Venezia
Buon giorno! Yes here I am in Venice – I wish I could say that in Italian too but Im still working on “Give me five scoops of gelato right now”. Actually I did manage to ask to use the internet in Italian: Vorrei usare l’internet?” but then the receptionist replied with “buonosidoveoraquantoraviolimamamiaquello?” and we were back to englese but Im trying. Not that it makes a huge difference here. It seems to me a lot of the shop keepers are treating me like I shouldnt be here wether I try or not. Either that or theyre super nice while theyre showing you all their wares. And in a way I dont blame them. Imagine January and February downtown in the Mount and times that by six more months and you see what they have to deal with. And its embarrassing the way some people treat Venice, storming into a shop and demanding something without even trying an Italian greeting and with out using manners in any language – Ive seen it many many times.
Anyway Im here and having a good time – and a bit of a laugh. Sitting in SanMarco’s square provides hours of entertainment, from the parents who pay to have their children swarmed by filthy Venetian flying rats, to the women with the golden getups purchasing imitation godola man getups for their unfortunate husbands or grandchildren. Or maybe they like that sort of thing, who knows.
Back to the flying rats, these arent your Auckland variety of dirty, these are 800 year old SanMarco Piazza variety of dirty. And every day approximately 4000 people walk through the square, people who could have stepped in anything on the way there, even poo, and who leave 700 000 00000 invisible poo footprints contaminated with 10 00000 000 0000 00000 000000000 000 0000000 germs. And Mum and Dad think it’ll be fun to let little Johnny play with the pigeons. So fun that they pay EU1 for birdseed to attract pigeons with 800years worth of poo on their feet to climb all over their children. And then they take a photograph so as to look back with fond memories on the time they contaminated their child with 800 year old poo germs in San Marco Square.
It is indeed the place for taking photos. Not only of the palace which really is impressive, but of other people taking photos of the palace. I’d really like to be able to take a huge panoramic photograph and be able to literally count how many people are taking a photo in the square. I’d also like to know how many of other peoples snapshots I am in – I try to get in as many as possible.
So a quick synopsis of what Ive been up to.
Day One: Caught the bus from the airport and stepped into the madness and the wonder of Venezia. Checked in at Santa Foasca hostel which is a part of the University dorms. Was basic but clean enough.
Day Two: Walked around absorbing the sights and sounds. Checked out the bridges. Visited the Peggy Guiggenheim museum of modern art. I was lucky enough to catch a few talks on her life – she sounds like this eccentric crazy lady who actually knew nothing about art when she started collecting – Im keen to read her biography “Out of this Century” if I can find it cheaper than they were selling it. Saw some Kandinskys, Pollocks, Calders, Picassos, Ersnts and more – just like 6th Form art history but in real life. Had dinner in a small Italian cafe. Had pasta for dinner, of all things.
Day Three: The first visit to the Biennale. It was great but exhausting. I should have gone through the whole thing first then gone back to the best things, because all the good stuff was at the end, and I was tired and hungry and had to go to the toilet by then. Also I missed out on going inside Moriko Mori’s huge beautiful UFO because the queue was closed. But it was great anyway, with lots of crazy stuff – lucky I decided to be a tourist and opted for the audio guide. Contemporary art is so hard to understand sometimes. Its like the artists are just trying to confuse you on purpose.
Day Four. Today I went to Murano by waterbus to see some Glass Crap. Geez there was alot of it. There was some beautiful stuff too, but a lot more crap than not. So I bought some presents there. Then I came back and looked around down by the square and there was alot of glass crap there too but it was cheaper. Luckily I only bought the non-crap in Murano. Last night and tonight I stayed at Foresteria Valdese. It was my first choice but they told me it was full when I rang. I checked it out on my second day here and they did infact have some places. Its an old building being restored and apparently has frescoes on some of the ceilings. Not my room though. Im sharing a room and a bathroom with four other girls and get free breakfast. Im really glad I decided to come by because its a great place to stay and excellent location – close to SanMarco and the Biennale but also outside the tourist area. And internet is only 5EU per hour not EU9 like most of the other places in the city.
Tommorrow is more biennale, Monday is the big tourist extravaganza – SanMarco etc (I have to look for pigeons impaled on the spikes) and Tuesday is check I have enough glass crap day, then home to Dublin.
And now my internet time is almost up and as Ive spent all my money on glass crap and gelato I cant afford to pay for more.
Ciao (that means seeya later alligator).
Tags: Travel
Em
The impaled flying rats (most excellent description) really are the most wonderful thing in San Marco square. It is especially good to point them out and talk extra loudly about them so all the touristy children and parents waiting in line look up and are sufficiently horrified that such a fate could await their adored flying rat rat rat rat ratties. Hehe. I wonder if someone ever takes them off the basilica or if they just rot there until they are gone?
Do you mean flying bats rather than rats? I seem to remember Dan Brown talking about bats in Angels and Demons or was it da Vinci?? Though I haven’t read his next book so maybe he has rats a-flying in that one!