Days 14-18 - Venice

Venice is possibly the last truly unique city in the world. It has 300,000 people, but no cars (except for a car park near the train station, which is basically the entry to the city). The airport is on the mainland, and you need to catch a water bus (or a hideously overpriced water taxi) from the airport to Venice proper.


It is easy to get lost in Venice, but, at the same time, it is almost impossible. On more than one occasion, we followed a lane and ended up almost walking into one of the canals. But you make your way back and eventually find your way. I became so lost once I led us into a industrial shipmaking area, walking over a metal gangway attached to an outer wall over the sea.

We took the opportunity to enjoy a more relaxed pace in Venice, as we were there for five nights. We sampled plenty of food, some very good, some pretty pedestrian.

On the negative side, I tried to order an 18 Euro bottle of wine on one evening, and ended up being charged (successfully, as we drank it completely unknowingly) for a 50 Euro bottle of wine. It almost ruined a carefully planned evening, as we were going to a Vivaldi performance afterward. The beauty of that music managed to take a bad taste out of my mouth regarding dinner, which had left me wishing out loud for the predictability and honesty of home.

We visited plenty of churches. An Italian Catholic tendency is to house fully viewable corpses of holy people inside their churches. Needless to say, this completely weirded Rose out. I was somewhat prepared for this eventuality, but for Rose it was a new experience.

Churches in Venice generally have their walls covered in paintings, some of which depict easily identifiable religious events, and others that require a little explaining. There are more graves and crypts under the floor, and as a rule, the high altars that were used under the Old Catholic Rite remain untouched, as well as unused in the New Order.

Our stay in Venice coincided with Passion Sunday, and it was about time I went to church. The priest tended to do his preaching before each reading, contributing to my confusion, but I followed when I could and responded in English most of the time. Meanwhile Rose did the washing at a laundry that required many visits to local vendors for small treats, in order to garner the needed change for the machines.

We did the gondola thing – I don’t want to ruin it for anyone but everyone in Venice knows you, the tourist, are coming, and the gondola is the one identifiable aspect about Venice known all over the world. The shortest ride available is 80 Euro, which is about $115, but when you are on your honeymoon, you spare the money, even if the ride lasts only twenty wonderful minutes. The added bonus was our gondolier (the driver) looked exactly like my Year 12 Politics teacher.

We each tried a pizza in Venice – and I think they probably try to cater to the tourist’s expectations too much. All pizzas have a thin base, but then the varieties are pretty compatible with those you’ll find all over the English speaking world.

Rose and I also visited the former Doge’s palace in San Marco, one of the districts of Venice. While the palace is full of paintings, sculptures and special rooms, and also a prison, the real interest is in the administrative system used in the Republic of Venice for many years. A council of esteemed male citizens elected a Doge, sort of like a President, who acted much like a modern head of state, with a mostly ceremonial role, while the council made the important decisions and ran the city. This mode of government lasted for 500 years without any great change until a little bloke called Napoleon came through the area.

I have to confess – one evening was mainly spent watching St Kilda beat Sydney on my laptop.

The greatest joy one can experience in Venice is merely being there, walking through the laneways, discovering another square with its church. The church next to the Palace in San Marco is reputed to have the body (not the head, apparently it is still in Alexandra) of St Mark the Evangelist, reputed author of the first gospel written, the Gospel according to Mark. The line was so long to get into this church we gave it a miss.

The story of how St Mark came to be in Venice is a great one. Apparently when still alive, his ship ran aground here and an angel visited him and informed St Mark that it would be here that he would be at eternal rest. For over a millennia his eternal rest was in Alexandra, until the newly formed Republic of Venice needed a patron saint. They didn’t want it to be St Peter, as to differentiate it from the Holy Roman Empire. So they went and stole St Mark’s body and moved it to Venice. The official emblem of Venice now includes the Lion of St Mark, holding a book opened to the page where the message the Angel gave to St Mark is written.

There is only one McDonalds in Venice, although there is a Hard Rock Cafe (which cannot be said about Melbourne any more). Sitting down for a drink during the day is expensive, and having been brought up on Melbourne sized portions in restaurants, one needs to get used to smaller amounts on the plate in Europe generally. It is, however, better for the waistline, as is walking everywhere.

My April Fool’s Day joke was on myself this year, as I got the idea in my head that we were leaving a day before we actually were.

The next day, we were actually on our way, after five days without seeing a car, bus or train, of seeing water transport vehicles with two men on board, little outboard motors, and boxes and boxes of goods, of hearing “Gondola, Gondola” about four hundred times, and of wandering around this beautiful, romantic city that is Venice.