There is something not right about a city that is absolutely beautiful, absolutely romantic, and absolutely enchanting.  There is something not right because it is only one city, because there is only one city this absolute out of all the cities in the world.  When you arrive in Venice by train, you walk out of the station and see this, what is on the first picture.  No, this is not a postcard, nor did it take me twenty tries to take this shot.  It’s just there, it’s real.  Venice is just like the pictures except real.  That is what was going through my mind for my first half an hour in Venice.  This is in fact the Grand Canal.  I crossed it on the first bridge I saw, and immediately found myself in a maze of tiny streets and canals.  You can walk around Venice by foot, without a boat I mean.  But it is easier by boat, because the canals actually act like streets, going vertically and horizontally, and intersecting.  Streets are something else that winds around the canals by means of hundreds of little bridges (or maybe thousands?).

Anyways, I was walking through the streets at a rather quick pace, because I didn’t have that much time in Venice.  Running up and down bridges, bumping into dead ends and canals, touching both walls of a street as I walked down it.  I had a map in my hand although it was pretty useless.  Eventually I found street signs that pointed to the main tourist attractions and followed those instead.  It’s true that there are signs for the same place pointing in opposite directions; I don’t know if they do it to fool the tourists or to enchant the tourists.  I made it to St. Mark’s Square, which with my luck, was of course partly under construction.  But my mission was to go up St. Mark’s Campanile, or Bell Tower, which I did.  I called my experience, “8 euro to go up to heaven.”  The view from the top was unbelievable.  Imagine one of those times you were touring and climbed to the top of some building and admired the city panorama, and now imagine this in Venice.  All you see is red roofs and the sea, and the shining sun that reflects off the sea and lights up the roofs.  The bell tower is small, there are probably about ten windows on the top.  I circled around and around, and I think took a picture out of every window with every circle.  There was an Italian man who was also mesmerized by his own city, and he kept saying “Ah, Venice is so big! Ah, Venice is so beautiful!”  It only made the view more magical.

From the Bell Tower you can also see dock, shining with blue covered gondolas.  People sit on the steps of the dock, letting their feet in the water, to get a break from the day and the heat.  I found an empty spot and joined in – another beautiful Venetian moment.  The sun was warming my skin, but the breeze from the sea made the air perfect, and the waves hitting my feet were even more refreshing.  This dock is also interesting because it is very long, but like any other land in Venice, constantly interrupted by canals washing out into the sea.  So as you walk along the long large dock, every two minutes you have to cross over a small crowded bridge.  Sitting there on the edge, gazing at the waves, were my favorite few minutes in Venice.

I had heard many times that the most exciting thing to do in Venice was get lost.  I was very excited to learn this because that is what I usually do anyways.  So in between especially enchanting experiences I let myself and my thoughts wonder around freely.  Finally I bought a deck of Venetian cards for my collection and sat down to look at them, to decide what else I might like to see while here.  I made my next stop the famous Rialto Bridge, biggest bridge in Venice I think.  But before that, this is where I sat down with my cards.

Imagine if this was the entrance to your house, or your favorite restaurant…how beautiful.  Just the fact that there is a whole staircase that is meant for only one door!  And if this was your favorite restaurant, you better not walk out of there drunk!

I would like to see Venice at night.  Even as the sun starts to set the city becomes magical in a new way.  The air calms down, the water becomes quiet, all the vibrance and the rhythm of the day’s heat settle down.  You see a few last gondoliers finishing off their work day.  The people start to stand around bridges, and settle into bars and restaurants.  I watched all this from the Rialto Bridge.  The bridge itself, although the most famous in Venice, is not very big.  It spreads over the Grand Canal as if it could understand the importance of its purpose.  It’s quite spacious.  In structure it is similar the Ponte Vecchio in Florence with shops on either side.  However this one also has walkways on either side of the shops, so there is lots of room to pause and watch Italy’s hot sun sink into the soft waters of Venice.