23 September '05, Friday.
Another FULL day in Venice...this place is going to wear me out !!! Not only is this city beautiful to look at, but challenging to find your way around (even when you have a map in your hand). Rick Steves says in his guide book to "Soak all day in this puddle of elegant decay..". The first day here, we saw many places that we could have "soaked" in, but it was because of the rain and high tide levels...water was at the surface and bubbling at the man-hole covers. It was interesting to find stacked through-out the city, portable raised sidewalks that could be put together in just a minutes notice. We saw a few of these made up and being used to enter the basilica. It is amazing that this town was born over 1500 years ago right out of a lagoon. They were fleeing from the barbarians. Today, they aren't fleeing from anything but the possibility of high water getting too high. They have a MAJOR project going on now right at the opening of the lagoon from the Adriatic. It's not the usual breakwater, but one that has gates built in to control the height of the water levels. When it is completed sometime in the next couple years, it will be something the world will have to look at for the possibly to solve their rising water problems. The population of Venice has been dropping for a number of years, but the tourists have been coming in larger groups to off set that decline. The population has dropped from around 200,000 at it's peak, to less than 45,000 now, for the island of Venice...want to buy some property cheap??? One of the problems that they have, is the decaying of the buildings. Now it isn't easy to get a permit to fix the buildings, no matter how little or how much you are willing to spend on the repairs. The exterior of the buildings MUST look just as it does now after the "repair" has been completed...not an easy thing to do. Well, we planned our day around seeing the "Doge's Palace". This was the seat of the ruling government of Venice. It was also the residence of the Doge. The palace was built to show off the huge wealth and power of the Doge and his republic. We picked up tickets to explore all the incredible rooms and grounds of the palace. The art work through out was unbelieveable. From the paintings, frescos, woodcarvings, flooring, and all, it was absolutely extravagent, but wonderful to have the opportunity to see. We have been in palaces, castles, and other wonderful buildings on this trip, but this one had the largest rooms and the most true, fine art than any we have seen yet. We then had walk across the bridge of "Sighs", which connects the palace with the prison. When justice was dealt, it was dealt swiftly and cruelly. This was another 2 plus hour tour, and by the time we were through, we were through...we had to find lunch or... Finding another Italian lunch spot, we ordered another "picnic" lunch and then found a bench along side the Grand Canal to enjoy it in style. We are not doing a good job of hiding from those "no picnicing cops". Not wanting to get too much culture mixed into one day, we grabbed another one of the vaporatto's and went sightseeing on the water once more. This time we headed across to one of the islands that stands by it's self. A little exploring of a church and some of the shops and we were back on another vaporatto and heading to one of the cities that is tied to the mainland and has cars on it...Lido. Lido kind of reminded us of a small town in Hawaii...nice shops, great beach, and lots of tourists... Sun beginning to set, so back to camp and dinner...tomorrow we'll take in more of Venice
Another FULL day in Venice...this place is going to wear me out !!! Not only is this city beautiful to look at, but challenging to find your way around (even when you have a map in your hand). Rick Steves says in his guide book to "Soak all day in this puddle of elegant decay..". The first day here, we saw many places that we could have "soaked" in, but it was because of the rain and high tide levels...water was at the surface and bubbling at the man-hole covers. It was interesting to find stacked through-out the city, portable raised sidewalks that could be put together in just a minutes notice. We saw a few of these made up and being used to enter the basilica. It is amazing that this town was born over 1500 years ago right out of a lagoon. They were fleeing from the barbarians. Today, they aren't fleeing from anything but the possibility of high water getting too high. They have a MAJOR project going on now right at the opening of the lagoon from the Adriatic. It's not the usual breakwater, but one that has gates built in to control the height of the water levels. When it is completed sometime in the next couple years, it will be something the world will have to look at for the possibly to solve their rising water problems. The population of Venice has been dropping for a number of years, but the tourists have been coming in larger groups to off set that decline. The population has dropped from around 200,000 at it's peak, to less than 45,000 now, for the island of Venice...want to buy some property cheap??? One of the problems that they have, is the decaying of the buildings. Now it isn't easy to get a permit to fix the buildings, no matter how little or how much you are willing to spend on the repairs. The exterior of the buildings MUST look just as it does now after the "repair" has been completed...not an easy thing to do. Well, we planned our day around seeing the "Doge's Palace". This was the seat of the ruling government of Venice. It was also the residence of the Doge. The palace was built to show off the huge wealth and power of the Doge and his republic. We picked up tickets to explore all the incredible rooms and grounds of the palace. The art work through out was unbelieveable. From the paintings, frescos, woodcarvings, flooring, and all, it was absolutely extravagent, but wonderful to have the opportunity to see. We have been in palaces, castles, and other wonderful buildings on this trip, but this one had the largest rooms and the most true, fine art than any we have seen yet. We then had walk across the bridge of "Sighs", which connects the palace with the prison. When justice was dealt, it was dealt swiftly and cruelly. This was another 2 plus hour tour, and by the time we were through, we were through...we had to find lunch or... Finding another Italian lunch spot, we ordered another "picnic" lunch and then found a bench along side the Grand Canal to enjoy it in style. We are not doing a good job of hiding from those "no picnicing cops". Not wanting to get too much culture mixed into one day, we grabbed another one of the vaporatto's and went sightseeing on the water once more. This time we headed across to one of the islands that stands by it's self. A little exploring of a church and some of the shops and we were back on another vaporatto and heading to one of the cities that is tied to the mainland and has cars on it...Lido. Lido kind of reminded us of a small town in Hawaii...nice shops, great beach, and lots of tourists... Sun beginning to set, so back to camp and dinner...tomorrow we'll take in more of Venice