Spectacular Venice

Words & photos By Allison O’Donoghue

The heat hangs like a blanket as the train pulls into St Lucia railway station in Venezia. It is the beginning of the tourist season and already Venice is crowded. I am immediately awestruck and begin to bask in its rich history.

Vivaldi, Casanova, Bellini, Marco Polo to name a few, all lived and worked in Venice. The first film festival in the world was started here and now The Venice Film Festival is a major annual event along with The Biennale and the world famous Carnivals.

The Grand Canal called the Canalazzo by the Venetians forms the main artery of the city, uniting and dividing the immense waterway. It is four kilometres long, ranging from thirty to sixty meters wide and has an average depth of five to six meters. It is called Grand as it is the largest of all the canals and is lined with magnificent palazzos built buy wealthy Venetians throughout the centuries.

I cross a new modern bridge, which leads to the major tourist attractions, through narrow corridors I head straight for the world famous Rialto Bridge, the Universal symbol of Venice together with the Campanile, the Doge’s Palace and the church of San Marco with its adjacent Piazza. Built in 1591 by Antonio Da Ponte, the Rialto is both a meeting point and access to San Marco Square and the best vantage point to watch the gondolas navigating the Grand Canal, dodging the speedboats while carefully avoiding the vortex created by the huge Liners. Venice cannot beat progress no matter how hard it tries. These Liners are their bread and butter, sustaining the Venetians throughout the winter months. The hordes of tourists pouring off these ships create the revenue to sustain the city.

Most of the small shops built into the Rialto’s canopy sell trinkets, masks and souvenirs. The bridge is packed elbow deep with tourists jostling for position to watch the endless parade of boats on the canal. Murano glass, lace from Burano, tooled leather and hundreds of other articles stemming from the old civilization cannot be found here anymore. However, the endless shops lining the walkways to and from the Rialto and the Piazza sell the finest wares Venice has to offer at exaggerated prices. What the heck, you may only get to Venice once in a lifetime.

I make my way to San Marco’s square, the historical and artistic heart of Venice. During the winter months the Piazza is under water causing no end of trouble for the locals and of great concern for the city council. How to stop the surge of water and rising tides that drown the square on a seemingly annual basis? Millions of Euros’ are poured in annually to quell the flow yet nothing has worked thus far, albeit, a multimillion-euro underwater system is soon to be operational. Lets hope it works. Venice is a city worth saving.

The extraordinary architecture in San Marco square range from Romanesque, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance to Baroque and is awe-inspiring. This wondrous floating city is saturated in history.
When Napoleon strolled through San Marco’s Piazza he declared it was ‘the most beautiful salon in the whole of Europe’. The square is beautiful without a doubt. The grandiose character of the buildings surrounding the square evoke centuries of history, lined with elegant shops, old cafes and souvenir vendors. Because of its isolation, Venice is said to be the first city in the world to open up coffee houses. The Procuratie Nuove is covered with a huge canvas of Roger Federer selling a watch, cleverly camouflaging the scaffolding surrounding the building.

The Basilica of San Marco can be found at the end of the Grand Canal and forms a beautiful backdrop to the Piazza and is known as the Golden Basilica. Initiated in 829 by the nuns of the San Zaccaria Convent who built a garden in honour of their patron saint St. Mark, and from that day forth St Mark became the patron saint of Venice replacing St Theodore. The basilica was built between 1043 and 1070 and has evolved in ornamentation throughout every epoch, be it mosaics, sculptures or marble, making it more and more richly decorated. It is a stunning, extraordinarily opulent building.

Time for lunch, I head for one of the many restaurants overlooking the lagoon, directly in front of the magnificent Doge’s Palazzo along the Bank of Slavs and watch the gondolas rhythmically bob in the ocean. I have the best pasta dish of my life; truffle with basil cream and fettuccini, served with a simple green salad. Delectable! From here you can depart for Lido, the internationally celebrated Venetian island with a sandy beach that attracts the rich and famous, and hosts film festival events annually as well as the internationally world famous Casino.

For an authentic experience, I follow the locals and walk where they walk through the narrow alleyways crossing a labyrinth of ancient bridges. I’m glad I did. I happened upon a tiny bakery and indulged in divine coffee and delicious Italian pastry. It is worth getting lost in Venice to discover hidden treasures, little cafés, open operating wood-workshops, as music peels out of the beautiful grand palazzos creating a glorious ambience.

During my 4-day visit, I stay at a modest hotel on the mainland at Mestre’, a 10-minute train ride to the island and half the price of accommodation in Venice. I discovered great takeaway Venetian food, very good meals at local prices from the cafeteria at St Lucia station. I often sat on the steps, eating my delicious meal watching water taxis and small ferry’s pick up the locals, returning home from a days work on the mainland.

A gondolier ride is well worth the money, but for a little less also try a water taxi which takes you all around the island while dropping off locals to their magnificent palazzos. I wanted to get inside one of these majestic palazzos for a good look, but alas, it was not be.

Catch the ferry from the Fondamente Nuove to visit the island of Murano, the largest on the lagoon and like Venice, consists of small islets separated by canals. And of course Murano is famous for the art of glassmaking since 1292. Originally only glassmakers inhabited the island along with their families to ensure the secrets of their techniques were never divulged. If someone spilled the beans then it was incarceration, or even death. Now the secret ingredient is out: seaweed is the magical element to the Murano glassware success story.

Also visit the island of Burano where the ancient art of lace making is still practiced today. Venice was once the most important trading ports in Europe and the place that invented banking in the Jewish Ghetto, which you can still visit today. 
Venice is slowly decaying but all efforts are being made to restore foundations and crumbling buildings to retain its unique heritage.

There is plenty to keep you occupied with galleries, museums, theatres, workshops, churches, beautiful hotels, endless cafes and restaurants. Never a dull moment. You can also observe ongoing excavations in Venice as archaeologists unearth more ancient treasures.

Venice is the most romantic city in the world and is spectacularly beautiful. Everyone needs to visit this unique city at least once in his or her lifetime.