Venice

Alright, here's the much belated Venice recap.

I started out from the Rome Termini station at what I thought was a reasonable hour of the morning, but it turns out if you don't have a credit card than your gonna be waiting for hours to talk to a person.  Mostly because the station is so crowded.  I actually don't remember when I got on the train, but the whole trip took a few hours and the Italian scenery is lovely no biggy.  I had a B&B booked already but of course no map.  So the first thing I did when I arrived was find the information centre to find one and ask for directions.  The first thing that should have warned me was when the info person looked at the address and went "Huh?" and had to look it up.  The second was when she didn't explain what had made her confused.  Anyway, I got my map, got on the vaporetto, and headed for the Rialto bridge.

I love Venice.  I've been twice now.  The first when I was stumbling from lack of sleep and jet lag I just thought I'd been in Italy long enough to start to wake up and that was why I remembered it so well when I got home, but after this time I realised it wasn't that I was more awake.  It was Venice.  The feeling of entrancement started on the canals on the way to the Rialto.  It got stronger at the stop, where the gondoliers were hanging around and the first of many Venetian mask stands were, up over the lit up bridge where I finally came to the realisation that Carnival was in full swing, and I fell in love with the city all over again.

My mood took a a bit of a damper when I couldn't find my B&B.  I was on the right street according to the tourist info lady, but the numbers made veeeery confusing  jumps and it wasn't the same street name (or what I thought was a street name) as it was on the address I had.  I eventually went in to a drug store just as they were about to close and asked for help, and the fellow behind the counter said "Oh.  Well, it's very close, in the next intersection.  It's very hard to explain, but you're close."  So I headed back out.  Bearing in mind his mention of cross streets I went to the one that seemed to skip over about a hundred numbers, including the one I was looking for, and turned right.  Whereupon I discovered that the numbers didn't skip they just made detours.  Also what I though was a street name wasn't.  It was the name of the district.  I finally found the B&B, called the host who was very patient and friendly, and he came to let me in and give me a key.  It's the B&B Santa Sofia, by the way, and I would highly recommend it to any one looking for somewhere to stay in Venice that's centrally located.

Having dumped my bags and thawed out a bit I discovered I was quite hungry, and I'd noticed a pizza place on the corner so out I went.  Oh.  My.  God.  Best pizza EVER!!!!  I can't even remember the name of the place anymore, but I know exactly how to find it.  The crust was good,  the amount of sauce to toppings to cheese was perfect, and add to that the fact that every pizza I had in Italy had better quality, fresher, and more flavour full toppings then I've had anywhere else and I was hooked.

The next day I sallied forth after a lovely breakfast with freshly made coffee.  The tourist market near the Rialto was in full swing and there were tour groups aplenty wandering by.  I decided to dive right in, bought a two day vaporetto ticket, and headed to St. Mark's square and Ducal palace.  The vaporettos are definitely the way to go.  The views you get from them are beautiful.  I'd got a feel for a part of the cities personality the day before and I got a slightly different view of it that morning.

As soon as I got off the boat I started seeing the costumes.  They were incredible.  Single, pairs, sometimes full sets, they were all absolutely incredible.  There was usually a theme of some sort if there was more than one person.  One of my favourites was a couple dressed in absinthe green with fey designs and pictures.  The century that the costume was based in changed too.  Most were 18th century (pick your decade) but a few were earlier or later, though there were probably more 17th and 16th century than 19th.

I spent most of the day just wandering around.  Looking, feeling.  Taking pictures.  I took a vaporetto to the university district at one point and then ended up walking back to St. Marks square.  I found one of the many little cafe restaurants on a side street and had a very good spaghetti vongole for lunch, had an absolutely stupidly expensive latte at one of the cafes directly on the square, and then went in to the Basilica di San Marco for a bit.  Wow.  I mean Wow.  the walls, ceiling and floor are completely covered in mosaics.  Gorgeous, ostentatious, sparkling mosaics.  The floor is uneven everywhere and I'm not sure if it's from the shifting of time or people wearing it down.  And the feeling inside.  Despite the sheer numbers of tourists wandering through at all times it has a very contemplative feel to it.  And It was so cool to stand there and try and picture what it would look like during Mass at the height of the Renaissance!

I decided that I wanted Pizza for dinner so I headed back to my neighbourhood and wandered around San Polo a bit more before getting the last slices of pizza I was going to have in Italy (NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!) for a while and going back to the B&B.

My flight was and early one, so I had to get around 6 am which I was less then pleased about, but it meant I got to see the city wake up.  The boats arriving loaded up with the morning deliveries for the various restaurants, cafes, and other stores, the people who start early going to work, the tourists catching buses, trains, or like me a flight.  The general feeling of muzzyness when nothings quite woken up completely.  I loved it.

I don't think I can adequately express or explain what I feel when I'm in Venice.  It captures the mind in a way no other city really has.  I knew when I left Rome that I'd probably be back.  After going to Venice I could say without a shadow of a doubt that I would be back again.  In both cities I found myself thinking poetically about both of them.  Venice as "The Queen of Water" and Rome as "The Sprawling, Ancient Lady" those being the short versions, and hardly the only ones I came up with.

Italy itself holds a special place in my mind and heart, but Venice, she holds the centre of that place.  I keep trying to come with ways to explain why I'm so entranced by Venice, why she inspires so much poetry in me.  Why I could spend hours just sitting, floating in the heady sea that is her personality.  The movement of the people, the smells, sights, sounds that are her soul.  And I can't.  Not properly.  I just know I'm going back.