D28 – VENICE THRU TIRED EYES AND SORE FEET

By this time the calendar has reached the first of October. We’ve been on the road for a month and, frankly, we are tired but with more travel savvy. We’ve been lugging suitcases all over Europe but Venice poses a different problem. After driving to the island of Venice, you must leave your car in a parking garage and hoof it to your hotel as best you can. The question is, “Should we get a hotel near the parking structure for convenience?” or “Should we get a hotel near the center of action and use the water bus or taxi to get there?” We chose the former and had a plan of action. Before leaving Lake Como we placed all we’d need in one bag. That way we’d only have to lug only it and my camera bag. Smart, huh? On turning the car over to the parking attendant, he quietly suggested if we ever wanted to see the things left in the car, we’d better take them with us. That’s how we ended up dragging a pack train of 2 heavy suitcases, 1 overhead bag, 1 shoulder bag, and the camera bag to the hotel. Oh, I forgot, there was a plastic bag filled with shoes as well.

We asked for hotel directions from the lady at the kiosk, who said, “Hotel del Sole? Just over the bridge and two minutes away. Can’t miss it.” We headed in the direction she pointed and came to a set of 10 stairs going down. It meant unhooking all bags and porting them down. Hook up again and walk to a set of 10 stairs going up. Unhook all bags and port them up. Then the bridge had 15 steps going up followed by down. Unhook, carry up and down, hook up, and resume walking. Louise was watching the bags carefully to make sure they didn’t wander off during the hook/unhook process.

Louise said, “We’re lost,” so I asked a policeman, “Dov’è Hotel del Sole? (pronounced So Lay). He pointed down the canal and said, “Just down the canal. Two minutes away.” We lugged the suitcases down the pavement and spotted the hotel.

It was across another bridge! Unhook, carry up and down… By now I was exhausted and couldn’t lift another ounce but there were still two more bags left with Louise. When the two bags appeared coming over the bridge I thought they were being carried by angels.  Instead, they were American girls …angels without wings…on vacation.  When they spotted a disconsolate Louise they decided to help.

I stumbled into the lobby pulling the load. My shirt was soaked through with sweat; water was dripping off my nose and my hair was in ringlets. The overly cheery girl at the desk said, “Oh, Mr. DeTournay. We’ve been expecting you. Did you walk or swim?”

The hotel, at one time, was the home (or palace) of a very wealthy family in the trading business. Don’t know when it was converted to a hotel but the rooms are more spacious than we’re used to. Since we didn’t want to waste a minute in Venice, we sat down with the map provided by the hotel…the one that makes everything look so close and easy to reach.

The main island of Venice is not hard to figure out. Almost everyone, us included, wants to see the Rialto Bridge and then walk a few paces in the Piazza San Marco. We quickly figured it would take a lot of walking but Venice has a wonderful vaporetto, or waterbus, that plies the Grand Canal. That’s the canal that looks like a big reverse  “S” in the picture. We’d take the waterbus to Piazza San Marco, look around, and then get on the return waterbus, stopping at the Rialto Bridge on the way.

Good plan with minimal walking. We set out with all of Venice waiting for us.

On leaving the hotel we bumped into a father escorting his bride-to-be daughter on the way to her wedding. We considered it a good omen.

I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised when she, her Dad, and her flower girls got into a boat rather than a limo for a ride to the church.

She wasn’t going to the famous Frari Church because she could have walked. It was just a few paces off the route to the vaporetto and we wanted a look. It was worth the detour but we found another distraction.

This little piazza caught our eye because it had the only tree we’d seen in Venice so far. Real estate is at a premium here and a tree seems almost a waste of space.

Most of Venice real estate is occupied by shops like this one that caught Louise’s eye and refused to let go until she bought something. Well, you can always use a mask or two.

As crowded as it is, there always seems to be room for a little patch of graffiti and Venice is not immune.

It’s a dangerous practice to follow your camera lens here because almost everything seems worthy of grabbing a shot.

We somehow wandered off path toward the vaporetto and were drawn into following the crowd to who knows where. By now our feet were telling us that we might have made a mistake. When I looked in my viewfinder, suddenly there was the famous Rialto Bridge…the one we were saving for later.

Crowds everywhere were standing elbow to elbow, barely moving. We decided it was time for a beer and found a table overlooking the famous bridge, now under reconstruction. It was also a vaporetto stop so we had a chance to study how the system worked. Pretty simple. Just like waiting for a city bus only these are on water.

By now we were committed to walking the rest of the way to Piazza San Marco so we joined the shuffling crowd and followed the convenient overhead signs.

It did give us a chance to see a little more of the real Venice even though this picture looks like a Kodak moment set up for us shutterbugs.

The crowds poured into these narrow streets and moved in kind of a peristaltisis. As a pack we’d slowly shuffle forward until a selfie stick would pop up and we’d stop. When the selfie stick came down, we’d shuffle forward again until the next stick would pop up. I whispered to Louise that we might be on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. If so, we could expect to stop at least 12 times. She stepped on my sore toes and whispered, “Don’t be blasphemous.” At least she got the simile.

On and on we plodded until we suddenly broke into the open. We’d reached our goal, Piazza San Marco, in all its glory. More on that experience in our next episode.

From Venice, Alla prossima.

Louise and Ray