Thursday, 3 August 2006
On board the night train from Zagreb to Venice, we crossed from Croatia to Slovenia to Italy--and as a result there were at least three passport-checks and three ticket-checks in the middle of the night.
Alight in Venice, my first reaction was to find a place to stow away my hand-bag. But there were no lockers in the train station, and the people in the baggage room would not accept my hand-bag, because it was "not baggage".
Coming out of the train station, I took the bus to San Marco. The core of Venice consisted of very narrow pedestrian walkways--normal cars cannot fit in, let along buses. The bus of which I write is a boat that takes about 40 minutes to traverse the length of the Canal Grande, and as far as I know, all buses in Venice are water-buses. On the bus, I already got to see the essence of Venice.
Early in the morning (at about 9:00), there was already an impressive line-up to the Basilica San Marco; I joined it. But it wasn't too bad--at about 9:25, I was already inside the basilica, admiring the architecture, artefacts, mosaic works, paintings, and a golden altar panel ( Pala d'Oro). The Museo Marciano not only displayed interesting objects from the medieval times and earlier, but also offered a good view of the Piazzetta and the Campanile.
I spent the better part of the morning in the St. Mark's Basilica. When I emerged, I immediately headed towards the Rialto, had a brief lunch, and crossed the bridge to the other side. On my way to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frairi, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, I got a taste of the Venetian streets. As I mentioned above, most of them were very narrow, sandwiched between apartment-like but old buildings. Even the narrowest alleyways could be given a name. Almost maze-like, the Venetian streets could easily lose people, except for the redeeming clear street signs at almost every intersection. Amongst the complex network of streets snaked the canals, with boats and gondolas silently sailing by the predominantly quiet neighbourhoods.
North of the Rialto, I took a traghetti (something like a gondola; the difference being that you pay 50 cents instead of 100 Euros for the trip) and crossed the Canal Grande, thus arriving in the Castello section of Venice. I took a walk eastwards to the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, and other assorted churches hidden amongst the cramped buildings. After sighting the Ca D'Oro, I walked to the Madonna dell'Orto. At this point, my legs were quite tired, so I just took the water-bus back to the Ferrovia (Railway Station).
But seeing that it was still quite early (about 14:00), I decided to take another water-bus to an island south of San Marco--a trip that took another 45 minutes one-way. On the island stood the San Giorgio Maggiore church, with a Campanile that could be accessed by an elevator and that rewarded the visitor with a sweeping view of Venice-- its buildings, canals, bridges, crowds, and walkways.
On my way back to the Ferrovia, the weather became quite stormy, and the waters quite rough. I was thus glad to be on my way to the next stop--Verona.