“If you want things to stay as they
are, things will have to change.”
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian writer
Carol
writes: Our ferry ride across the English Channel
back to France went without a hitch. Once
again, we were impressed with the English Channel ferry system; it really was efficient
and quick! From the stern of our French
ferry at the base of the White Cliffs of Dover, we waved a fond “cheerio” to
the UK and headed back to the land of “bonjour.”
Our ultimate
destination for the next month was sunny and warm Italy! We were both looking forward to a good dose
of sunshine and warm Mediterranean days.
For the sake of efficiency, we decided to take the toll roads through
France and Italy for the 900-mile drive to Venice. We had no idea how expensive the French toll
road system would be, so for our first stretch we experimented by hopping on
just out of Calais. We rolled along at a
marvelous highway speed for about 120 miles, then pulled up to our first toll
booth and handed the attendant our ticket.
When she asked us for the equivalent of $42 for our 120-mile segment of
excellent French highway, we experienced monumental sticker shock! We did the math for 900 miles and then made some
quick navigational changes for Jill, our Garmin lady. We changed course to the slower free roads
that in many cases paralleled the tolls roads—sometimes for miles at a
stretch. Gas was also quite a bit “cheaper”
off the toll route, relatively speaking.
As we looked back on our decision to abandon the toll roads, we felt it
was the right one. There were plentiful
free French campgrounds along the way, we saved on gas and tolls, and we enjoyed
the immaculate French countryside. The
scenery in the mountainous French/Italian border region was spectacular!
When we
crossed into Italy three days later, we conducted another test drive on the
fast and efficient Italian autostrada toll roads and found the cost there to be
much more reasonable and definitely worth a few extra dollars for their speed
and efficiency.
VENICE: The captivating water-bound city of Venice, with its web of
canal “streets” and plethora of boats instead of cars, has always captured our
imagination, for it holds such a unique place among the great cities of Europe.
We selected a campground in an area
called Punta Sabbioni, located at the end of a peninsula which was just a short
30-minute commute by ferry to Venice across the bay. We were having a beautiful sunny day so,
after quick showers and donning our finest campground attire, we headed to the
ferry for our first Venice experience.
The city of
Venice is virtually an island in the Venetian lagoon on the Adriatic Sea, with
only a narrow 2-mile highway and rail causeway connection to the mainland. Venice is shaped like a fish--and it is the
Big Fish among a hundred or so islands that dot the lagoon.
The main
tourist port of entry was in the ‘belly of the fish’ near St. Mark’s Square and
the Doge’s Palace. As we drew close to our ferry landing, we were
astounded at the beautiful and picturesque Venetian shoreline.
The lighting
was excellent, and cool Venetian colors set the perfect scene. The “streets” of Venice were somewhat narrow
canals, like this one spanned by the famous “Bridge of Sighs,” where prisoners
of a bygone era were said to have made a final nostalgic sigh as they headed off
to prison in the Doge’s Palace.
The Grand
Canal winds its way through Venice in the ‘body of the fish.’ One of the best thrills in Venice is a ride
on the Grand Canal—either by means of very pricey private gondolier rides,
expensive water
taxis or, for a much better deal, by means of the local public transportation
system—a boat called the vaporetto.
Our first
view of Venice’s famous St. Mark’s Square with its impressive St. Mark’s Basilica
and iconic bell tower was thrilling!
Sometimes
the pictures with both of us that we have taken by other tourists don’t quite
convey our best expressions, but if it’s the only twosome picture we have, we may
go with it…
St. Mark’s
Square, which is famous/infamous for its gigantic pigeon population, lived up
to its reputation. Pigeons were everywhere!
As the sun
set on Venice, the city became even more beautiful and romantic. If you are going to splurge a few euros on a
special treat, dinner at a restaurant along the Grand Canal would be a good
choice. We had a great meal at the foot
of the Rialto Bridge, one of the world’s most famous bridges.
When you
travel for an extended length of time in Europe, you are bound to have the
unpleasant experience of having a planned labor strike affect your plans. We had missed out on seeing the inside of the
abbey at Mont St. Michel in France four months ago due to a labor strike that had
caused early closure there. In Italy, a
general strike by transportation workers was scheduled for October 18th,
our second day in Venice. We were told
that meant no canal vaporetto rides would be available in Venice. In fact, all public transportation in the
entire country would be at a greatly reduced volume. Our campground host had told us about the
strike when we checked in, so we felt fortunate that we had found out about
this ahead of time so we could plan accordingly. We adjusted our touring schedule to
accommodate fewer ferry crossings and no vaporetto service on the canals for
our second day.
Our destination
the next afternoon (strike day) was the Doge’s Palace, the seat of Venetian
government and home of the ruling doge for over 400 years. The inner courtyard was palatial in every
sense of the word.
The interior
rooms had walls festooned with paintings by several Italian grand masters. The ceilings were like a palace on steroids.
The prison
section had been cleaned and tidied up but was grim nonetheless.
Pictures
were forbidden inside the Doge’s Palace; however, some of the best views of
Venice were from the palace windows that overlooked the harbor area.
Sometimes a
strike can offer an opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t have been
considered. Because of the strike, the
last ferry back to our campground was early--around 6 p.m.--so that meant we
had an unplanned wonderful 30-minute ‘sunset cruise’ back to Punta Sabbioni. A nearly full moon made the ride most
memorable.
On our last
day in Venice we visited St. Mark’s Basilica.
We were surprised to find that the combination of high tides and the
previous night’s full moon had been enough to cause very minor flooding during the
night in St. Mark’s Square in front of the basilica.
And it
hadn’t rained at all the previous night!
Venice has a well-known enormous problem with rising sea levels. In addition, it is slowly sinking into the
compacting sediments that it was built upon.
During the rainy season much of St. Mark’s Square has to be covered with
raised walkways, and it floods about 100 times a year! I hope some excellent civil engineers are
hard at work on a plan to save this World Heritage city.
St. Mark’s
Basilica is known for its fabulous mosaics--on the walls and on the ceiling as
well as the floor. Pictures were
forbidden, but it was easily apparent to us that sneaking a few was a common practice.
One of the
most interesting sites in Venice was its back “streets and alleys.”
It was fun
to roam off the beaten tourist track…with frequent rest stops to soak up the
ambience. Our new favorite afternoon
drink has become what is called a ‘spritz’, an orange-colored white wine
cooler…which we will learn to make for our enjoyment back in Colorado.
We spent the
last hour of our last day in Venice by cruising the rest of the Grand Canal
that we hadn’t seen. We slowly
maneuvered our way to one of the coveted vaporetto rear deck outdoor seats,
then sat back and soaked in the scene.
We passed by
a big cruise ship terminal area just as some of the big ships were getting
underway. Surprisingly, we were very close to one that
was being towed out of the harbor after the ship’s passengers had experienced
their precious day in Venice.
And so it
was with us, as we savored our final view of Venice on our last ferry ride back
to the campground. In the words of Rick
Steves, we were leaving Venice with wonderful, happy memories of our visit to a
wonderful “puddle of elegant decay.”
“A well-spent day brings happy
sleep.” Leonardo da Vinci
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