"Don't worry about getting wet-- you will."
-Rando Venetian
As you may or may not have noticed from the latest Bweaver Fever photosesh, Venice, Italy was this past weekend's destination, and a rad one it was. I traveled with one friend from down the hall named Pat. Pat and I flew RyanAir on Thursday night and after checking
into our hostel decided to try to wander our way to the famous St. Mark's square. I say 'wander' because that's about all one can do when trying to navigate the absurdly unplanned city of Venice. Not to say that that's such a bad thing, in fact one website we referenced with the 'Top 10 Things to do in Venice' rated "getting lost in Venice" as the number one thing to do, and as silly as it sounds I don't really disagree. Some of the best times I had last weekend were just walking around trying to find various things. The city is so visually stimulating, so beautiful; just exploring the aged Venetian infrastructure was enough to make a fairly cloudy, drizzly, cold, and generally wet weekend still worthwhile and awesome.
But, I digress. That first night we saw St. Mark's square for the first time of many times in the weekend and shared not one, but two delicious pizzas. And some gelato. This past weekend was certainly one
of the more tasty I've had thus far. Pat and I decided to have one nice, sit down meal when we were in Venice. And we did. We had a delicious three course meal at the Ristorante Marco Polo. Other than that, and I am not exaggerating about this, we ate nothing but pizza and gelato for the entire weekend. Do I regret this? Not in the slightest.
Friday morning we walked over to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, a modern art museum. Parts of it made me want to rock out. In the afternoon we took a kickass nap then unsuccessfully attempted to visit the church of the Salute. It was closed. But the building was nice. After eating a delicious dinner of pizza we made our way to the Venice Jazz Club where we saw an incredible tribute to Wes Montgomery and Charles Mingus. To the Becca Weavers and Matt Reismans of the
world - I miss you. After the show the piano player informed us that it was high tide outside and that if we didn't have boots they had bags for our feet at the bar. Turns out this was not a joke. The canal outside the Jazz Club had flooded about half a foot! Alas, the rando Venetian referenced at the beginning of this post was more correct than I thought.
On Saturday we returned to St. Mark's, this time with an agenda. We visited the interior of St. Mark's Basilica. Although technically located much closer to Rome than ancient Constantinople, for one reason or another Venice always swore allegiance to the Eastern Empire ever since the divide. Because of this political (and literal) island much of the architecture in Venice, including St. Mark's Basilic
a, is much more akin to the architecture of Turkey than anywhere in Europe. Not to say that Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals are lame or uninteresting in the slightest, but it was a bit refreshing to see some different styles. We also visited the Doge's Palace, which is located right next to St. Mark's (The Doge is a royalty title apparently used exclusively in Venice, basically equivalent to a Duke). It was overwhelmingly ornate. It's pretty crazy to think that at one point in history (and I suppose still today [Queen of England, i'm talking to you]) people actually lived in the midst of such vast decadence. It was weirdly troubling.
After waiting through 2 cloudy days Sunday finally delivered some sunshine to the people of Venice. Pat and I took full advantage, returning once again to St. Mark's square to take an elevator to the top of the Campanile, a tall bell tower where we saw a view that I feel could be described as great. We then took a waterbus to a nearby island called Murano and explored around there a bit, mostly just enjoying the sun. And some more gelato.
Overall, a great weekend despite the shitty weather. Europe, I've seen one of the more beautiful sides of you and I thank you. You're score has officially hit 67. David B. Weaver, looks like you're clocking in at about... 68 (?!?!?!?!?!)
into our hostel decided to try to wander our way to the famous St. Mark's square. I say 'wander' because that's about all one can do when trying to navigate the absurdly unplanned city of Venice. Not to say that that's such a bad thing, in fact one website we referenced with the 'Top 10 Things to do in Venice' rated "getting lost in Venice" as the number one thing to do, and as silly as it sounds I don't really disagree. Some of the best times I had last weekend were just walking around trying to find various things. The city is so visually stimulating, so beautiful; just exploring the aged Venetian infrastructure was enough to make a fairly cloudy, drizzly, cold, and generally wet weekend still worthwhile and awesome.But, I digress. That first night we saw St. Mark's square for the first time of many times in the weekend and shared not one, but two delicious pizzas. And some gelato. This past weekend was certainly one
of the more tasty I've had thus far. Pat and I decided to have one nice, sit down meal when we were in Venice. And we did. We had a delicious three course meal at the Ristorante Marco Polo. Other than that, and I am not exaggerating about this, we ate nothing but pizza and gelato for the entire weekend. Do I regret this? Not in the slightest.Friday morning we walked over to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, a modern art museum. Parts of it made me want to rock out. In the afternoon we took a kickass nap then unsuccessfully attempted to visit the church of the Salute. It was closed. But the building was nice. After eating a delicious dinner of pizza we made our way to the Venice Jazz Club where we saw an incredible tribute to Wes Montgomery and Charles Mingus. To the Becca Weavers and Matt Reismans of the
world - I miss you. After the show the piano player informed us that it was high tide outside and that if we didn't have boots they had bags for our feet at the bar. Turns out this was not a joke. The canal outside the Jazz Club had flooded about half a foot! Alas, the rando Venetian referenced at the beginning of this post was more correct than I thought.On Saturday we returned to St. Mark's, this time with an agenda. We visited the interior of St. Mark's Basilica. Although technically located much closer to Rome than ancient Constantinople, for one reason or another Venice always swore allegiance to the Eastern Empire ever since the divide. Because of this political (and literal) island much of the architecture in Venice, including St. Mark's Basilic
a, is much more akin to the architecture of Turkey than anywhere in Europe. Not to say that Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals are lame or uninteresting in the slightest, but it was a bit refreshing to see some different styles. We also visited the Doge's Palace, which is located right next to St. Mark's (The Doge is a royalty title apparently used exclusively in Venice, basically equivalent to a Duke). It was overwhelmingly ornate. It's pretty crazy to think that at one point in history (and I suppose still today [Queen of England, i'm talking to you]) people actually lived in the midst of such vast decadence. It was weirdly troubling.
After waiting through 2 cloudy days Sunday finally delivered some sunshine to the people of Venice. Pat and I took full advantage, returning once again to St. Mark's square to take an elevator to the top of the Campanile, a tall bell tower where we saw a view that I feel could be described as great. We then took a waterbus to a nearby island called Murano and explored around there a bit, mostly just enjoying the sun. And some more gelato.
Overall, a great weekend despite the shitty weather. Europe, I've seen one of the more beautiful sides of you and I thank you. You're score has officially hit 67. David B. Weaver, looks like you're clocking in at about... 68 (?!?!?!?!?!)
I was in Venice during a particularly rainy season when the water came OUT of the sidewalks instead of draining down. The city has risers that fit together to form an elevated sidewalk; the entire population walks on these. It was like I-70 on a weekend... with bodies instead of cars.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to imagine anything but adventure in Venice. Glad you had a good one.
Actually most of the things you just recounted about your trip to Venice were true for mine, except for the riser traffic. That's a scary moment when you realize that the water is going the wrong direction through the sidewalk drains...
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! Evan Sucks.