We were old pros at this train taking business, but still really enjoyed a different journey through snow covered mountains and snowscapes straight from a picturebook. A stop in Bologna along the way and then to Venice, out of the station a few steps then the Grand Canal: freaky! After an inordinate amount of time figuring out which vaporetto to take, we opted for the number 1, all stops to San Marco job. It took a while, but allowed us time to acclimatize to all that water, all that beauty and all the fairytale romance that Venice just magically presents by being itself. It was almost too much to take in as we passed all manner of watercraft and palazzo after palazzo. Reality hit when we disembarked at San Zaccharia, just one stop past the square and I realized our hotel’s street wasn’t on the map I had! Off to buy another map, pinpointed canal and street, then we carted bags through a frigid late afternoon to our hotel. Ducking into one alley after another, crossing a few impossibly pretty little bridges and there we were at Locanda Canal.
During the 5 days we were there, we experienced some amazing things. After a walking archaeological dig and sculpture fest in Rome, a high end shopping and renaissance art romp in Florence, Venice turned out to be almost completely different again. While still Italian in every way, it had its own certain eccentricities. Was it the obvious, yet delightful total absence of cars in the entire city? Was it the absolute assumption at all times that you were, indeed, a tourist and in need of some service or product? Was it that the whole place had an almost surreal feel...Venice was almost its own theme park? We had a sense that not one local person was in the city except to run a shop or a restaurant, pilot a gondola or water taxi or secure a museum, basilica or gallery. It was a strange sense yet not an uncomfortable one: just really very different from anywhere else we’ve ever been. The almost indescribable beauty was overwhelming at times, like we’d been transported and plonked onto a fantasy movie set or into the pages of a romantic novel. The gondoliers pushing off walls with their feet as they negotiated tight turns on the back canals, water swishing and sparkling in a splintered yellow early morning or sunset light. The tiny arched pretty little bridges in the less traveled lanes and canals. Snow glistening on the roofs after a dunking on New Years Eve, chunky squares falling off as the chimneys heated up and started smoking. Tiny snowmen left by children outside the entrance to popular galleries and icy slushy snow crunching underfoot as we made our way through bustling squares, small knots of people breathing plumes of steam into the air as they read the outside menus of bustling trattorias. The endless parade of people in the maze of streets, ducking in and out of shops and bars, comparing goods and prices, most seemingly destination free just enjoying the ambiance. The ubiquitous displays of Murano glass, trinkets to fine art, all glistening under dispaly lighting, the overfow of which flowed onto the cobblestones to give a cozy trail to follow.
Even though suffering from "Basilica bulimia" (a recently coined phrase from Emma and Catherine that we loved!)), we did still manage to make our way through the incredible St. Marks. From the heavily golden mosaiced ceilings to the pre Roman four bronze horses, the museum of artifacts, and the Golden Wall behind the main altar, the treasures were a sight to behold. We climbed the gallery and enjoyed the views from the terrace before investigating the church proper. After this we made our way up the campanile for the views which were stupendous, but we were disappointed to be ushered into a very boring elevator instead of being left to negotiate our steps! The square itself was larger than we'd imagined and of course held the extra romance of being trod upon by the likes of Byron and Cassy’s literary hero, Henry James. We braved the outrageous prices to have morning tea in Jame's favourite "Florian", kept exactly the same as it was in his day. We wandered in and out of his lunch haunt, "Quadri", on the opposite side of the square and even tracked down the palazzo where he stayed on the Grand Canal, the Palazzo Barbaro. It is now private apartments, but Cass stood in the doorway to have her photo taken in her erudite mentor's shadow.
The Palazzo Grassi housed a grand selection of Italian contemporary art, some of which was astounding and thought provoking, other pieces we thought were very derivative or just plain rubbish! An installment of rubber bands lit by lasers that pulled and pressed against each other in a darkened room was quite clever and freaky, while a giant plush 8 foot tall purple spider that the artist danced around was just weird. One piece that really stood out were 9 life size bodies covered with sheets (as if they were corpses) but made entirely of white Carrara marble...brilliant!
The Venice version of the Accademia promised more renaissance treasures, many of a particular and parochial Venetian flavour, but that suite me as my favourite, Titian, was a Venice boy. One marvelous rendition that had been butchered near the bottom to provide a doorway (!) was the "Presentation of the Virgin to the temple". There were lots more through the rooms and hallways and we spent some very enjoyable hours in there.
Peggy Guggenheim's old home, the low slung and beautiful palace on the Grand Canal is now home to a carefully chosen selection of some of the world's primo modern art. The fact that many of the paintings are hung in situ where they were when Peggy lived there adds further zest to their viewing. What to do but drool over room after room of the most perfectly crafted Picassos, Chagalls, Pollocks, etc. etc. A magic treasure chest of everything we love: we both enjoyed our renaissance experience, more than we possibly imagined, but to feast on these more familiar artworks was a cleansing and uplifting experience.
We went further and further up the culinary ladder the longer we stayed in Italy and Venice provided a succession of sublime meals, culminating in a special lunch on our last day of three courses and wine at an "Italy's best restaurants, 2009" entry: multiple Michelin stars material, it was exquisite.
Sad to leave Italy, but a little exhausted too, we caught a 3 am ferry to the airport, transferred Venice to Rome, then Hong Kong, then back to Taipei, 26 hours door to door. I must be getting old: I've had my first bout of jet lag ever this week....now I know how shocking it can be! Cass has been fine but I've sprung up at 2 am in the morning 4 days in a row. Oh, I forgot: Cass bought some super duper patent knee length leather boots to match her Florence jacket...very snazzy! Back to reality now, we're ready to re-discover Taipei's own peculiar charms. I won't write a blog this Sunday after all this...it's been more of an epistle than I thought it would be: if you managed, thanks for sticking with it!!