This weekend I get to cross the first major city of this trip off my To-Do List: Venice. Although I’ve already been to a ton of places in Italy since I arrived, this is the first major city that I had not already been to, and to be honest my expectations weren’t high. I’ve always heard people say Venice is kinda hot and smelly with not much to do, so although looking forward to seeing it, I was not overly excited. Venice isn’t really that well known for major sights other than Piazza San Marco and I just kinda thought that that was a dirty pigeon-infested square.
However, once I arrived in Venice I was very happily surprised. We woke up early around 6 to grab breakfast and pack a lunch before boarding the bus to Venice. I have now come to understand that we always take the same type of bus to wherever we go. It is absolutely gigantic. Not only can it fit our entire program, but it is about a car’s height taller than all other busses (double deckers excluded). It’s very comfortable and since there was no one behind me I felt no guilt in reclining my seat and sleeping for most of the ride. Once we arrived on the outskirts of the city, we got off of the bus and walked over a bridge to a boat. We all boarded the boat and set off on a trip around the southern part of Venice. We all ate our lunches on board and after a good 45 minutes or more we arrived on the island of Murano.
Murano is of course famous for glass blowing and we immediately walked in the doors of a factory where we received a demonstration during which a glass blower quickly made a vase followed by a purple rearing horse that only took about two minutes.
After the brief demonstration we walked into the store to see all of the various glass crafts that they make. Many people bought souvenirs, but I settled for pictures. – I might briefly pause the narrative to mention that Al had generously lent me her camera and memory card so that I may take pictures of Venice while I am in between cameras so to speak – Some of the crafts were very intricate and beautiful, but also rather expensive for trinkets. After we left the store we had a little bit of free time before meeting back up, so we walked around Murano and explored other glass making stores. They can truly make anything from animals to vases to candy to an entire orchestra of 1-inch figurines with different instruments. It was fun to look through all the animals ranging from the usual horses, birds, and fish to the more exotic dragons, griffins, and people. We eventually met up and walked back to the boat, which took us back to Venice to check in to our hotel.
After the brief demonstration we walked into the store to see all of the various glass crafts that they make. Many people bought souvenirs, but I settled for pictures. – I might briefly pause the narrative to mention that Al had generously lent me her camera and memory card so that I may take pictures of Venice while I am in between cameras so to speak – Some of the crafts were very intricate and beautiful, but also rather expensive for trinkets. After we left the store we had a little bit of free time before meeting back up, so we walked around Murano and explored other glass making stores. They can truly make anything from animals to vases to candy to an entire orchestra of 1-inch figurines with different instruments. It was fun to look through all the animals ranging from the usual horses, birds, and fish to the more exotic dragons, griffins, and people. We eventually met up and walked back to the boat, which took us back to Venice to check in to our hotel.
After dropping off our things we all met back up and walked to Piazza San Marco. Trying to travel through Venice is an experience in and of itself. The pedestrian roads wind through the city like a labyrinth, cutting in unexpected directions and suddenly ending in a dead end or canal. The bridges and alleys can really start to look the same after a while and the stores don’t help because the all sell the same things: glass and masks. We finally arrived at St Mark’s and had a few minutes to wonder around and take pictures. The pigeons were crazy. When people stopped to feed them (which is not allowed) they swarmed like crazy and climbed all over them. Apparently though the pigeon problem is much better since they banned feeding them a couple of years ago.
Then we met up with a tour guide who took us into Palazzo Ducale (The Doge’s Palace). She gave us a fantastic tour that really helped illuminate Venice’s history and government. Basically Venice was a Republic with a figurehead leader called the Doge. Venice was all about limiting the power of the individual and therefore spent a lot of time talking before they decided anything. This is relevant because all of their ideological and political beliefs are represented in very distinctive ways in the architecture and decorations of the rooms. The seating is arranged specifically to resist giving the illusion of more importance to any one person or group and the paintings of Justice and Peace are explicit examples of Venetian depictions of their city. I really enjoyed the tour. I felt it was the most logical, put-together, and well-demonstrated tour we’ve done so far and was therefore very interesting.
After this tour we had free time. I walked around in a group for a couple hours. We checked in various shops and generally tried to ‘get lost’ in Venice as we had been encouraged to do by our professor. We really enjoyed looking at all of the masks and blown glass for a while. They are all really detailed and pretty. At some point we grabbed a piece of pizza and then continued walking and ‘getting lost’. Well we lost ourselves all the way until we stumbled upon il Ponte di Rialto or the Rialto Bridge which is the famous semi-triangular shaped roofed bridge that I’ve always seen pictures of in Venice. At that point we turned around to meet back up at St. Marks for a special tour inside the basilica.
We gathered around the square and waited for the rest of the group to assemble at 7:10. People gradually gathered and 7:10 came and passed until it was 7:40 and we still had not gone in. At this point we learned that an unexpected mass had interfered with our night-time tour and we had to wait for it to finish. So wait we did. We waited and waited and waited. Finally at about 8:30 or something we went in. Then we had the pleasure of waiting for another half hour or so in an antechamber outside of the church proper.
While my past self is waiting I’ll take a moment to explain some important historical context for Venice before we get to the church. Venice was first expanded into a proper city-state from the 900s to 1100s. Before that it had been a series of semi-permanent fisherman settlements. The unique geographic position in a lagoon of many islands, though difficult to build on, was perfect for defense and maritime trade. It is also important to note that since Venice is located in the northeastern corner of Italy facing the Adriatic Sea, it has prime access to eastern trade routes (as evidenced by Marco Polo). Venice eventually developed a sort of monopoly over eastern trade, which lead to the increased influence of eastern culture over Venice. However, even with this monopoly and wealth Venice lacked the legitimacy of an ancient city. In order to establish themselves as an important city Venice needed to create a past like that of Rome. They were able to better fulfill their missing history after the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Crusades when they brought back artifacts from Roman Constantinople. As a result of all this history some Venetian art and architecture is a hybrid of Ottoman and more Classical styles.
The reason that all is important is because when we finally entered St Mark’s Basilica, the entire inside of the church was an amazing compilation of these two styles… But I’m getting ahead of myself.
After the mass cleared out, we walked into the church in complete darkness. We could barely see the chairs lined up to form pews. We cautiously made our way to the front few rows and sat down. After a minute or so the church was suddenly filled with the rich echoing sounds of an organ playing a Vivaldi piece. As it played the lights began to flicker on slowly, first in the side domes and progressing towards the center. It was like a light show set to Renaissance music. As the lights came on slowly filling out arches and spaces we hadn’t even seen before we were finally able to see the church.
The walls and ceilings were covered –literally completely covered- with mosaic tiles. Obviously to anyone who is familiar with Italian Churches this is highly irregular. But thing of the walls and ceiling (with 5 domes btw) as completely covered with tiny gold (yes actual gold) mosaic pieces with hundreds of figures and scenes depicted within them in mosaics. Some of these mosaic figures were highly eastern in character while others looked classical or even more Renaissance. The floors were larger mosaic tiles of marble all taken from scores of varieties of marble throughout Byzantium. It was so beautiful. After the 20 minutes of orchestrations finished with Bach, we all stood up and began to tour around. I didn’t think anything could be more ornate and then I saw the altarpiece: the Pala d’Oro.
This thing is insane. It’s maybe 7x5 feet tall and it depicts tons of biblical figures in little archways. Everything on it s made of gold or gold leaf and completely detailed. Then all over the entire thing of gold there are literally hundreds of gemstones set into it including pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and amethysts (1,927 in total according to Wikipedia). It’s crazy! The definition or ornate. And SO valuable. Dang.
Let’s just say it was a crazy church. Afterward we were starving and stopped to grab some food on the way back to our hotel where we crashed.
photos?
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