Venezia

April 30-May 2. One of our last major excursions before we return to the States. In fact, probably the last, since we are planning on a three day vacation on the Amalfi coast (Sorrento-Salerno) in two weeks, but that is only a short distance from Rome.

Venice is a six-hour train ride. Add another two hours if your train is delayed and you have to sit on the floor in the Rome/Termini station waiting its arrival from Naples. We finally left Rome around 12:30PM, arriving in Venice "Santa Lucia" Station around 6:30.

There are two stations in Venice. "Mestre" is on the mainland, "Santa Lucia" on the island (actually "islands") of Venice itself. It's difficult to describe the experience of stepping outside the Santa Lucia train station, because instead of the usual bus/tram-congested city square there is a canal, in fact the "Grand Canal," with barges, taxi-boats, gondolas, and the "vaporetti," which are the main means of public transportation on the Grand Canal, all plying there way about against the backdrop of a medieval/Renaissance city that seems frozen (architecturally) in time.

Because we arrived later than expected, we didn't get to look around much the first evening. Instead we took a shuttle directly to a campground on the mainland (right next to the airport) about twenty minutes away. We had the option of staying at a convent/monastery in Venice itself, but it would have cost us more than $700 for two nights. The Campground was less than half that. Easy choice.

Our full day in Venice was Saturday, May 1. (An ominous date, as it turns out. Read on.) We first meandered to St. Mark's square. On the way there we stopped for a gondola ride. Venice rules actually prohibit more than six passengers per gondola, but they cut us a break since we are a family. (Plus Lucy is small and was able to squeeze in between Paul and Matthew.) Our gondolier was "Leonardo," whose English was pretty good. Good enough, anyway, to give us a very informative ride, including some interesting info (and a hands-on demonstration) about the crabs that live just below the water line in the canals.

It was amazing how much control and power Leonardo exerted over the gondola, all with one oar! He navigated both some tricky tight spots in narrower canals, as well as the swells from the vaporetti on the Grand Canal. All in all, the gondola ride was an extremely relaxing and peaceful way to tour part of the city.

Our peace and relaxation was soon broken by the crowds that (like us) were converging on St. Mark's square. At many points in the narrow streets and alleys one had to "walk like an Egyptian" in order to make any progress.

The somewhat tragic backstory here is that Venice is quickly becoming an "artificial" wonderland, surviving (in Rick Steves' words) on the "artificial respirator of tourism." The city is down to about 60,000 full-time residents, down from 200,000 about twenty or so years ago. Real estate is too expensive, and it's not an ideal place to raise a family.

It is an ideal tourist destination though! We'll let the pictures above tell the rest of the story.