My 8/3/17 blog post described the beginning of my July trip with my son Alex in Germany and Italy. This post recounts the sights and scenes of our all too brief two days in Venice.
A tremendous amount has been written about Venice: about the complex past of the city, Venice’s legacy of independence, democracy, and multi-chambered government, the social instinct for legalism and the accountability of power. Venice’s great maritime empire ruled the Mediterranean for centuries. The Venetian Republic, unsurpassed in the arts and sciences, independent of Rome as well as Byzantium and the Western Empire, became arguably the first capitalist nation. Venetian inventions include matters as diverse as insurance and stock trading, the world’s first secret state police, and the world’s first foreign intelligence system. All this was accomplished while holding back the devouring sea. The Venetians styled themselves the Most Serene Republic, but the Venice of history was a place of strenuous activity and ceaseless progress. Her trading network was arguably the life blood of Europe for nearly eight hundred years.
From Belluno the Alps drop rapidly to the coastal plain of northeast Italy. After an hour's drive on the Autostrada we reached Venice. We parked on the Tronchetto, a modern parking island with an exit off the Autostrada. We then took the public water bus, or vaporetto, to San Marco.
All of Venice’s six sestieri or districts can be reached on foot, though not the outlying islands. Venice in 2017 appeared at first glance to risk being trampled. The summer crowd pouring in and out was phenomenal. One might speculate that Venice needs fewer tourists, and when considering the great achievements of this city in the past, one might conclude that the world needs more Venetians. We outsiders don’t have the realism for Venice—but when your streets are canals that connect with the open sea, and jellyfish can swim up the canal past your door, realism may become second nature.
From Belluno the Alps drop rapidly to the coastal plain of northeast Italy. After an hour's drive on the Autostrada we reached Venice. We parked on the Tronchetto, a modern parking island with an exit off the Autostrada. We then took the public water bus, or vaporetto, to San Marco.
All of Venice’s six sestieri or districts can be reached on foot, though not the outlying islands. Venice in 2017 appeared at first glance to risk being trampled. The summer crowd pouring in and out was phenomenal. One might speculate that Venice needs fewer tourists, and when considering the great achievements of this city in the past, one might conclude that the world needs more Venetians. We outsiders don’t have the realism for Venice—but when your streets are canals that connect with the open sea, and jellyfish can swim up the canal past your door, realism may become second nature.
View from the Public Vaporetto, entering the Grand Canal. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Entrance to St. Mark’s Square, Venice. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
In and Out the Human Tides Flow. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
The Grand Canal.
As we quickly found, Venice in summer is quite hot, heat-stroke-quality hot, and Venice is an absolute labyrinth. We also fairly quickly found that the tourists and to some extent the tourist services themselves could be minimized somewhat, just by walking off into the maze. A few twists and turns later, crowding ceased to be a problem. There is nothing to see in Venice as marvelous as the city itself.
Venice street scene. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Streets of Venice
Twilight and night indeed suit Venice well. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Venice at night. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Battered reminders of power.
Byzantine emperors in porphyry, looted from Constantinople.
One of the anonymous mailboxes for inserting denunciations to the Doge’s secret police for examination. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Noble graffiti in the Doge’s marble dungeons.
The lion on the Arsenale gate.
The lion above, on the Arsenale gate, is the only Venetian lion sculpted holding a closed book, representing the Gospel according to Mark. All other Venetian lion sculptures hold an open book with the words Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus -- a reference to the legend that an angel appeared to St. Mark as his boat was passing the sandspit that later became Venice, en route from Aquileia to Ravenna. The Arsenale is the source of the modern word arsenal, and this building was the headquarters of Venice's formidable navy. Hence the phrase Pax Tibi was considered inappropriate for this gate.
The home of the Venetian galleys that won the Battle of Lepanto.
The Doge's Private Courtyard and side door into St. Mark's cathedral. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Ceiling panel in the Doge’s Palace. In the endless power struggles of the palace, and with the dungeons ever ready to swallow the losers in the name of Serenity, the nobles of Venice undoubtedly knew first hand what it meant to twist in the wind. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Ceiling panel in the Doge’s Palace: Mercury bringing the news of the world to Venice. In return, Venice is offering Peace. Part of the “Gifts of the Gods to Venice” series. (Photo by Alex Mawyer.)
Venice: unlike any other.
Though neither of us thought to photograph it, one of the great pleasures of our brief stay was our hotel room. Venice offers luxury if luxury is what you want, but we opted instead for old-fashioned. Our room was the sixth-floor garret of a late medieval building, with no air conditioning and no hot water. Instead we had a corner location with windows and a balcony looking out over the rooftops of Venice. At night we opened our unscreened windows and the balcony doors, and let the fresh sea air blow through. So beautiful under the moon that it was hard to go to sleep. The moon on the rooftops behind St. Mark's Square may turn out to be my most vivid and enduring Venetian memory, from our all too short visit.
The best modern history of Venice I know of is John Julius Norwich's History of Venice, and those unfamiliar with the rise, long triumph, and ultimate decline of the Venetian Empire may wish to read it. Venice, though not physically large, is one of the world's great cities and a lifetime studying Venice would not be ill spent.
We left Venice on foot. For 1,200 years or more that would have been impossible, except by wading and swimming the lagoon. But the Tronchetto parking island off the Autostrada is connected to Venice by a causeway. Rail and vehicular access to Venice only became possible late in the 20th Century, and changed the nature of the city. It's a long walk, if you chose to enter or leave Venice by foot. The winding mazes of lanes and squares were never intended as thoroughfares; quite the opposite. But walking out gave us a last couple of hours to meander through the seemingly enchanted city of Venice.
The next post will cover our two days in Ravenna, just an hour or so down the coast from Venice.
The best modern history of Venice I know of is John Julius Norwich's History of Venice, and those unfamiliar with the rise, long triumph, and ultimate decline of the Venetian Empire may wish to read it. Venice, though not physically large, is one of the world's great cities and a lifetime studying Venice would not be ill spent.
We left Venice on foot. For 1,200 years or more that would have been impossible, except by wading and swimming the lagoon. But the Tronchetto parking island off the Autostrada is connected to Venice by a causeway. Rail and vehicular access to Venice only became possible late in the 20th Century, and changed the nature of the city. It's a long walk, if you chose to enter or leave Venice by foot. The winding mazes of lanes and squares were never intended as thoroughfares; quite the opposite. But walking out gave us a last couple of hours to meander through the seemingly enchanted city of Venice.
The next post will cover our two days in Ravenna, just an hour or so down the coast from Venice.
RSS Feed