The Labryinth of Venice

We arrived at two in the morning. Unfortunately, late for our meeting with the concierge, and so we took a taxi to the island from Mestre. What a mistake! Our savings on cheap trains were wiped out by a ludicrous fee.

And then we arrived, armed only with Google maps to take us through to the center of the Labrynth of Venice. Shoulder-width streets, twisting through darkened arches I had sometimes had to duck through. My wonder at this city having been once a world capital of trade increased steadily, as we plodded through the empty, foggy night. Becca says, “How romantic it was to first see the streets, and canals, when they were empty and beautiful.”

Well, our “ensuite double room”, turned out to be a two single beds pushed together, with a shared bathroom that did, and probably still does, need a good cleaning. Happy Anniversary!

Venice was cool. We liked the various museums, but both of our favourite parts, were simply wandering around town. It is a beautiful culture, as well as city. Becca says, “everywhere you looked, was like a post-card.” One regret we do have though, is how cold it was. We think Venice is a summer city. It is also an expensive city, in that grocers are hard to find. The more we learned of it's history, the more confirmed we became in our perception of the city as a place, that has always had a flamboyant “spirit of self-celebration”, to quote a museum information sign. Indeed, we think that 17^th century Venetians most likely chanted “Venezia! Venezia!” to themselves, and any who would hear, as they went about their day. The constant reminder to vistors and locals alike, in signs around the city, tourist booths everywhere, couture shops etc., made me think “O'Doyle rules.”

On the last day, Bec really wanted to take a water taxi across town on the Grand Canal, leaving me to wander (and ponder), which most of you know I love to do, especially in places like Venice. I ended up wandering through the museum of modern art, which was very impressive. The art was modern, not bizarre. Not that I do not love the Tate Modern in London, I do, but this was different, and more my style. It is good to walk alone from time to time.

Our flight was cancelled, so it took an extra day to get home. Another night sleeping in the airport. There was definitely a mob of angry travellers there waiting to get tickets sorted out, but we were lucky to get two flights direct to London the next day. During our lengthy time in line we got to know a nice Dutch man who has a business called “Donkey Holiday” in Holland, which is a place where you can stay and have, not surprisingly, a donkey holiday.

One thing that surprised us, was how glad we were to be back in London. I guess it's starting to feel a bit like home.

Christmas + Boxing Day. in Rome

Well, turns out the center of Catholicism, on Christmas day, and on a Sunday, does not have a lot of museums, stores, or much of anything open. So we did a lot of walking, which was actually quite great. Strolling down the side of the Tiber on a sunny day for an hour or so, is not an hour or so that I will ever regret. After about three o'clock or so, Romans leave their homes and it ceases to be a deserted city. We also went to quite a few churches, as they were actually all open, and sadly not busy. 

What can I say? We missed everyone at home, most of all, on this day. Chatting on Skype probably just made it worse, but it was the highlight of our day. Thank you to our family for taking the time to warm our hearts.

Boxing day was great: but again,most things were closed, including Vatican city. We found an amazing park just next to the Piazza di Popolo. (How can one not love a place named Popolo?) There were fancy rollerbladers, including an old man who could seriously shred the nar. He did the splitz to fit under a chain at full speed. It was seriously a foot off the ground, and all I could think was, wow, hope when I'm old I can do the splitz while roller blading under chains in city parks. In Rome.

Anyhow, there were some quality buskers, and our favourite was a solo trumpet artist who was jazzing up the park. Marble busts of every Italian who has done something noteworthy (I am guessing from the sheer volume of statues) lined the paths. It was fun to find our favourites: Machiavelli, Galileo, daVinci, Garibaldi, Columbus, etc. They were kind of hard to find, strewn throughout others who are probably very important, but of whom I know nothing.

 

I should also mention the park was at the peak of one of the 7 hills that compose Rome, and one could see the whole city. A very fancy hotel with lions, that Nathan would love, crowned the peak. Also, the Casa di Medici was right there too, but was unfortunately closed due to it being St. Steven's day. I am sure Nae does love the Medicis.

Vatican City

At the warning of some tour guides who were trying to sell us tickets that would help us jump the several hour queue, we lined up outside the city at 6:30. And by golly, an hour later we became the first people in line! It was actually quite rediculous how early we were. But, what a museum! We had a hot tip from Mike, that if one is already inside the Vatican, one can take a passage that leads past the lines, of St. Peters, which saves about an hour. With further investigation, we discovered that this is through a passage, normally shut, in the Sistine chapel, which is ordinarily open only to groups with tour guides.

Before

After

Inside.

St. Peters

Thus we began our upstream swim, through rapids of oncoming tourists. At last we returned to the Sistine chapel, then began the task of selecting a tour guide who looked indifferent, standing near the back of his group, and springing through the passage with airs of confidence. I must add our ticket price did include both locations, so no one gets the wrong idea. Bec loved it, and I loved the efficiency.

We had that evening, without a doubt, the worst meal I have ever paid for. Rock-hard bread, greasy food. It turns out not every restaurant that looks good in Rome, is actually good.

Our train to Venice was fun: we were able to sleep in our own compartment for most of the time. The best part was the price: €45! Everyone talks about how good public transport is in Europe, but most of the time it is priced uncomfortably high. Especially in London, but not, apparently, in Italy.

Romulus and Remus getting some wolf suckling.

Rome! (Part 1)

What a time we had in Rome! The highlight of Christmas Eve day was running as fast as we could, across the entire city, to get to St. Pete's square for midnight mass with the Pope. It was pretty crazy, as we accidentally woke up way later than we planned after our nap. We were pretty tired from sleeping in airport terminals and hiking around Rome all day, so we went to sleep to have energy for midnight. The Pope's message was not, in truth, very heart-warming, but the Nativity at the square and general atmosphere was spectacular. People from all over the world, hanging out, having fun, and celebrating Christmas in the Eternal City. Many, but not all, of the people there were Catholic. I imagine Christmas here, in the very heart of Catholicism, and in the heart of what they see as Christianity, would be very special.

We had a wonderful hostel, the Sleeping Beauty, which was spectacular in location, price, and accommodation. The only downside was the expensive cab from the airport, which turned out to be a complete waste of cash, as the metro system would have been about as fast, and is the cheapest public transportation me and Bec have seen in Europe. (€1/trip)

We arrived late on the 23^rd, and went directly to bed. Christmas eve day, we woke up, and started walking around Rome, visiting Churches, monuments, and sights that had been recommended to us. My highlight of this day was the Colosseum, and the ancient Forum (what's left of it). The Colosseum was smaller than I imagined. They used to flood it, to show mock naval battles, and I am still trying to figure out, how that would be fun for 50000 people to watch, in the space provided. They must have had very small ships, perhaps only for one man.

I often imagine Roman civilization as being closer to ours, in terms of the scale of it's monuments, and entertainments. I have always been very impressed with Rome, and visiting did not disabuse me of that sentiment, but gave me more appreciation of what we have today. So many things the Romans built are gone: buried, ground into rubble, or stolen by Napoleon. On the other hand, many of their roads and engineering projects remain.

Anyhow, my favourite part was the information signs around the Colosseum, which explained the politics going on in Rome at various times of the Colosseum's use, and how it related to the type of shows being put on. The bloodiest shows corresponded to the periods with the most concentration of power, whether that be in the hands of an Emperor, or a few Patricians. I'm also reading about the Rise and Fall of Rome on my kindle, so it was fun to sometimes be able to read between the lines of information points.

One thing the museums in Rome seem to be trying to do, is push an image of Nero that is less crazy dictator, and more misunderstood, born in the wrong political climate, complex man. The signs around the forum seem to indicate that the Italians think he is more depicted, in art, theater, and literature, than any other man save Christ. Which I found surprising, as I don't believe 9 out of 10 people in North America would have any idea who he was, other than that he was a Roman Emperor, and not even the most famous of those. The Colosseum and surrounding ruins are built over the remains of an enormous palace Nero built, so there is a lot of excavation right now trying to dig through the stuff that is only 1900 years old, to get at the stuff that is about 1950 years old. His palace was demolished, and the senate, which regained control at his death, ordered every copy of his image to be vandalized or changed into another man's. This included an enormous bronze colossus of Apollo, with Nero's facial features, which dominated central Rome.

We saw the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and the enormous, goddy monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II. It is the biggest monument to one man I have ever seen. That includes the stuff in Paris dedicated to Napolean. He was the first king of Italy, and lead the Italian Unification with Garibaldi, who in my opinion, is one of the coolest modern Italians in history. His monument is not as big though.

The Pantheon was very cool. It is the last surviving Roman temple (in any kind of decent shape), having been converted into a church. Trevi fountain is beautiful, and we both threw in 3 coins, as there is a superstition that one who does that will return to Rome some day. Aren't we superstitious.

 

We also toured the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is the pope's fortress just outside Vatican city. It was where the Holy Roman Emperors (which have been described by scholars as being neither Holy, Roman, or true Emperors) were buried for a long time. It's also where the pope hid during the few times Rome was sacked by said Emperors, or Visigoths etc. (and eventually evacuated from, using a secret passage, sacrificing his elite Swiss guards!) And, for those with a love of Dan Brown, it's where the Assassin from Angels & Demons kept all of his kidnapped cardinals. It has a very cool bridge linking it with Rome, lined with marble statues made by Bernini and other renaissance masters.

All in all, we had a fine time.