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| Dear Diary, Waky, waky, a whole day of Venice awaiting me! Lets start with a bit of background information of Venice shall we? Venice, also known as the "Queen of the Adriatic" is universally acclaimed as one of the world's most beautiful cities. It is certainly one of the most unusual. It is a city surrounded with water. The formation of the city is comprised of 120 islands, and has over 120 cathedrals - at least one on every island! Oh how could I forget to mention the water taxi that transported our luggages to the hotel. There is not a single car on Venice, isn't that interesting? In the place of cars, ships and boats were used instead. Anyways, today we all took the water taxi down the Grand Canal to Piazzetta, which was the square between the San Marco Quay and Piazza San Marco. In the Square, there were two columns- one with the statue of St. Todaro, and the other with a Lion of St. Mark. Originally, Piazza San Marco was a grass-covered open space traversed by a canal and bounded at each of its shorter ends by a church. Subsequent transformation and embellishments made it into one of the most beautiful squares in the world. When I was there, all four sides were bounded by buildings. To the east was the Basilica and to the west was the Napolenic Wing, which was built in the early 19th century. The long buildings to the north and south are the procuratie, which served as the living and working quarters of the procurators of St. Mark. |
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| So anyways, there were 2 other important features completing the Square, and they are the Belltower and the Clock Tower. |
| When I got to Piazza San Marco, the Clock Tower was under restoration. I was pretty upset about this as I couldn't see the real thing, and the famous "Moors" striked the great bronze bell every hour. On the Clock Tower, there was not only the "Moors" and the bell up top, but the Lion of St. Mark, the time (LOL), and a Zodiac clock. Cool eh? |
| The Bell Tower was a tower with a clock on top of a bell. When an hour is reached, the bell starts to chime. This procedure became a ritual of everyday. Also, if you climb up to the very top and look out, the view was great! |
| Now let's move on. We exited the Piazzeta, and walked to the Glass Factory. The first wave of hot wind came rushing out to meet me as I walked up the stairs and into the factory itself. The place where the person blowed the glass into shape is the hottest as there were many ovens there that reached very high temperatures. There the guy who showed us mastered the process of making and shaping the glass objects skillfully. When I watched him, it looked easy, but I knew it was actually very hard to make. I meant, the ovens were scorching hot. One false move, then you'll get burned. Also, the shaping of the molten hot glass must be accurate and asthetically pleasing, so it must be done carefully, but fast at the same time. After watching the making of the fine and delicate pieces of glasswares, our whole group and I filed into the next room, which was much cooler to my consent, and listened to an explanation of the durableness, the playfulness, the colourfulness, and the expensiveness of the beautiful yet priceless pieces. There during the explanation, there was this moment of time where everyone held their breathe not daring to see what happened, and its results. This was what happened: " The person in charge put a whole set of glassware into a box filled with styrofoam. That set costs over thousands and thousands of dollars. After putting them into the cardboard box, he taped the box shut. The next thing he did was DROP THE BOX. It landed with a LOUD THUD! We all gasped, and knew that was the end for the glassware. Yes we know that this guy was showing us this to prove his point of durablitity and firmness, but dropping the box was out of question. I meant who in their right mind would drop a whole box of valuable glasswares onto the floor and wouldn't be devastated after? Well the man in charge seemed to look amused at our shocked faces. However, this moment of tension was broke as the man opened up the box and showed us the objects inside. We were all pretty sure what we would see - mere pieces of glass from what once used to be a fine, gorgeous, and elegant set of glassware. But to our amazement, the objects were all as good as new, not a single scratch could be found! Amazing, ain't it? The only thing that seemed to be disturbed was the styrofoams that protected and custioned the delicate pieces. All of us couldn't believe our eyes! I mean, it's incredible! Talk about firmness, and the durableness! The glass pieces may seemed delicate and fragile on the outside, but its firmness was just not expected! " ` After that tense moment, we had time to roam around the shop. The things there were beautiful, but extremely expensive. Among all the luxurious colours of glass, I liked the blue, turquoise, and the purple one the best. When you put the purple one up to the light, you may see another colour! It was one of the most priceless ones in the store. I was going to purchase this necklace with blue glass stones, but I didn't because it twisted when I put it on. So anyways, I along with the others left the shop. This was where we took seperate routes, as some of us. including my family and I , were taking the condolas, while the rest were going to walk around Venice. After the rides, it was free time, then we met up once again to go to the Basilica of St. Mark's. |
| Candolas used to be long narrow ships of many bright colours, but due to the plague, a law was passed declaring all condolas except for the ones used for special festivals were to be black. But however plain the normal everyday ones were, they were still very pretty. In addition, the person who sails the condola may sing, that is if you pay. Even though on my condola ride the sailer didn't sing, it was just as peaceful, and wonderful experience! |
| Then the whole group met up and went to the Basilica of St. Mark's. The interior is in the shape of a Greek cross, with three aisles to each arm of the cross. But do you know what the really special feature of this Basilica that is worth mentioning? The floor is not flat, instead it's wavy due to Venice being an island and all. It was so cool! :D A good roller blading site! LOL, just kidding! |
| Here in this Basilica, there is also a small display of things, including the four horses brought to Venice from Costantinople by Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204. These 4 horses were cast in Greece probably around the 4th century B.C. Also, outside the museum is a large balcony which one could catch a really great view. In addition, a cool breeze would come to greet me once in awhile when I got up there. It was SO refreshing! The thing that I couldn't forget most that day wasn't the only the wavy floors, but the mosaic pictures found all over the Basilica, even on the ceilings! Not a single drop of paint was used inside and outside of the Basilica! Believe it or not, they are ALL mosaic pictures! Now as I exited the Basilica and into the big opening of the Square, a huge - when I say huge, I mean GIGANTIC - flock of pigeons of all sizes came rushing at me. The WHOLE Square was covered with a sea of pigeons, so basically when looking at the Square from a bird's eye-view, you would see tiny black dots everywhere! I'm not joking! Come to think of it, it was pretty disgusting. All the time when I was trekking through the Square, I was pretty conscious of the birds, especially when there were so many! |
| Then it was our free time, and during that time, my family and I saw the Bridge of Sighs. It with its graceful pink outline standing out against the shadowy recesses of the canal, joines the Doges' Palace to the 16th century Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons) and was designed by Antonio Contini in the decorative 17th century Baroque style. The sighs the bridge was named for actually go back to a 19th century Romantic tradition; they had nothing to do with sighs of love, but were probably the much more tragic exhalations of the condemned as their last glances at Venice pierced the grille windows along the way. |
| Then we browsed through shops, and bought some souvenirs from friends and relatives back home. I bought a tiny ceramic moon-shaped coloured mask. Italy has many masks for sale because Italians celebrate a festival where everyone wears mask of all sorts, and because of the operas and plays that are known so well in Italy. Then my family and I went to the meeting place where we would board the water taxi and go back to where our hotel is located. The funny thing was everyone in the tour said that they would walk back or take the water ferry back to the hotel, but it turned out that half the group, including my family and I, were very anxious for the water taxi to come and bring us back to the refreshing hotel and out of the scorching sun. Our tour guide was shocked but glad to see us, as now, he had company on the way back. When we got back to the hotel, we all relaxed and did whatever we desired as it was our own free time. Tonight, we got to choose the restaurant we wanted to eat in, but no wine. LOL, jokes... We ate in the same restaurant as last night because the food tasted good, but we ate different things, of course. The food served tonight was as good as ever. After a scumptious dinner, we couldn't resist the urge to walk under the moon and stars. After an hour walk, we stopped by a book store to purchase a cook book of Italian goodies before we retired to bed. *Yawn* well, good night! luv Florence |
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| Candolas |
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| The Clock Tower |
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| The Bell Tower |
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| The Basilica of St Mark's The green blobs in the middle are the 4 horses! |
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| The Bridge of Sighs |
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| Before moving onto the Condolas, this picture on the left is of a person with his finished product (the glass vase) in the Glass Factory. This guy was the same guy as the one who showed me the process of glass making. |
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