- I loved being on the water again - living in London, it's the one thing I really miss about home. And that's why Wellington is appealing on my return. The water ferries were brilliant ... one every ten minutes or so and the main line went right up the Grand Canal. It's like getting a free sightseeing tour everytime you use the Underground - brilliant!
- The place smells, but not as badly as I'd expected. I can imagine it would reek in the height of summer. You did however know when you were approaching a canal, as the odour rose proportionately: a very handy pre-falling-in warning system if you were blind drunk.
- St Mark's Basilica is absolutely amazing: you feel as though you've well and truly walked into Aladdin's Cave. Mosaics for Africa. No wonder it took them around six hundred years to complete it all.
- The Doge's Palace was similarly lush: private quarters decked out to the nines, a large map room with two massive globes, one of the world and one of the heavens, and huge executive suites, meeting halls, courtrooms and over the Bridge of Sighs to the prisons. Titian's beautifully restored fresco of St Christopher was an unexpected find, placed as it is above a doorway at the foot of a flight of stairs, tucked off the main corridor.
- Whilst shopping, Michelle muttered something semi-derogatory about a store as we passed. I turned and the mat said PRADA. "Do not mock Prada", I said in muted winter tones, half-expecting an army of black-clad fashionistas to jump out and squirrel us away for a rapid "re-education session".
- The island of San Giorgio, across the water from St Mark's Square always catches your eye when you arrive the waterfront: the juxtaposition of architectural styles makes it look like the Venetian version of Las Vegas' "New York - New York" hotel. The Campanile (bell tower) offered a great 360º view of Venice and the lagoon's islands while the stark austerity of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore offsets St Mark's aureate flourishes nicely.
- Still in, one week later: fur coats (or at the very least, anoraks with fur-lined hoods), small yappy dogs, attitude, so much make-up you look orange, weird tinted chemistry-class-goggle style spectacles.
- We were only shylocked once - an exorbitantly priced lunch, the final total of which bore no earthly resemblance to the prices of the food we'd seen inside the door just moments before. Reluctantly, they took their pound of flesh.
- Of course, the gondola ride wasn't exactly cheap either but we saw that one coming. Navigating through the backwaters (literally) of Venice was very tranquil, the city giving up it's shiny tourist façade and revealing it's faded grandeur to full effect.
- The hotel had a free tour thing going over to Murano Island, where the city's major glass studios are located. So we dutifully jetted over, water taxi style, and checked it out. "The Master" (as the guy who met us off the boat referred to him - very Doctor Who) whipped up a vase and a glass deer in about seven seconds flat while smoking a cigarette the whole way through. Now that's skill.
- I'm convinced Treviso has the tiniest airport in the world: picture a combined check-in area, customs zone, duty-free shop and departure lounge the combined size of your living room and you'll get the idea. Oh, and put six fully armed soldiers in there too for added measure. And since when haven't you been allowed to buy cigarettes at the airport to take from one E.U. country to another? Or is that just a weird Italian rule?
‹ 17.1.02 / 0 comment(s) ›
Comments
Feel free to leave a few words about this post. Pithy, on-point comments will earn you 100 frequent surfer miles and a place in the afterlife ...