Venice of the south

Venice, Venezia (Italy)

June 2008

This is the real Venice! It takes about 3 hours from Milan (Milano Centrale) by intercity train to reach Santa Lucia, a major railway station in Venezia. The other station is Mestre, also in Venezia. Venezia, I think is like a state in Italy, and Venice is like a separate island reachable from Venezia. Santa Lucia was closest to the bus station at Venice, where we were to board the shuttle bus to the camping village, Alba D'oro. The camping village is very good in terms of comfort and service, except that it is a bit far from Venice, and you have to rely on the shuttle bus to Venice.

Venice is a city and country by itself. But it can be covered completely within a day. The best way to see Venice is by walk. Starting from the bus station, we purchased a road map and just started walking. Clicking pictures aplenty, especially of the mysterious venetian masks at shops every 100 feet or so..it was an interesting experience indeed.

The main area of interest is San Marco, where St. Mark's Cathedral and Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) is present. I do not know much about Christianity, but here are excerpts that I collected and found meaningful about the Cathedral and the different things I noticed at Venice.

St. Mark's Basilica - This is supposed to be one of the finest examples of Byzantine and Gothic architecture. Legend of St. Mark, the evangelist - The first patron saint of Venice was St.Teodoro. In 828 St.Mark the Evangelist substituted him when two merchants smuggled his mortal remains back from Alessandria (Egypt). St.Mark's remains were initially buried in a chapel in the Doge's Palace but later a church was built that was to be his perpetual resting place. The church later suffered damage from fire and was modified many times to adapt to Venice's evolution of power and wealth. This simple church evolved into St.Mark's Basilica. The modifications to the Basilica continued on through an entire century, therefore the results of the construction exhibit a mixture of different styles.

Doge's Palace - As far as this is concerned, the Grimani room was interesting, where the story of the winged lion of St.Mark was depicted. The lion is depicted as having its front paws on land and hind paws on the sea, signifying the domination of Venice Republic over both the land and the water. I also learnt that the Doge is essentially powerless, and is just a symbol of wealth and the only reason Venetians would want to become a Doge is that their names will be remembered in history of time.

We spent a considerable time at the St.Mark's square, where you can find plenty of pigeons to feed and watch. It is a good place to do some candid photography. Only the St. Mark's Square is called Piazza, the rest are called campos. I have no idea why.

Tips -

Gondolas charge 100euros per ride! Vaporettis are a much better option.

Gelatos (Ice creams) are a good thing to try as you explore the streets of Venice..we definitely needed those thanks to the hot sun!