Venice revisited
Days after returning from Tenerife, I found myself on a plane headed back to Venice. Mic and I were there last month, but this time I was meeting my good friend Tonda, who I knew from Washington DC. She is now living in Frankfurt, Germany. We were both flying to Venice to meet Joey and Jeremy. When we lived in DC, we both knew one of my two 'sisters from another mother', Stephanie. Sylvia is the other one, in case you were wondering. Stephanie was the most amazing person I've ever known and we bonded the instant we met. If you look back thru my blog posts, you can read about the trip Stephanie, Sylvia and I took to Costa Rica. (Costa Rica 2nd Time Around). Stephie and I also went to St Maartin, if you want to find that one. She and I had so many great adventures together and last fall, we were talking about where our next trip would be. A few weeks later, I got a message from her sister Joey. Stephanie had suffered a massive stroke. I of course knew all about Joey from Stephanie, but I had never met her. During the course of the next 3 days, Joey and I texted back and forth as she sat by her sister's bedside. There are no words to express how grateful I am that she kept me informed on what what going on, and was there to tell Stephanie how much I loved her. We literally spent hours sharing Stephie stories and talking about how much she meant to us. Sadly, Stephanie passed away and it's a testament to to how incredibly loved she was that her hospital room was literally full (with more people spilling out into the hallway) of who everyone refers to as 'her people.' To know her was to love her and once you became 'hers', there was absolutely nothing she wouldn't do for you. So the main point of this trip was to do what Stephanie always did best, bring people together. Sadly, Judi and Steve, also mutual friends in Frankfurt couldn't make it, but we brought them along in spirit.
Stephanie and Tonda
Stephanie and Sylvia
I left my house at 4:30 am for yet another crack of dawn flight. Too
bad I had booked the shuttle for 4:20. (It stops at a nearby hotel) Not a great
start, but the cab got me there in just enough time. I arrived in Venice at
9:30 am, but couldn't check into the hotel till 2ish. Hmmm what to do with
several hours to kill? Rent a car and head to Avanio AB of course! If you
remember from my last Venice trip, I couldn't get Mic on base and I spent hours
driving around looking for someplace he could wait, then getting totally lost on
my way back. This time would be much easier. I arrived with no problem and
headed to the BX first. The BX, or Base Exchange is the retail store on base.
In Europe it's great because we don't have to pay the 18% VAT tax. It has
clothes, electronics, home goods, appliances and the like. They also have toys
and I am always on the lookout for games for game night. I was in luck, they
had Monopoly for $15 vs the €40 at the toy store in Malta. After wandering
around a bit more, I headed to my real destination, the commissary, to stock up
on Diet Mt Dew and other things I couldn't get in Malta. The commissary is the
grocery store. Let the shopping begin! Mic forbade me from bringing back any
candy, (we're trying to eat healthier) so I only got one small bag of Reese's
peanut butter cups. Too bad too, they lots of his favorite black licorice
Twizzlers. As I began filling my cart with various items, I had to remind
myself that I only had 15KG of weight for my checked airline bag. As I stopped
to grab my last, but best item, shock set in. There was not a single can of
Diet Mt Dew in the store. I asked an employee if they had any and the guy said
no. I guess the look on my face was pretty pathetic because he leaned in closer
and said, "I have cases of them, but they are expired". "OK, how
expired"? "By a whole month". "A month, really, that's nothing, I'll
take one! " "No, I can't sell them to you". I asked, "Do you now how
much crap is in them? The preservatives and fake sugar alone should
kill me, I want it anyway!" I told him I lived in Malta and that I had
driven here specifically for this soda. After more begging, he took pity on me,
saying he couldn't charge me full price for something expired, but also couldn't
just give it to me, so he settled on a $1 charge for a case. OK, twice the
amount I could drink in 4 days, but I was one happy camper!
Now I had to get all this stuff to the hotel. After returning the
rental car, I caught a shuttle from the airport to the main public transport hub
in Venice, Piazzle Roma. From there I had to lug all my stuff onto a boat, then
over to the island of Lido where Tonda and I were staying, then on a bus to the
hotel. OK, maybe I bought too much... My room had a nice view of the back
garden. In fact, Lido was more of a residential island and there were some
really gorgeous gardens on every street I saw. As you walked along, the smell
of honeysuckle and gardenia was almost overwhelming. Like Venice, there were
canals everywhere, but it was more picturesque, less industrial. Lido di
Venezia is an 11 km (7 mi) long sandbar and home to about 20,000 people. It
was pretty easy getting over to Venice on the boat everyday and I think if I
lived in the area, I'd much prefer the quiet and beauty of Lido over the hustle
and bustle of the super touristy Venice.
Tonda and I met for breakfast, it was so great to see her
again. She's one of the nicest people I know, very easy going and fun to be
around. I was really looking forward to reconnecting. We headed over to Venice
to meet up with Joey, Jeremy and their daughter Austin. We didn't recognize
them at first, because Joey had her back to us and didn't appear to be looking
around. Tonda and I were laughing that if these people looked over at us, what
would they think about how intently we were watching them? As soon as she faced
us, however, I recognized her. It was wonderful to finally meet her in person,
it felt like seeing a long time friend. Stephanie had always talked about what
a great guy Jeremy was; she said she couldn't have asked for a better brother in
law for her or husband for her sister and it didn't take long to see he really
was good guy. We ended up hanging out at the cafe for quite some time before
deciding to actually get out and do something. We had heard about a tour of the
three main islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello and as luck would have it, the
next tour was just starting. Murano is the closest island to Venice and is
famous for glass blowing. The web site Europe for Visitors explains in
more detail.
Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th Century, and by
the 10th Century it had grown into a prosperous trading center with its own
coins, police force, and commercial aristocracy. Then, in 1291, the Venetian
Republic ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano because the
glassworks represented a fire danger in Venice, whose buildings were mostly
wooden at the time. It wasn't long until Murano's glassmakers were the leading
citizens on the island. Artisans were granted the right to wear swords and
enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the notoriously high-handed Venetian state.
By the late 14th Century, the daughters of glassmakers were allowed to marry
into Venice's blue-blooded families. Such pampered treatment had one catch:
Glassmakers weren't allowed to leave the Republic. If a craftsman got a
hankering to set up shop beyond the Lagoon, he risked being assassinated or
having his hands cut off by the secret police--although, in practice, most
defectors weren't treated so harshly. What made Murano's glassmakers so
special? For one thing, they were the only people in Europe who knew how to make
glass mirrors. They also developed or refined technologies such as crystalline
glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine),
multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones
made of glass. Their virtual monopoly on quality glass lasted for centuries,
until glassmakers in Northern and Central Europe introduced new techniques and
fashions around the same time that colonists were emigrating to the New
World.
Google image of Murano glass
We were taken on a short factory tour where we got to watch a master
at work. In less then 10 minutes he had made a beautiful glass vase. It took
exactly 2.36 minutes to create a statue of a horse rearing up. His skill was
pretty amazing. Of course in order to see the glass blowing demonstration, you
had to walk through their showroom. The statue of the horse was about €20 I
think. Of course, just next door they were €8. The island is only about a mile
across and like Venice, it's really a series of islands connected by many
bridges. I would like to have walked around a bit, but the tour was ready to go
to the next stop, Burano.
The tour brochure said Burano is a beautiful and interesting island
with fisherman’s houses painted in pastel colors. It told us to make sure we
had our camera ready because we would not want to miss a photo opportunity on
this unique island. The island was indeed very colorful and our cameras
were plenty busy. Not only did we see the brightly colored houses, but
everywhere we looked, we saw beautiful window boxes full of flowers. As with
all the islands, small boats dotted the canals. Burano even has a leaning tower,
the bell tower of the 15th century San Martino Church. The island is also famous
for its artisan lace makers and there's a museum as well as many shops selling
lace. We even found a street called Tonda Street, so of course we had Tonda
pose for pictures.
The last stop was
Torcello, situated just behind Burano. To paraphrase Wikipedia -
After the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, Torcello was one of
the first lagoon islands to be successively populated by those Veneti who fled
the mainland to take shelter from the recurring barbarian invasions, especially
after Attila the Hun came through in 452. The Veneto region remained unsafe due
to frequent Germanic invasions and wars: during the following 200 years the
Lombards and the Franks fueled a permanent influx of sophisticated urban
refugees to the island’s relative safety, including the Bishop of Altino
himself. In 638, Torcello became the bishop’s official see for more than a
thousand years.
Torcello rapidly grew in importance as a political and trading
centre: in the 10th century it had a population estimated at 3,000. The lagoon
around the island of Torcello gradually became a swamp from the 12th century
onwards, bringing malaria-carrying mosquitoes so Torcello’s heyday came to an
end. Navigation in the laguna morta (dead lagoon) was impossible before long
and the growing swamps seriously aggravated the malaria situation, so the
population eventually abandoned the island and left for Murano, Burano or
Venice. It now has a full-time population of 10 people, including the parish
priest.
Torcello's numerous palazzi, its twelve parishes and its
sixteen cloisters have almost disappeared since the Venetians recycled the
useful building material. Today's main attraction is the Cathedral
of Santa Maria Assunta, founded in 639. Other attractions include the 11th and
12th century Church of Santa Fosca. Another noteworthy sight for tourists is an
ancient stone chair, known as Attila’s Throne. It has nothing to do with the
king of the Huns, but it was most likely the podestà ’s or the bishop’s chair.
Google image
It was a very pretty island, with a lot of green
space and a really pretty bridge called Devils Bridges. Legend has it that
during the Austrian domination over Venice, a young lady fell in love with an
Austrian soldier, who was subsequently killed by her family as they opposed
their unpatriotic relationship. The grief stricken girl sought the
aid of a witch who agreed to meet her on the island of Torcello – an isolated
place and ideal for magic rituals. The witch called upon the devil who brought
the young Austrian back to life and so the two lovers were united again. But it
is well known that the devil doesn’t do anything for nothing so he made the
witch promise that for the next seven years she would bring him, on Christmas
Eve, the soul of a dead child. The witch died soon after in a fire
and was not able to keep to her pact with the devil… So to this
day, on the eve of 24 December, the devil comes to the Devil’s Bridge in
Torcello in the guise of a black cat to claim the souls he was
promised.
Google image
Throughout the day, we had all been talking about Stephanie.
We stopped for a cold drink near Attilia's throne, and were watching a large
family taking pictures when suddenly it dawned on us, one of the women looked
exactly like Stephie. She had the same profile, the same beautiful long hair,
even the same oversized white sun glasses. I'm not sure what the family
would have thought had they noticed us all staring like we were. We just
couldn't get over the uncanny resemblance.
After a long day we headed back to our hotel. Tonda and I
tried to take a different route home each night and every street seemed equally
beautiful. While I thoroughly enjoyed the strong scent of the gardenia's, she
found it almost overpowering. I think one reason I liked it was because it
reminded me of my grandmother. She had a huge gardenia bush in her front yard
when she lived in Florida.
Tuesday Jeremy had to work, he was in Venice to attend a
conference. We decided to do a little sightseeing. I had been to Venice a few
weeks before, Tonda was coming back in a few weeks and Joey had been in town a
few days before us, so there was really nothing high on our list of things we
HAD to see. Our general destination was the Rialto Market. Last time I was
there, we arrived after the market had shut down for the day. This time we got
an earlier start and it was in full swing when we got there. As far as markets
go, it was nice enough. There were plenty of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables
and everything was displayed beautifully, but nothing can compare to the amazing
market in Barcelona. Now every time I go to a new market, I compare it to
Barcelona and am disappointed. For one thing, there wasn't much variety. Every
stand had the exact same produce as the one on either side. Joey wanted to buy
some strawberries, but one vendor wouldn't let her pick them herself. No
problem at all, the guy next to you will. Toward the end of the market we found
one vendor with pistachios. Joey bought some and offered me one. They were so
good, I got a bag for myself and offered Tonda one. She in turn bought the last
of the pistachios from the happy vender.
Judi had told us about a great restaurant to try, so we found
it on Google maps and headed out. I have an android phone and Tonda had a
IPhone. One would think Google maps would be the same on both. So far we had
taken turns navigating with no problem. After walking forever we finally
reached the last ally before our destination. The only problem, there was no
ally to turn on. We needed to be one street over, so we backtracked a bit to
the next place to turn, but no luck. The street just wasn't there. The place
where the restaurant should be was a church and there were not other streets
around. I pulled up the same restaurant on my phone and was directed to a
location 25 min away. No way was I interested in going back the way we just
came, my vote was to find someplace close and try this place for dinner. I'm
sure Tonda and Joey wanted to keep looking, but Austin and I whined long enough
that they gave in and we found a place on a busy pedestrian street where we
could people watch. After lunch we walked around some more and by the time we
got home that night, I was so tired I went to bed early and without dinner.
We had talked about a day trip to Florence, but the train was
just too expensive at almost €100 each. Instead we met on Wednesday and just
wandered the streets. Jeremy was back with us and we took him to an area where
we had found some great fresh fruit drinks. We wanted to look for the
restaurant again but alas, they were closed. Instead we agreed on Indian food
and found a great little place, well off the tourist paths. We ended up
spending a few hours there, enjoying each others company and looking at pictures
of Stephanie. I had brought my laptop to show everyone the pictures I had of
her. Stephanie was crazy about pictures and probably had thousands on her
phone. After her death, there was a problem with her phone and its now locked
and the pictures unretrievable. That meant I had pictures of her from several
trips we had taken, that no one else had. Joey had also brought the video from
her service at Arlington National Cemetery, that Tonda and I very much wanted to
see. It was a bitter sweet afternoon, but we did enjoy the trip down memory
lane.
On the way back to the hotel it started pouring rain. Tonda
had an early morning flight so everyone said goodbye to her, but the rest of us
planned on meeting up the following day. Sadly, I woke up with a sore throat
and more heavy rain. I had to change hotel rooms and they upgraded me to a huge
suite. I decided to stay in and get caught up on my blogs. I figured it would
let up by afternoon, but it was just a wet, miserable day. Joey's family braved
the elements to do a gondola ride, which I had no in interest in, so things
worked out for the best.
Time to go home, do laundry and get ready for
Berlin.
Link to pictures
Comments
Post a Comment