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18 February 2004 So, last weekend (13th-15th Feb 2004) we went to Venetia, the island of Venice. We cunningly arranged to be there during the start of Carnival, where they hold true masquerade balls with elaborate masks and costumes. We got in late Friday night, getting a near midnight water taxi to Venice itself from the mainland airport (you didn’t think it might be big enough to fly a plane on to did you?), and spent a merry time getting completely lost in the back allies, lugging the pack around. We found part of the ‘address’, but that happened to be a canal – a lot of addresses are labelled by which canal they are next too, but there aren’t paths right along the edge, only in certain places, and not knowing this when we got there it took us a while to get in the right area, and then finally had a friendly Italian guy show us to the door. Hooray! So, check in, another very friendly Italian as reception-guy check us into our marble floored room (don’t be too impressed, the floor was nice but it was only a cozy level of accommodation), and we went for a wander. Managed to have a map from the hotel this time so a little easier! Found our way to San Marco (St Mark’s) square, wandered past a few shops still open late for mask selling, and saw the Rialto bridge (for Venice what the Eiffel tower is for paris). Basically wandered around the allies in the middle of the night getting our bearings, and realising that Venice is VERY small. You could walk around the entire island in a few hours or 5. For some reason I thought it was much bigger, by hey, that’s what comes from learning geography from a movie theatre. So, sleep for a while, the up for more exploring, and shopping for what we came for, MASKS! The Saturday was a lot busier, with more and more tourists coming into the city for the party. We went to a glass blowing factory on the island of Murano, and saw a demonstration. Made a detailed horse in about two minutes. Nice to watch, but it was only one glass blower (they usually work in teams) and there was no colour involved. The Venetian glass ornaments around Murano were exquisite, examples of which might be what looks like a fish tank with tropical fish inside, but solid glass! Then back to Venice before it got too late, as a parade was planned for later in the day. Went wandering again - we had found a specific mask shop the night before (and on the web even a week before that), so wanted to find it again. Found and bought some amazing masks, traditional Venetian as opposed to the mass produced ones being sold on street corners, and of course, being Carnival, promptly put them on and wandered masked for the rest of the day! Think that’s weird? It gets better! We made our way back to the Rialto, passing many other people with masks, checked the time, and yes, had time for a gondola ride! So we coasted around the waterways of Venice, masked, having load of people stop and take photos of us (being masked in a gondola, photo opportunity!), having a completely nuts Italian polling us around and bursting into song. What an experience! Bl00dy cold though… it is still winter over here after all. So, back to the bridge, and made our way back to San Marco square. By this time, the full costumes started coming out. Complete ball gowns, head dresses, hats, capes and more! Some people were even wearing one mask, and carrying another. The crowds increased even more, an Kristin had to join in the many people also getting their face painted, as her mask was half-faced. After a quick lunch, and watching most of the parade of pilgrims in medieval dress pass, we spent the rest of the afternoon seeing more amazing costumes, and taking many photos of buildings and people. Carnival is a big street party, so they had bands, stilt walkers, and many other things in this years theme of ‘back to the orient’. At the end it was almost like the pied piper had put on a red dress and donned stilts, as the Indian band when finished drew the crowd after them away from the square by lighting flares and leading them away. We had to get up really early to catch our flight – we’d booked about 4 months before and still didn’t get the best flights, so only one full day to see Venice, but that was ONE FULL DAY! :-) So. Venice. Masks, glass, costumes, alleys, a bridge and a square. That was us, and we had loads of fun, but it must be the only place we’ve gone to that we didn’t really find good food. Of course, that’s possibly cos I don’t do seafood, but there you go. James |
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