Venezia - AKA, the Romantic City

We are here, in the city of romance...the stuff of novels, movies, poetry and song.  It's like a daydream.

118 small islands in a lagoon - no roads - canals - 400 bridges - 2 rivers - the Adriatic sea - high water up to 4x/year ... What kind of place is this?

Erica Jong said of Venice:

"It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone."

Water coming up to doorsteps is a disconcerting sight:

Gabriele D'Annunzio said of Venice's canals:

Between the still-slumbering walls of brick and marble, beneath the ribbon of the sky, more and more brightly gleamed the ribbon of the water."

It's so hard to imagine the workings of a city with only water for transportation.   Then as we wander about ... adaptation is obvious: garbage boats; construction boats; boats for police, ambulance, taxis, courier service and more; men with carts for hire to move goods and supplies through narrow alleys.

DHL courier boat:

Ambulance:

Ambulance docked in emergency department bay:

Emergency dock with covered bay and privacy screens for moving patients from boat to hospital:

Then there are the romantic gondolas, black, shiny with piano finish, plush brocade love seats trimmed with faux (often red) fur and high lighted with gold or silver accents.

The gondoliers with their striped shirts, straw hats, intimate knowledge of their boat and an uncanny sense of how to apply the single oar to manoeuvre through heavy boat traffic, narrow canals and ninety-degree corners, all while telling the history of Venice and its landmarks to tourists, or raising their voice in song.

There are about 400 licensed gondolas at any one time in Venice.

We did buy a good map of the city for back up, but mostly we decide to wander and adopt the attitude of getting lost as an adventure.  For two days we have no schedule free to peek into nooks and crannies, piazzas, cathedrals, shops, cafe/bars and whatever else strikes our fancy.  It's very freeing:

Murano glass is everywhere in traditional and modern designs.  We decide to not go to the island of Murano as we see a skilled glass craftsman at work in Venice.

We peek into a bar that has lots of women's' bras hanging from the ceiling many with hand-written messages on them:

We admire this dragon/umbrella lamp standard:

Masks, costumes and party decorations, elaborately painted and decorated are a hallmark of Venice.  Traditionally masks were made of leather, porcelain and even glass.  Today most are papier-mache.  Mask makers still hold a special place in society and have their own guild.

This island is the cemetery for Venice.  The camera only captured about a fifth of the cemetery wall/building.  

This photo from the web captures the breadth of it: San Michele, Venice's Cemetery Island

Pigeons everywhere:

St. Mark's Cathedral:

Another cathedral in the background:

Some buildings indeed appear as if they could use helping hands to stay upright:

One day we stumble into a modern art show in an ancient building:

A small room with ceiling and walls covered in colourful yarn and objects woven in, in places.  Like walking into someone's acid trip!

A skateboard girl of Kabul:

This chair made of millions of steel needles:

Its time to leave this enchanting, walkable city.  We are looking forward to doing our 20,000+ steps/day on the paths of the picturesque Cinque Terra and getting off cobblestones for a bit.