Here's the second instalment from our busy weekend away. There really is no place like Venice - we arrived in the early evening and in the twilight, the Grand Canal looked beautiful as we came out of the station. We wound our way over numerous bridges and through calli of varying widths until we came to our hotel. Given the early start, dinner was had at the restaurant next door, after the departure of an astonishingly loud group of Italian school students. The restaurant looked like a bomb had hit it, but calm was soon restored. An early night followed in the opulent rooms decorated in 18th century Venetian style, complete with damask-covered walls and multicoloured Venetian glass chandeliers. Jasmyn even had a 'Harry Potter' bed tucked under the sloping eaves, and while the girls had a Juliet balcony, it was obviously just for show, given its wonky structure. Oh well.
The next morning dawned bright and after a breakfast which excited some of the girls as it included pancakes (and by the girls, I mean Nancy as well) we set off in the quiet of the morning for Saint Mark's Square. Seizing the opportunity, we joined the queue for the Campanile and were soon on our way to the top of the bell tower to check out the view. From the top you can appreciate the size of the islands and marvel at the engineering feat required for the construction of the city - and the vision the original inhabitants must have had to try and build it in the first place on a series of mud flats all those centuries ago. Our next stop was St Mark's Basilica with its gorgeous mosaics glittering in the sunshine as it poured in through the windows. The rippled floor and leaning columns are also testament to the vagaries of the acqua alta, making it even more mind boggling that such a structure is still standing despite the conditions it must withstand.
Back out in the sunshine, the girls decided it was time for a gondola ride. However, some thought that the gondolas out in the main basin were a little too rocky with the ferries going by, so we checked out the Bridge of Sighs and instead found a calmer departure point - and a whistling gondoliere.
The next stop, after lunch, was the Rialto Bridge where the girls were let loose on the plethora of glass shops and Nancy met up with her cousin Belinda who is currently in Padova teaching at the university there. More retail therapy followed before it was time for a brief rest at the hotel and then we were ready for dinner. Clearly the most adventurous eater in the group, Kaylah decided to try the local speciality of spaghetti con seppia, coloured black with the ink from cuttlefish. As you can see, Jasmyn was horrified.
Sunday morning was once again beautifully sunny so we set off on a ride down the Grand Canal on the ferry. From this perspective you can see the buildings lining the canal and the myriad smaller canals which feed off it. We hopped off at the station and made our way over the Cannareggio Canal into the Jewish Quarter. This is the original Ghetto, where the Jewish people at various times over the past centuries were restricted by different curfews and other rules. The lack of size between the floors of the original buildings is testament to the fact that a large population had to live here, with more and more floors being added as the families grew. The Ghetto also houses a memorial to the Holocaust, and the Venetian Jews who were rounded up and sent off to the camps during WWII. From this sobering experience, we then wandered back through the narrow streets to our hotel, collecting the luggage (somewhat increased from the purchases) and returning to the station. Our Freccia Argento fast train zoomed us to Florence, and then the usual regional train returned us to Perugia. Phew - it was a busy weekend!
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