Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Italy: Day XII (Venice)

Saturday, July 30th:

Venetian Canals:


            Today was our second day in Venice and we got to really dive into the sites and beauty of the city. Venice is very small—tourists probably only need a day or two to see all that they really want to see there, however it is remarkably charming and captures your attention at every turn if you sit back and really take it all in. For breakfast I went to an outdoor café and had a chicken salad Panini with a Cappuccino. I am really getting used to these Italian cappuccinos! I waited for Max to show up from getting a straight-razor shave recommended to him by a barista near our hotel, and we walked over to Basilica San Marco.

The Interior of St. Mark's Basilica:


            The lines were not too bad when we got to the basilica, so we went inside to explore all its splendor. It is said that Saint Mark’s Basilica is a smaller version of what the Hagia Sofia would look like if all its original mosaics were intact. Having been to the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey, this really intrigued me. The entire inside of St. Mark’s Basilica is covered in gold tile mosaics. There is literally not a single place not covered in gold inside this church. There is a reason it has been nicknamed the “Church of Gold” since its completion in the eleventh century. The church also supposedly houses the remains of St. Mark himself, however there is debate over whether his body had been removed and relocated, or whether the remains were in fact those of Alexander the Great instead of St. Mark. His tomb lies beneath the altar and alongside a beautiful work of Byzantine craftsmanship, the Pala D’Oro, decorated with gold and almost two thousand pieces of priceless jewelry.

The Original Quadriga of St. Mark:


            After walking around the cathedral we went into the treasury to see more priceless artifacts, including the four horses of St. Mark which adorned the front of the cathedral for seven centuries beginning in the 13th century. We also got to take in some views of Piazza San Marco from the cathedral balconies and check out the incredible marble work on the exterior of the church. We soon exited the beautiful church and walked over to the adjacent Doge’s Palace, or Palazzo Ducale.

The Inner Courtyard of the Doge's Palace:


            The Doge’s Palace was the seat of the supreme power of the Republic of Venice for almost a millennium. The palace was built in the ninth century and renovated countless times, and is now a museum and one of the top tourist destinations in the city. The gothic exterior façade and lavish interior courtyard are wonderful architectural achievements and a great way to spend the afternoon admiring. There are also countless artifacts and paintings of all the Doges of Venice. There is also a vast collection of Veronese and Tintoretto works inside the palace. The biggest painting in the Doge’s Palace is a fresco called “Il Paradiso” that covers an entire wall of the biggest room in the palace, however it has been damaged significantly by fire.

The Bridge of Sighs:


The palace also sits on top of the Doge’s prisons, and visitors can walk through them and across the famous Bridge of Sighs, or Ponte dei Sospiri. During the time of the Venetian Republic, as prisoners were being escorted from their cell to be executed, they passed over this covered stone bridge and were offered one last view of the Venetian lagoon outside. The name then comes from the sigh uttered by prisoners as they realized they would never again take in such beauty. A bit depressing, but an amazing story and site no less. Unfortunately, today, the bridge is nearly entirely covered by corporate billboards and advertisements. Both tourists and Venetian locals lament this trend, but it continues across the city.

Harry's Bar:


After visiting the palace, Max and I decided to find some food and drinks. We tried to go into the world-famous Harry’s Bar in Venice, a Hemingway staple, but were not allowed in because we were wearing shorts. We decided to go eat lunch and come back later to get some drinks there. We wandered around and found a delicious Tapas-style restaurant called Cantina do Mori where we ate basically everything they offered, mostly seafood, before grabbing some beers and wandering again. I think this time we did manage to get lost, but we were trying to and really didn’t care. We ate some fresh fruit sold off of floating fruit vendors and wandered for hours beer-in-hand. We got hungry again eventually, and settled on a spot called Osteria Toni where we ate Caprese Salad, Spaghetti Bolognese (again!), Swordfish, some local white wine, and some Limoncello for dessert. It was tasty, but unfortunately there was a piece of glass randomly in my pasta, so I was given a free entrée!

The Santa Maria Salute Church at Night:


We grabbed some pants and wandered around the south side of the city until night-fall. It was very cool seeing some of the famous landmarks, palazzos, churches, and piazzas all lit up at night on that part of the city. We did get to go back to Harry’s Bar, and try a couple of their world-famous drinks. Harry’s Bar invented the Bellini, which is Prosecco and Peach Puree in a cocktail. We tried one of those, along with the Montgomery Martini. The Montgomery Martini is named for British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who preferred a fifteen-to-one troop ratio going into battle, thus the  martini is a fifteen-to-one ratio of gin to vermouth. Extremely dry! Also very expensive. Incredibly, the bar also invented the Carpaccio style of food. Pretty crazy place…

Lightning over the Rialto Bridge:


After a few drinks emptied our pockets at Harry’s Bar, we headed back to the hotel to do what we did the night before—enjoy some beers and use the WiFi while sitting alongside the Grand Canal. We did get to experience a pretty incredible wave of thunderstorms that came through, offering some awesome lighting to the beautiful facades of the buildings. I could live in this place in a heartbeat.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Italy: Day XI (Florence, Venice)

Friday, July 29th:

The Grand Canal of Venice:


            Venice is an absolutely wonderful and beautiful place, but before I get to that, I will go through the day. We woke up pretty late in Florence after a long night, but spent some time in the San Lorenzo leather market picking up some Christmas gifts. It is a pretty unique place and is filled with tiny leather shop stands and all the different Fiorentian leather in every color you could ever have wanted. I wished that we had a little time to explore the San Lorenzo church which houses the tombs of the Medici family, but we had to catch our train and head off to Venice! The train was pretty quick, and before long we were crossing the only transportation bridge onto the island of Venezia.

Gondolas on a Venetian Canal:


            My first thought on Venice was “Why would anyone ever come up with the idea to replace roads with waterways and build a floating city?!” but I am glad that they did. The city is often very crowded, but with all the wandering side streets and walkways, it is easy to get yourself lost. Lost is all relative, however, as the city is merely a mile long island. We thought about taking a water-taxi to our hotel, but declined due to the high expense, and instead walked almost forty minutes over countless stepped canal bridges with our luggage before finally arriving. Our spot for the next three nights is the Hotel Marconi, in an amazing location right next to the Ponte Rialto and the Grand Canal of Venice!

St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Campanile:


            The rest of the day was pretty leisurely. We checked out some of the famous glass shops of Venice, explored the various fish markets, ate some Salami Pizza Rolls, and wandered over to St. Mark’s Square to get our bearings. Piazza San Marco is the center of Venice for tourists, and sits next to the beautiful Basilica San Marco. We decided to save that for later days, and instead went up to the top of the Campanile that overlooks the square to get some views of the city. The elevator whisked us to the top and we finally realized just how beautiful this city really was. Every direction we looked we were afforded with birds-eye views of the hundreds of churches and apartments, all in Renaissance style, seemingly all on top of one another. Gorgeous!

Views from the Top of the Campanile:



            We also noticed while we were up there that a concert was being organized in the square below, and they were performing a sound test. After listening for a little bit, we realized it was Sting from the Police! We snapped a few photos of him before heading back towards the hotel and trying to get lost. We eventually got hungry and stumbled upon an amazing little hole in the wall restaurant called Antica Trattoria Poste Vecie. I went all out here, and ordered Sauteed Clams and Mussels, Spaghetti with Cuttlefish Ink, Cuttlefish Venetian Style with Palenta, and a bottle of Sereole Soave local white wine. What a feast! Venetian style pasta is pasta covered in Cuttlefish ink, and it is phenomenal.

The Entrance to Antica Trattoria Poste Vecie:


            After dinner we enjoyed some post-dinner beers at a tiny café-bar right on the Grand Canal called Birreria Rivo Alto where we were served right next to the canal itself. What an amazing spot to sit back and relax and enjoy the weather. We wandered over back to San Marco to enjoy a bit of the Sting concert before heading back to our hotel. Luckily our hotel had a table set up outdoors that still was in range of the WiFi, so Max and I spent the night surfing the web in possibly the coolest place imaginable, right alongside the world famous Grand Canal. Unbelievable.


A Gondolier at Night: