Venice has a very romantic ‘peeled paint’ aesthetic.
In a sheer and incredible stroke of serendipity my Auntie and Uncle had spent New Year’s in Venice and had kindly invited us to stay for a couple of days between the end of our house sitting job and their return to Australia. Unfortunately a dream house sitting job in London popped up and with Kate being the more diplomatic and least scary looking of the two of us it was decided that she would fly over to London for the interview, leaving me to eat all the food in the fridge and then head off to the city of canals/bridges/light/love/art.
I had already booked my ticket out of the country so in stark contrast to our lazy absorption of Florence, this time I had 36 hours to squeeze as much out of Venice as I could. Still keen to get an idea for what Venice was about, rather than what you could see in Venice, a day and a half was spent walking the narrow streets, eating Cicchetti (Italian Tapas), drinking café machiattos, cruising the canals on the vaporetto (waterbus) and getting lost – lots. In fact by the end of my first day the three of us had visited all the major neighbourhoods of Venice bar one, and entirely by foot.
What did I get from this sailing visit? Venice is an amazing and surreal place. It is a beautiful city and full of exciting things to do and see, enough to warrant a return visit for sure. When, you say? I don’t know – that is for our spontaneous futures to decide for us.
Bottom left – refridgeration boats, Left – Taxis and bus station, Right – The market
There is something very surreal about Venice, the canals are direct substitutes for roads. For those of you who have not been, imagine Ambulances, buses, utes, post vans, taxis and trucks all in boat form cruising the watery streets.
The cheapest Gondola ride in Venice. When there is no bridge 50 Euro cents gets you a cross-canal ride on a Traghetto. To go for a cruise on the love boats sets you back 100. They do look very romantic though….
Venice really is a warren to navigate by foot, totally confusing to the uninitiated. These signs are directing you to the same place.
We went in to the permanent exhibition of Leonardo’s machines. This guy was awesome, his insatiable appetite for knowledge and desire to make life easier for people (including the military) led to his designing the first prototypes for so many things we are familiar with today (500 years ago!) The ball bearing race, lifebouy, helicopter, bicycle, washing wringer, army tank, machine gun, and odometer to name a few.
Venice is full of these beautiful little shops selling artisans work and their supplies.
During our unintentionally aimless wanderings we happened across a rowing club and as all three of us has a history in rowing we stayed for a while. Venetian style rowing has you standing up and pushing the oar forward. This clubs biggest boat has 18 rowers and is faster than an eight. Awesome.
The heavy, old school boats were lowered, crew and all, into the water before paddling out onto the hazy lagoon.
While ‘Inglese Rowing’ is at the forefront of technology and the boats, rigging and oars are the most efficient the club can afford, rowing ‘Venetian Style’ retains its traditional equipment and style.
Venice has a very romantic ‘peeled paint’ aesthetic.
littleredtreefrog 