Venice April, 2016

[fumobici]

So in spite of having family in Italy and having been in Italy many times, I'd always avoided Venice.  My father told me it wasn't worth just devoting a day or two to, and it has a reputation as a tourist hell as well.  Well last month I just went for it, booked a room for four nights and decided to see what it was about.  I arrived in the late afternoon the worse for wear, having flown in via Vancouver BC, Toronto and Munich.  When you land at the small local airport, you walk a couple of minutes from the terminal and there are boats every half hour or so into the Venice centro. The boat trip takes forty five minutes or so, and on a nice afternoon such as I had, a very pleasant way to be introduced to the city. 



Here we're looking back towards the the airport from the boat at the dock.



The boat was mostly empty, I wouldn't count on that being the case in the high season.  I would never test that hypothesis.





The first stop this boat makes is at Murano, the island just North of Venice famous for its glassblowers.  This would be as close as I came to Murano.  I liked the sign that told boaters how fast they were going at the approach to the dock, no doubt a reminder to keep wakes down.







Between Murano and Venice is an island that is a cemetery. This is its church.





Finally the boat approaches the city itself, silhouetted in the late afternoon sky. 



 
 

[fumobici]

I get off at the first stop in the city, Fondamente Nove which is the northern edge of much of the city, just a short walk from my lodgings at Ca' Riccio which I can recommend. After an hour or so of getting situated in my room, I head out into the evening to find some quiet to walk in after a very long day spent in airplanes and airports and to find something for dinner before I go to bed.

Just outside my lodgings is a wonderful little church called S. Maria dei Miracoli:



Having looked at a map of the city, it looks like the absolute quietest and least traveled area in easy walking distance is to head Northeast towards the Arsenale (the historic boatyards where Venice's fleets were built in perhaps the first known instance of mass production). There is a an area to its north that can only be accessed via a trip through a very quiet area of the city and then along a long narrow steel path affixed to the Arsenale's north wall. As I expected there is absolutely nobody to be seen save a couple of joggers who no doubt do this route daily. It's perfect for what I had in mind, a very quiet walk with a great view of the harbor.

My route to the Arsenale leads me past the church, S. Francesco della Vigna with its very old portico.



The North of the Arsenale is perfect when I get there, a beautiful evening view of the Northern lagoon and I seem to be the only person anywhere around.











I am delighted to find a couple of very old plaques set into the brick wall surrounding the boatyard, one from the 1400s, and another from the 1500s.





I stumble upon a little courtyard near the church, and its belltower on the way back to me room.





Then I stop at a Co-op grocery nearby (not many grocery stores in Venice!) to get a sandwich, some fruit and a beer and walk along a couple of canals headed back to my room feeling dead tired from the travel.







I'll easily and quickly fall asleep before waking up in the middle of the night for an hour or two for no good reason except my messed up body clock and begin my exploration of this strange and wonderful place in earnest in the morning.

[bjd]

What a wonderful introduction to Venice, rather than the teeming masses at Piazza San Marco.

Have you read anything by Donna Leon? She is an American who has been living in Venice for years and her detective stories are set there, but in areas that are not especially touristy. The last one I read was set mostly in Murano.

[Deleted]

Oh, you are living one of my dreams, fumo. And May in Venice it is, I would never have thought of going in spring, I thought it had to be midwinter (outside of Carnevale) or nothing to avoid the crowds. Cherry blossoms! And I've always wanted to visit Murano. How many bridges do you estimate you crossed on your initial ramble? Please continue...

[fumobici]

I went to S. Marco the very next morning. It was early and foggy and nearly deserted. I visited it once more before I left--again early in the morning before the tourists arrive. One can almost always it seems avoid tourists in Venice during the long days, just go out in the earliest light. In the more wide open spots like the Fondamente in sestiere S. Marco, the piazza or the major campos like S. Polo it can truly be quiet, almost solitary, but around the Rialto or Strada Nova, areas narrower and packed with stores the early morning is when all the deliveries are being done, from the canals, onto carts, and then on the narrow calles. The canals are jammed with boats and boatmen calling to one another around corners and whatnot. Early mornings in Venice also see the workers commuting on foot to their various shops to work or students of various ages going to early classes, or the city sweepers clearing the campielli and streets mostly still with brooms made of bundles of twigs. You'll hear Italian (or even Venetian) being spoken with S. Asian and African accents by the early risers. There are to this day parts of the old city that looked and felt very much like neighborhoods where people lived and worked rather than feeling like tourist sets. Saw lots of dogs being walked obviously by locals which made the place seem more real to me. I can't remember seeing a single cat in Venice. Not even one looking out a window. There must be cats there, but I guess they don't go outside at least in the light.

Donna Leon? No, but the name sounds familiar.

[whatagain]

Mostly Commissario Brunetti. But the main character is Venice.
This is a very difficult thread ... how not to want to go back !!!!
I want to go back !!!!!!!!!

[fumobici]

May 13, 2016 18:48:27 GMT @lizzyfaire said:

Oh, you are living one of my dreams, fumo. And May in Venice it is, I would never have thought of going in spring, I thought it had to be midwinter (outside of Carnevale) or nothing to avoid the crowds. Cherry blossoms! And I've always wanted to visit Murano. How many bridges do you estimate you crossed on your initial ramble? Please continue...

I did this last month lizzy, I was told in no uncertain terms to go before May when the giant tourist cruise boats begin calling. April seems like a good bet to me, especially if you won't have your trip spoiled by a bit of rain.  It was only actually nasty for maybe three hours while I was out walking in Venice.  Sestiere Dorsoduro gets shortchanged in this report thanks to that hard rain. I walked around, but didn't take many photos.  I think I read there are four hundred some bridges in old Venice, but probably half of them just go to private buildings. I don't know how many bridges I crossed but I daresay it was most of the ones in the entire city on public ways. I didn't want to leave much of the city unexplored.

[mossie]

Many thanks for this introduction to Venice. A place I once planned to visit but now will see through your camera lens. So much history and somewhere exotic and different, right up my street, thanks again.

[bixaorellana]

Oh joy! I have been impatiently waiting your report, Fumobici, and it's everything I expected and more. The pictures are wonderful, but your word pictures would be a treat all by themselves.

The late afternoon light in your pictures is everything one imagines and hopes from Venice. Can't wait to see what the morning brings.

[mich64]

I am very excited about this report on Venice and following your impressions and experiences. This was supposed to be part of our planned holiday for September but we have had to cancel our plans this fall but are hoping now for May 2017. I think May might be a better choice already.

[mich64]

Oh, I just seen your response to Lizzy about May, maybe we will change that to April! I do not mind a little rain if I can get there before the cruise ship season.

[fumobici]

Well, then let's move on the the next morning. I wanted to see S. Marco at least once and an early, rather foggy morning seemed like the perfect time to get it out of the way.

The little square below with this charming building, S. Maria Nova named after a church that no longer exists, was the one closest to my room. The building is now a city hospital dedicated to mental health treatment. This square also has a nice bar, a restaurant or two, an antiques shop, a used book store and a lovely view across the canal to S. Maria dei Miracoli.



Next photos are of the important church S. Salvador near the Rialto bridge and which in a couple of hours will thus be in tourist hell. But not right now. The Rialto bridge and the Gordian knot of commercialism and congestion associated with it is just something that must be navigated in central Venice. There are only four bridges spanning the Grand Canal and the Rialto has no nearby neighbors. You just have to plow through.








Anyway. Below is what the Piazza San Marco area might look like on an April early morning.

[fumobici]

[fumobici]

It's easy to see why it is a tourist hell most of the time. The fact is, it fully lives up to its lofty hype. The area is architecturally astonishing, from the overall effect to each incredible detail. You'll never see anything else like it anywhere.

I walk away to go back to breakfast at the place, head spill spinning. This is the famous 'bridge of sighs' connecting the palazzo ducale to the prison across the canal.





Heading back to Cannaregio via the Campo Santa Maria Formosa which is awkwardly translated to in English "Saint Mary the Curvaceous" or "Saint Mary the Buxom". I guess someone had a vision where she was pretty stacked and they built the church there

















This little courtyard gate above meant i was almost back to the S. Maria dei Miracoli church:



Here's the lovely upper facade above.

After breakfast I set out to give the Sestiere (quarter or district) Cannaregio a good walking over, but that's for later.

[bjd]

I just realized that the last time I went to Venice was in November 1984! I guess the buildings haven't changed much, although looking it up, the population of the historical city has dropped by half since 1980! From 120,000 to 60,000. Already at the time, I wondered what people actually did since many of the shops carried those pointy-nosed carnival masks.

It is unfortunate that the city's beauty, so well shown in your photographs, has led to so much of its decline -- not all, of course. The latest monster cruise ship just built in St Nazaire took to the sea this week. If they allow it to come close to Venice, it will swamp the place, especially if all 5,000 tourists aboard want to get off for a few hours.

[mossie]

Some of the stonework carvings are exquisite, but I get a feeling of decay, and ,above all, claustrophobia. I had not realised how cramped the city is, an influx of 5,000 chattering tourists must be pandemonium.

[htmb]

I'm enjoying your photos, and look forward to more, fumobici. Somehow, I doubt I'll ever visit Venice, so it's nice to see it through the lens of your camera.

[tod2]

This is a terrific photo-essay Fumobici - And one I am taking a great interest in. My plan for Venice next year was going to be September but I think you may have made me re-think the month.
I want to know everything you did, the place you stayed at and why, and as many tips on eating out and what to look for as possible.
Great photos BTW!

[bjd]

I just saw this documentary mentioned on the Thorn Tree:

[bixaorellana]

I echo what Tod said! I don't have a month pin-pointed, but fully intend to visit Venice, sooner rather than later.

It's an absolute pleasure to see this famous and beautiful city through your eyes, Fumobici. Even the morning and evening pictures don't show people too bundled up, so that's a plus for the time you chose for your visit.

My only complaint so far is that some of the pictures are so stupendous that I have to keep going back over everything.

[Deleted]

Venice looks so much more charming out of season... and in the early morning hours, which is when I do a lot of my own photography.

It is really a shame that the city has become so depopulated, but at the same time I imagine a lot of former Venetians found many aspects of the city inconvenient, while tourists find them charming because they don't have to really live there.

However, I have fond memories of the 2000 movie Pane e tulipani which takes place in Venice but far from the canals and tourists. It helped to rehabilitate Venice in my eyes.

[bjd]

In general, I find September better for tourism than May, at least in Western Europe. You usually have better weather. This year, as so often, May is rainy and rather cool. The only advantages of May are that there are more daylight hours, and parks and gardens are prettier.

[tod2]

Another question I have for Fumobici is : Was the entire airfare via Munich all inclusive. I wondered why you never went by train to Venice?

[fumobici]

Venice is divided into six districts or sestieri:



The place I stayed is right near where Cannaregio, Castello, and S. Marco intersect. The next walk begins there and meanders over to the old Jewish quarter in Northwest Cannaregio. The term "ghetto" is in fact Venetian in origin, the Jews were confined to that area during the evenings until Napoleon ended the practice at the end of the 18th century.

We'll start with what is reportedly the last bridge in Venice without a handrail. They of course at one time were probably all like that before the dumb tourists began falling into the canals.



The guys that drive the boats around the canals have to duck a *lot*.









I found the little Campo de l'Abazia charming. The facade that's gone missing from the church on the left is reportedly outstanding, but I missed it because it is apparently been stolen and can only be seen today in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. I read that the herringbone brickwork here on the ground was once typical of Venetian squares.



















If you call a taxi in Venice, this is what arrives:











I wish I knew more about this next place, Campo dei Mori or square of the Moors. I read that the square was named after some brothers who lived here from Moria in what is present day Greece, but maybe that was close enough to being "Moors" at the time. There are three "Moor" statues in the little campo, the most notable on the corner being this fellow with an iron nose! I'll just guess that his marble nose broke off at some point and the iron nose is a replacement.













One of the distinctive things about Cannaregio is its series of straight canals, which are unusual in the city.
















I think this is San Giorgio and the dragon.









Campo San Alvise:

[fumobici]

I chance upon a community park with a nice activity center and a nice garden with this in its center:





And a banana tree with fruit. I didn't expect that in Venice.















These are typically venetian chimneys:









I came across these posters in a little record store:





Here we are at my turnaround point, the old Jewish ghetto:















I head back to the barn at this point, but stop at the Gesuiti church to snap a few photos. The Jesuits weren't always the most favored group in Venice due to their reliable devotion to the Pope. Hence they were kind of kicked out here in Cannaregio to the Northern periphery of the city where they built this over the top church as their base:











The interior is I'm told even more over the top ornamented than the exterior with inlayed stone "tapestries" on the walls and stuff like that.

Next, we'll tour the sestiere of Castello a bit.

[bixaorellana]

Well! I thought you'd never get around to showing us anything truly interesting and artistic, but you redeemed yourself with the lawn dwarves.

This continues fascinating. What I can't get over is how the buildings are actually down in the water. When I think of "houses on a canal", I envision some easement and a breakwater. Not in Venice! Is there much tide action in the canals?

When I was thinking about going to Venice, I was trying to figure out how to avoid staying someplace where you had to go way around because of no conveniently placed bridges. Any insight there?

The moor with the replacement nose foreshadowed Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou by centuries.

[fumobici]

May 14, 2016 14:05:26 GMT tod2 said:

This is a terrific photo-essay Fumobici - And one I am taking a great interest in. My plan for Venice next year was going to be September but I think you may have made me re-think the month.
I want to know everything you did, the place you stayed at and why, and as many tips on eating out and what to look for as possible.
Great photos BTW!

Thanks. Well I mostly just walked around gaping and taking the occasional photo.  I chose the place on the strength of having had good prior results booking through the Cross-Pollinate website and they came through again.  I'm not sure why but the same places often cost way more when booked through Venere or Hotels.com or similar sites and the people at Cross-Pollinate are a pleasure to deal with.  I tried to get a room in Verona and I couldn't find a room in the center for *three times* what I paid for my room in Venice at Ca' Riccio.  I could barely get a room here where I live, nowhere special in the US, for what my room cost.  They have a nice breakfast too, although you better be fit enough to climb stairs.  Eating in Venice?  I say live on your hotel breakfast, cichetti (Venetian tapas) and prosecco from the bars for the afternoon and maybe a pizza or sit down meal late.  I've heard the "nicer" restaurants in Venice are likely to disappoint, and they really don't want to make a reservation for a single diner in any case, so if I saw a spot outside the tourist zones that looked promising I would just ask if they have a spot for "un uomo da solo".  I found a couple of nice dinners that way.  My only rules were, not in the tourist zones, English menu is a disqualifying fault, and so is anyone trying to talk you inside, then just commonsense. The places all have menus posted outside, so you'll know if the prices are within your budget before you sit down. 

[fumobici]

Tides, Bixa? I didn't notice, although I'm sure they are an issue. There are no lack of bridges really I'd say. Except the Grand Canal, over which there is an enormous lack of bridges, being only four, and two of those--Scalzi and Calatrava--are both near the train station which leaves only Rialto and Accademia for the entire rest of the city. What makes navigation difficult though is less the lack of bridges, but the fact that streets just randomly end in a canal with no warning about as often as they lead to a bridge. If you aren't constantly hitting dead ends with steps leading down into a canal, you really are trying hard enough and the city is such a rabbit warren, there is no possible portable map that can prevent this.

I thought those were gnomes rather than dwarves. I wonder which they'd prefer?

[bixaorellana]

Well, seven of them are accompanied by a young woman of familiar mien, so must be dwarves, but you are right that the others are gnomes.

Neglected to mention how much I love seeing all these lovely shots of well-used and lived in places and things.

[mich64]

From fall into spring, the Venice region can experience what is called Aqua Alta which are higher than normal tides due to surges in the Adriatic Sea from winds. I found out this information when I began planning our holiday for October 2016. From reading some trip reports most advised to be extra careful if the water is covering the pathways to watch your step carefully for missing cobbles, planks or debris. I did see some photos where people were buying "rain boots" which looked like surgical slippers (same bright blue color) but up to your knees where there was a draw string.

I am enjoying your photos immensely. Particularly the one showing the Venetian chimneys, outstanding photo.

Do you have photos coming of crossing any of the larger bridges such as the Ponti di Rialto?