Atlantis in Slow Motion
Venice = bridges.
and you've already seen this one
Once I got over (haha) the bridges, my overwhelming impression of Venice was that of a duty-free section of an airport. It's mostly filled with small, expensive luxury shops (think Louis Vuitton, Paris this, Berlin that), and it's arranged like a linear video game. You think you can take forks off the main path, but in fact they all dead-end so there is only one path, ensuring that you see as many expensive boutique shops as possible.
The alleys are sometimes narrower than you'd imagine possible:
and several times, I'd turn around thinking a path had ended, only to double-check my map and realize it turned a corner and squeezed through four feet of space.
Everyone is dressed for summer, and everyone is dressed in their best. It's easy to tell that most people here are quite wealthy. They're on a honeymoon, or with young kids, or else they're past retirement age and enjoying some freedom. Most people are European, I would hazard a guess. And every shop is like this:
I did not go for a gondola ride, because although they are beautiful, they are also 80 euros for 30 minutes.
Other complaints:
It's hard to get money: My roommate lost his debit card and needed to exchange US currency for Euros. The real exchange rate was 1.12; the exchange agency decided to pretend it was 1.22; then they decided to exact a 19% transaction fee, just because; and other fees mumble mumble; and $700 US turned into 450 euros (a 1.55 exchange rate). Oh my. Note to self, never use an exchange bureau.
Later, an old Venezuelan woman approached me when I was hanging out near an exchange and asked what the current rate was. She had $200 US. I explained, and suggested she avoid it. What I should have said, but didn't, was, "Do you want to spend $40-$80 of your $200 to turn it into euros?"
Google Maps knows nothing: I found three banks and way more than ten bookstores that it knew nothing about. I guess they couldn't drive a Google car through and were lazy about Venice. If you, my dear reader, work at Google, I suggest you volunteer to take a paid trip to Venice and improve the maps. I'm just saying. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
It's sinking: The elephant in the room is that in less than a century, Venice will be completely underwater. A British girl insisted this was part of its charm: "Everyone wants to visit before it's gone," she said, "like Cuba." San Marco's square floods completely about once a month. Walking back from dinner, I had to splash my way through some puddles (or, try to find a detour in this maze). Unless they build a dyke around it, Venice is going to go the way of Atlantis.
But it's beautiful. As you will see shortly.
Leonardo da Vinci
The first place I went to is this church
which has been converted to a recreation of Leonardo's workshop, with models of all his creations, and is appropriately chaotic inside
Leonardo was of course obsessed with flight and tried to design a helicopter
and other sorts of wings; I was impressed by his scientific thoroughness however. He had written that one ought to build such and such a wing and flap it once with a 200lbs weight; if it did not lift, "waste no further time with this endeavour".
He also had to earn his keep and designed things like this giant 9 meter rapid-fire artillery
which I hope for the sake of those poor southerners was never actually built. Leonardo also was a fantastic painter (of course, he did the Mona Lisa), with an eye to mixing scientific principles into his art
something which I never fully realized before. He is my new hero in mixing art+science :)
There was also this octagonal room of mirrors which Leonardo may or may not have designed, but which was pretty cool nevertheless
Leonardo, inventor of the funhouse?
I wandered
along that linear pathway, amongst many street musicians
and a musician's cat
who had to be the most photographed cat of all Venice
and wasn't happy about it but stayed on the fountain for hours because there was nowhere else to go.
There were many shops selling beautiful glasswork... I convinced one owner to let me take a single picture, so here it is, after thirty seconds of fiddling with focal length and framing to get it just right
When you think about it, fish don't actually release air bubbles when they breathe. Sssh.
A cathedral
at the end of the path was very very bright in the sunlight
That picture is at least -0.7 white balance adjusted but not digitally touched afterwards at all :) inside were lit candles
plus a serious custodian who asked firmly that I remove my hat. There was also a baby girl, destined to be a singer, crying "oooh"/"AAAAH", "oooh"/"AAAAH" in low and high pitches and listening to the echoes off the walls.
Outside I was living dangerously
... had to lift my feet every few seconds to avoid a wave. That's how close Venice is to sea level. Of course there were birds
and an amazing view, which to me really began to feel like the Mediterranean Sea:
There was a harbour too which was fun to watch
as bigger
and BIGGER
ships arrived. Sorry to have so many pictures but it's just so beautiful here
Miscellaneous
I guess in Venice it is customary to have evil unicorns guarding your doorways
against all those decked-out noblemen. Meanwhile, don't leave your boat alone too long
and remember that it's OK to serve minors who aren't actually in the bar
although in Italy, the drinking age is probably, can you see over the counter while sitting on the stool?
That's it for the first day in Venice. Whew.
