Venice: the weight of history
Nov. 22nd, 2007 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldearHappy Thanksgiving to the Americans! This is something for you to read when you're all stuffed full of turkey!
--
Our hotel in Venice was only a few streets away from the 'parking spot', over three bridges and along a fairly busy street.
But the most important thing about Venice was that it was the point at which the tour slowed down. We were no longer rushing around, waking up at 6am to get to the next place. We got to 'sleep in' to 7:30am. Woo!
Not that it made much difference: I spent most of my two nights there up until 3am, coughing, thanks to that damned cold I had. The depressing thing was that I was keeping my room-mate up with all the coughing, and the one night that I managed to get online to chat to people, she woke up and got up and said something about, "This is not the way to do things." Sadly, at that stage, my emotional state was bad enough that I really wanted to chat to friends...and because of her comment, I shut down the computer and spent another more-or-less sleepless night.
The isolation of which probably occasioned my breakdown a few days later.
But that's getting ahead of things.
Our day in Venice was to include the Basilica of San Marco, the Doge's Palazzo, and the Bridge of Sighs. We started with a ferry trip around the outside of Venice to the mouth of the Grand Canal, where the Basilica, the Doge's Palazzo and the Bridge of Sighs were situated, out by the lagoon.
Google Maps: Piazza San Marco. (Hopefully zoomed correctly.)
Early morning in the Grand Canal.
Several palazzos on the way around the outside of Venice.
This one shows the scaffolding work around the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St Mary of Salvation).
The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute as we passed it. It sits on the mouth of the lagoon that points out to sea, and may very well have been the inspiration for Asherat's Temple in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Chosen, which is set in an alternate earth version of Venice called Serenissima. Apparently the thing about the Doge being married to the sea (if not the goddess of the sea) is actual history in Venice. They used to take the Doge out of the lagoon and towards the sea, and he'd throw a gold ring into the water to symbolise his marriage to the sea. These days, they, um, throw something that isn't a gold ring, human nature being what it's always been and diving equipment being what it is.
The Doge's Palazzo. I can't remember if Carey put the Doge's Palace next to the Temple of Asherat, but they're not that far away from each other - just across the mouth of the Grand Canal.
The Bridge Of Sighs, that separated the Doge's Palazzo from the dungeons where people were executed. It's not quite as dramatic as a rope-and-wood-slat bridge, unfortunately. Joscelin would have had a lot of trouble getting across this one to rescue Phedre!
Mostly, the Doge's Palazzo was for the administration and judicial decisions of the ruling body of Venice, which would then translate into judgement and imprisonment. The prisoners would be taken across the Bridge of Sighs, during which they would get their last view of the world outside and they would sigh.
We went through the passage on the Bridge of Sighs (and came back), and it's very grey and bleak inside, and you look through the windows to the outside, and yes, it's pretty depressing...
The Doge's Palazzo on the left, the dungeons on the right.
We arrived pretty early in the morning, so there weren't too many people about. By midday, though, the place was packed to the gills.
Now this is the Basilica di San Marco - or the Basilica of St. Mark, whose relics were stolen from the Holy Land by a couple of Venetian merchants back in 828.
From the side.
From the front.
A detail of the mosaics - yes, they are tile mosaics - in one of the niches.
I think this is a library. I just liked the facade and the ironwork gate. I tried to stick Daniel in the gate, but there were people going in and out and he kept falling off. Too much trouble, so I just tucked him back in my bag and didn't bother in the end. There are photos of him later.
The empty Piazza di San Marco. When it's full - as it was when we came back at midday - there are people everywhere. And pigeons. They feed the pigeons in the square! Which seems crazy, because they have a major pigeon problem in places like Venice: they can't keep the statuary clean, and everything has the little spikes on it to dissuade pigeons from roosting!
A late medieaval clock at the Basilica end of the Piazza. The Winged Lion on the top is a common feature of Venice - it's the animal associated with St. Mark. (The guy who made a post-mortem unauthorised trip from the Holy Land in the company of a couple of Venetian Merchants. No wonder Shakespeare was so down on 'em!)
Daniel on the balustrade inside the Doge's Palazzo courtyard - the only place in the Palace where you're allowed to take photos.
I had a bit of extra time before I had to head out to lunch (we were going out to one of the satellite islands outside Venice) so I checked out the 'Islam and Venice' display that was showing in the Doge's Palazzo. Because of its association with the Middle East, Venice had a lot of wares that medieaval Europe considered exotic, and Venice (and Italy) gained a lot of culture because of the Middle Eastern connection.
It seems strange to us these days to think of the Middle East as possessing 'culture' - but five hundred to a thousand years ago, the Middle East was light years ahead of Europe in terms of technology, open-minded thinking, warfare, history, and culture. So in this display they had bits and pieces of metalwork, literature, maps, cloth, glasswork, and weaponry shown - both from the Islamic world of the time and from Venice.
On the whole, Jacqueline Carey's Serenissima is much more dramatic and vibrant in the books than Venice is in modern reality.
The truth is that while the architecture and style of Venice was exquisite, the substance was very much missing.
Venice is a lovely city on the outside, but it lacks the life from within. The city stands as it has for hundreds of years, but the people who should crowd its rooms - the locals who should live within the houses and palazzos lining the canals - are absent. It's too expensive to live in Venice, so most people live outside Venice and commute in each day.
The result? A city full of empty houses, owned by corporate entities who don't have people live in the houses - they keep them for when they need to be here or want to throw parties.
Maybe once, hundreds of years ago - or even just fifty years ago - it was a city in the real and living and active sense of the word. Now, most of the windows are boarded up, most of the curtains are dark, and the place gives the sense of being run-down and weary.
It's a shell of a city, an aging Hollywood screen goddess who put all her efforts into staying young and beautiful, but lacks the reality and personality behind the charming façade.
Amsterdam, Heidelberg, and Innsbruck certainly felt alive. They have the feel of cities that are lived-in, occupied, with the lifeblood and mindheart of their inhabitants feeding them. The smaller cities we passed through had the same feel - so did the towns and the villages that we drove through during this trip.
But Venice feels...hollow.
It's really rather sad, in a way. The city is doomed, since they're almost constantly running repairs - one reason for the expense of owning property. There's an argument going on as to whether it's worth continuing to shore up Venice - if the balance of history can compete with the upkeep of the foundations.
Still, it's a beautiful city, even if its glory days are long since gone.
The difference between living town and dying city became even more marked when we went to the little fishing island of Burano, taking a 45 min cruise around the south and east of the city of Venice to reach it. Burano is a living, growing community, as several of the smaller islands are. Most of their interests lie in fishing, and the primary age children come out of school for lunch and siesta.
Another ferry ride took us out to Burano. It's all very vibrant, both in colour, and in the small details of life about the place.
In case you miss him, Daniel's sitting on the water fountain in this pic!
Lunch was awesome: fish paella to begin with, tomato and basil penne with fried squid and...oh, man, I don't remember anymore. Just that it was so tasty! For dessert, there was amaretto liqueur, a short black Italian coffee, and macaroons to finish.
It was so good, I even drank the short black. And I never drink my coffee short and black.
After lunch, we wandered all through Burano, and the sunset over the water was really spectacular. My camera couldn't cope with the red-hot ball of the sun about to set through the dusk clouds at first, but once enough of its light was dimmed, I managed to get a photo or two.
Um, actually about half a dozen. But they're so pretty!
The play of light over water is divine, though!
Out of all the days we spent anywhere, I think I liked the day in Venice best. The weather was perfect, the sightseeing was both historical and beautiful, and everything came together - the light, the colours, the flavours, the sense of the day - and it was very good.
--
Our hotel in Venice was only a few streets away from the 'parking spot', over three bridges and along a fairly busy street.
But the most important thing about Venice was that it was the point at which the tour slowed down. We were no longer rushing around, waking up at 6am to get to the next place. We got to 'sleep in' to 7:30am. Woo!
Not that it made much difference: I spent most of my two nights there up until 3am, coughing, thanks to that damned cold I had. The depressing thing was that I was keeping my room-mate up with all the coughing, and the one night that I managed to get online to chat to people, she woke up and got up and said something about, "This is not the way to do things." Sadly, at that stage, my emotional state was bad enough that I really wanted to chat to friends...and because of her comment, I shut down the computer and spent another more-or-less sleepless night.
The isolation of which probably occasioned my breakdown a few days later.
But that's getting ahead of things.
Our day in Venice was to include the Basilica of San Marco, the Doge's Palazzo, and the Bridge of Sighs. We started with a ferry trip around the outside of Venice to the mouth of the Grand Canal, where the Basilica, the Doge's Palazzo and the Bridge of Sighs were situated, out by the lagoon.
Google Maps: Piazza San Marco. (Hopefully zoomed correctly.)
Early morning in the Grand Canal.
Several palazzos on the way around the outside of Venice.
This one shows the scaffolding work around the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St Mary of Salvation).
The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute as we passed it. It sits on the mouth of the lagoon that points out to sea, and may very well have been the inspiration for Asherat's Temple in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Chosen, which is set in an alternate earth version of Venice called Serenissima. Apparently the thing about the Doge being married to the sea (if not the goddess of the sea) is actual history in Venice. They used to take the Doge out of the lagoon and towards the sea, and he'd throw a gold ring into the water to symbolise his marriage to the sea. These days, they, um, throw something that isn't a gold ring, human nature being what it's always been and diving equipment being what it is.
The Doge's Palazzo. I can't remember if Carey put the Doge's Palace next to the Temple of Asherat, but they're not that far away from each other - just across the mouth of the Grand Canal.
The Bridge Of Sighs, that separated the Doge's Palazzo from the dungeons where people were executed. It's not quite as dramatic as a rope-and-wood-slat bridge, unfortunately. Joscelin would have had a lot of trouble getting across this one to rescue Phedre!
Mostly, the Doge's Palazzo was for the administration and judicial decisions of the ruling body of Venice, which would then translate into judgement and imprisonment. The prisoners would be taken across the Bridge of Sighs, during which they would get their last view of the world outside and they would sigh.
We went through the passage on the Bridge of Sighs (and came back), and it's very grey and bleak inside, and you look through the windows to the outside, and yes, it's pretty depressing...
The Doge's Palazzo on the left, the dungeons on the right.
We arrived pretty early in the morning, so there weren't too many people about. By midday, though, the place was packed to the gills.
Now this is the Basilica di San Marco - or the Basilica of St. Mark, whose relics were stolen from the Holy Land by a couple of Venetian merchants back in 828.
From the side.
From the front.
A detail of the mosaics - yes, they are tile mosaics - in one of the niches.
I think this is a library. I just liked the facade and the ironwork gate. I tried to stick Daniel in the gate, but there were people going in and out and he kept falling off. Too much trouble, so I just tucked him back in my bag and didn't bother in the end. There are photos of him later.
The empty Piazza di San Marco. When it's full - as it was when we came back at midday - there are people everywhere. And pigeons. They feed the pigeons in the square! Which seems crazy, because they have a major pigeon problem in places like Venice: they can't keep the statuary clean, and everything has the little spikes on it to dissuade pigeons from roosting!
A late medieaval clock at the Basilica end of the Piazza. The Winged Lion on the top is a common feature of Venice - it's the animal associated with St. Mark. (The guy who made a post-mortem unauthorised trip from the Holy Land in the company of a couple of Venetian Merchants. No wonder Shakespeare was so down on 'em!)
Daniel on the balustrade inside the Doge's Palazzo courtyard - the only place in the Palace where you're allowed to take photos.
I had a bit of extra time before I had to head out to lunch (we were going out to one of the satellite islands outside Venice) so I checked out the 'Islam and Venice' display that was showing in the Doge's Palazzo. Because of its association with the Middle East, Venice had a lot of wares that medieaval Europe considered exotic, and Venice (and Italy) gained a lot of culture because of the Middle Eastern connection.
It seems strange to us these days to think of the Middle East as possessing 'culture' - but five hundred to a thousand years ago, the Middle East was light years ahead of Europe in terms of technology, open-minded thinking, warfare, history, and culture. So in this display they had bits and pieces of metalwork, literature, maps, cloth, glasswork, and weaponry shown - both from the Islamic world of the time and from Venice.
On the whole, Jacqueline Carey's Serenissima is much more dramatic and vibrant in the books than Venice is in modern reality.
The truth is that while the architecture and style of Venice was exquisite, the substance was very much missing.
Venice is a lovely city on the outside, but it lacks the life from within. The city stands as it has for hundreds of years, but the people who should crowd its rooms - the locals who should live within the houses and palazzos lining the canals - are absent. It's too expensive to live in Venice, so most people live outside Venice and commute in each day.
The result? A city full of empty houses, owned by corporate entities who don't have people live in the houses - they keep them for when they need to be here or want to throw parties.
Maybe once, hundreds of years ago - or even just fifty years ago - it was a city in the real and living and active sense of the word. Now, most of the windows are boarded up, most of the curtains are dark, and the place gives the sense of being run-down and weary.
It's a shell of a city, an aging Hollywood screen goddess who put all her efforts into staying young and beautiful, but lacks the reality and personality behind the charming façade.
Amsterdam, Heidelberg, and Innsbruck certainly felt alive. They have the feel of cities that are lived-in, occupied, with the lifeblood and mindheart of their inhabitants feeding them. The smaller cities we passed through had the same feel - so did the towns and the villages that we drove through during this trip.
But Venice feels...hollow.
It's really rather sad, in a way. The city is doomed, since they're almost constantly running repairs - one reason for the expense of owning property. There's an argument going on as to whether it's worth continuing to shore up Venice - if the balance of history can compete with the upkeep of the foundations.
Still, it's a beautiful city, even if its glory days are long since gone.
The difference between living town and dying city became even more marked when we went to the little fishing island of Burano, taking a 45 min cruise around the south and east of the city of Venice to reach it. Burano is a living, growing community, as several of the smaller islands are. Most of their interests lie in fishing, and the primary age children come out of school for lunch and siesta.
Another ferry ride took us out to Burano. It's all very vibrant, both in colour, and in the small details of life about the place.
In case you miss him, Daniel's sitting on the water fountain in this pic!
Lunch was awesome: fish paella to begin with, tomato and basil penne with fried squid and...oh, man, I don't remember anymore. Just that it was so tasty! For dessert, there was amaretto liqueur, a short black Italian coffee, and macaroons to finish.
It was so good, I even drank the short black. And I never drink my coffee short and black.
After lunch, we wandered all through Burano, and the sunset over the water was really spectacular. My camera couldn't cope with the red-hot ball of the sun about to set through the dusk clouds at first, but once enough of its light was dimmed, I managed to get a photo or two.
Um, actually about half a dozen. But they're so pretty!
The play of light over water is divine, though!
Out of all the days we spent anywhere, I think I liked the day in Venice best. The weather was perfect, the sightseeing was both historical and beautiful, and everything came together - the light, the colours, the flavours, the sense of the day - and it was very good.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 12:04 pm (UTC)And I got your postcard! Thank you so much! ^.^
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 12:55 pm (UTC)The day was perfect, and Venice is so beautiful in sunlight, it's really difficult to take a bad photo of it!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 12:58 pm (UTC)Incidentally, when I was last in London and we met up for dinner (were we going to meet up again, btw?), did we meet at a restaurant opposite Victoria station, called ASK?
Because yesterday afternoon, I looked across the street from bus stop G outside Victoria underground and thought, "I'd swear that's the restaurant where
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 01:56 pm (UTC)When are you in London till? We must do lunch :)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 03:23 pm (UTC)How's tomorrow for lunch? Where do you work? I'm in John Islip St, near the Tate Britain, but I have the bus routes in this city pretty well mastered, so I can get around to most places in Central London.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 03:58 pm (UTC)Would much prefer to do Monday - even for coffee hour in the morning if you have to get to the airport in the afternoon? If you can't though, then of course tomorrow will be okay xx
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 09:14 am (UTC)Look forward to catching up (and saying hi to Daniel) on Monday!!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 12:50 am (UTC)