With over 140 canals, 400 bridges, and 450 gondolas, Venice can be a really confusing place to find your way around in! I didn’t realize it before, but the city of Venice is made up of many islands. Centuries ago, in an effort to flee Barbarians, Venetians left dry land and floated out to a chain of uninhabitable islands. Though survival was difficult, they persisted, and are responsible for building one of the most unusual and beautiful cities in the world. There are NO roads in Venice – zero! Transportation is done by walking or by boat – period. We saw construction boats, police, boats, ambulance boats, laundry boats, water taxis, and water buses called vaporetto.
We weaved through wide and narrow streets and made our way to the San Marco Plaza which is the heart of Venice. St. Mark’s Cathedral is located here, one of the world’s greatest and most ornate churches. The inside was completely covered in gold plating and the altar (we couldn’t get near it) is set with hundreds of emeralds, sapphires, rubies, garnets, and pearls. It was just a bit understated for my liking!!!! : ) One of the main industries for Venice, past and present, is hand-blown glass. There are hundreds of little shops with gorgeous glass pieces offering affordable jewelry to $65,000 chandeliers. We took a vaporetto to the neighboring island of Murano where the actual furnaces are located and watched a demonstration of glass-blowing. It’s truly amazing how something so beautiful is made with such crude tools and common materials. Of course, you can’t be in Venice without a gondola ride, so at dusk on our second day, we boarded a beautiful, black gondola and cruised through a number of quiet canals. Our guide, a 5th generation gondolier, sang to us, though he didn’t think he had a very good voice. He showed us where Casanova had lived and shared quite a bit of interesting Venetian history. One more check off my Bucket List!
On the 2nd day, we took a side trip to Casarsa, a little town northeast of Venice. Missionary friends from our church, Tom and Maureen, serve there. Tom met us at the station and showed us around the area. We were able to see the school where he serves, as well as their apartment and “stomping grounds”. To top off our day, he took us to a home-made gelato shop, where we all agreed, served the BEST, MOST SCRUMPTUOUS gelato we’d ever tasted!
We all loved Venice, but the one big drawback was that so did thousands of other tourists!! It was very crowded! A little extra patience was required, but all in all, we loved it, crowds and all!
One more short stop in Dublin, and then we’re Quakertown-bound………..We are ready to be back home.
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