City on the Water

Venice is like a dream; or, at least, one of those places you see in textbooks but don't really believe exist. But it does, and man's creativity is vindicated once more.

I arrived quite late, as there was massive train delays. I was quite aggrevated from sitting on a train in Verona, wondering if it would ever take off..it finally did, and I made it to Venice Mestre, the mainland terminal, and proceeded to wait 20 minutes for a train bound to Venice Santa Lucia.

Venice is a lot further from the land than I had thought, about 4 km. Once arriving, I was astounded..even in the darkness of night, even with all the shops closed and people asleep, I could sense something magical. The old buildings had white lights streaming down their facades, and you could never escape the sound of water gently patting the sides of the canals. I took a water bus to the other side, where my hostel was located. Amazing enough, after 15 hours on a train, I would have expected the hour or so it took to get to the stop to be excruciating; it was very pleasant. No worries!

I spent all of the next day walking around, taking your quintessential canal shot, experiencing life without cars The amazing thing about Venice is it is impossible to experience it all xclusively by foot or boat. Some of the buildings but up straight against the canals, making "sidewalks" impossible; even more common are strets within each island, shut off from the water (160 canals have been filled in, with this result).

I attended a modern art museum, held in a beautiful 17th cent. building, The art was really wonderful )although it was "modern" as in Modernist, ranging from he late 19th cent. to about 1950). In the evening I attended a performance of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" which was well done, although rather dry and (gasp!) a little boring. The crowd seemed a bit restless, with much fidgeting about. The guy next too me would occasionally conduct along, which made me think he was an afficianado, although he would also hack on occasion, disturbing my hearing. How odd...

I went to a wonderful restaurant in the evening, spending a bit too much (cetainly more than I thought I had); and this was just a run-of-the-mill restaurant!! Their goulash with eggplant was amazing, though (and quite unlike the goulash I've had at home--equally amazing). I continued my walk, finding out how amazing Venice is in the evening; the shops stay open much later, and the streets are topped with lights in the shapes of hearts, stars, or simply strung across the alleys, making for a beautiful effect.

I rested well, given my feet had been exposed to many hours of walking, and general tiredness is catching up to me. The next day (i.e. today) I took the water bus back to the train station, popped on the 12:32 bound to Rome, and here I am. Last leg...

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