Chao, Italy! Figure last. Separated. Beautiful Venetian
So our Italian holidays have come to an end. The time has come to part with the amazing country that won our hearts and left a bright mark on the history of our travels. And for dessert, in order to feel its aftertaste for a long time, we have the most visited tourist Mecca in Italy - beautiful Venice, betrothed to the sea!
So much has already been said, shown and sung about this unusual city that I even find it difficult and doubt the expediency of my story. But not everything in this world should succumb to logic, and, nevertheless, I will try, given all the inappropriateness of this story, to tell about the most elegant and mysterious city in Italy, which seemed to me a fairy tale frozen in stone.
The history of this unique and magical city is no less unique. Back in the 5th century, Italy was attacked by barbarians, from which it was simply impossible to escape. And so the inhabitants of the small town of Altino, knowing the maritime business well, fled to the small island of Torcello, where they hid from their pursuers. The barbarians at that time did not have the skills of waging war at sea, they were not familiar with the maritime business, so they could not get to the island. So, with the appearance of a small island settlement, Venice arose. And later, the Pope, realizing that it would be safest for him there, quickly moved his residence there. Once again I am convinced of the cunning of the Catholic rulers.
Well, since the city is on the water, it means that you can get to it only by water routes.
Despite the fact that there are more than 150 channels in the city, only three channels have names.
One of them is the Giudecca Canal, through which ships and cruise ships arrive in the city.
We get on a boat and rush along the Giudecca canal to meet the beautiful Venetian.
The captain does not follow his sea gelding at all - well, how can you go to sea under such a flag, more like a doormat (my husband gave another comparison, less cultured)!
Ah, the white ship! A running wave. . . Are you taking me away, tell me where?
Wow! I thought that only boats crossed this channel. But no! Here, there were daredevils among the gondoliers:
An island looms on the horizon, with the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore built on it.
The island is located directly opposite Piazza San Marco, where the gondoliers are already waiting for you with great impatience.
We arrive at Slavyanskaya Embankment, from where we will begin our acquaintance with the city. The question arises: why is the embankment called Slavic? The answer is simple: the Venetians were also not particularly peaceful and conquered Slavonia and Dalmatia, and the embankment is located exactly in the place of those conquered lands. It was this embankment that played the most important role in the life of the city, emperors and ambassadors, in general, all eminent persons were met here, and the embankment was supposed to attract and charm the guests of the city, that is, it served as a kind of calling card of that time. It is still beautiful today - a spectacular wide street stretches for almost a kilometer along the canal.
The most notable building here is the Palazzo Dandolo. At first it was the palace of the Doge (of the Dandolo family), which was later rebuilt into a fashionable hotel.
And the unfailing Vittorio Emanuale II (a modest alternative to the Roman Altar of the Fatherland, located in Piazza Venezia).
Let's go to the most famous square in Venice - St. Mark's Square. The road leads us past the Bridge of Sighs. But far from loving couples sighed here, but the most inveterate prisoners. The fact is that the bridge connects the courthouse and the prison. And so, the prisoners, leaving the courthouse, walked along the bridge, and looking back at their beloved city, sighing that they would never see it again, they went to prison.
We will definitely not go to the bridge, because you can get there only from the courthouse, and this was not part of our plans. Our plans included the most beautiful, albeit worn to the holes of the tourist consciousness the main square of the city - Piazza San Marco.
This is not a square, this is an open-air museum, a million attractions on every square meter. What is not here: the Doge's Palace, the Church of St. Mark, the Procuration, the Belfry, the Mint... what else? Oh, and a very interesting Clock Tower. But the largest and most active, and very mobile structure of the square are tourists.
I have never seen such a crowd in any city, even in Rome there are fewer people. Poor Venetians, you can go crazy from such an anthill! How do they handle all this? But no way. And they are actively moving to the mainland. More recently, the population was 200 thousand people, but at the present time there are about 40 thousand inhabitants. Especially the problem with garbage disposal, because it is all taken out by sea in boats.
Here, we can see the loading of garbage, and then the gondolier brought a group of tourists, maybe in order to show this process:
The most beautiful building in the square (in my opinion) is the main cathedral of Venice - Saint Mark's Basilica.
Here is such a beautiful, as if woven from lace, openwork facade of the Cathedral:
The decor of the cathedral on the outside is no less interesting than its interior decoration:
Mosaics made in the Byzantine style are also impressive:
In front of the cathedral stands the bell tower. The 100-meter St. Mark's Campanile is the tallest building in the city. And they frame the square with the buildings of the Old and New Procurations (figase, the prosecutors had apartments, it seems that there was a prosecutor for every resident! ).
At the top there is an observation deck, climbing to which you can see all of Venice.
Here is another unique building - the St. Mark's Clock Tower, with which one sad story is connected. The customer liked the tower so much that he wanted to be the sole owner of such a masterpiece, and so that the architects could not repeat it anymore, he ordered them to be blinded by gouging out their eyes. To what greed and madness sometimes people who have money reach! But at least the creation of the hands of the masters remains, and we can look at and study such a peculiar calendar. For example, using a watch you can find out not only the current time, but also what phase of the moon and zodiac sign it is. And on top, two statues of an old man and a young man personify the old and new times. Every hour they strike the bell, the old man - a minute before the end of the hour, the young man - at the beginning of each hour, thus symbolizing the past time and the future. And a little lower we see the symbol of Venice - St. Mark in the form of a winged lion.
Two more monumental trophy stone columns took root on this square in the 12th century. These are the Column of St. Mark with a carved capital and a statue of a winged lion, and the Column of St. Theodore with a sculpture of the knight Tyrone, who enjoys special reverence among the Venetians. To the right of the columns is the Marciana Library, which is considered the largest in Venice and contains thousands of old manuscripts and books.
After admiring the most beautiful square in Venice, we go to see the city. And it immediately catches your eye that the streets are very narrow, because in order to build houses here, every centimeter of land had to be drained. Then build a foundation on piles (by the way, piles are only made of alpine larch, as it does not rot in water) and only then erect the buildings themselves. We dive under the arch in the Clock Tower and find ourselves in the epicenter of the main trade artery of the city - the Merceria area.
The houses are slightly shabby, either due to high humidity and dampness, or from time.
During high tides, all of Venice stands "with its feet in the water", so here the doors of the houses from below are upholstered with metal.
There are doors with interesting decor.
The usual earthly life flows in the city. Here, a young man is peacefully watering flowers on the balcony, completely ignoring the crowds of scurrying tourists:
There are many souvenir shops and shops everywhere. Here you can buy beautiful figurines made of real Murano glass.
Or get yourself a carnival mask.
The presence of restaurants is also pleasing. You can sit down at a table with a perfectly starched white tablecloth and just have a cup of coffee.
Or try Italian fast food, in the sense of any pizza with a variety of toppings. The choice is huge!
And my favorite Italian dessert is tiramisu, which is sold everywhere in Venice.
Walking around the city, we come to an old square, where an ancient well has been preserved. There are no people here? ! Lord, where have we already wandered that even the tourists have disappeared?
Some kind of labyrinths of gateways, which are, probably, in every city, even in Venice.
And this, in all likelihood, is His Majesty the Theater, where they will give an opera by the famous Giuseppe Verdi.
The biggest attraction of Venice is the mysterious Venetian canals, along which Venetian gondolas float like black swans, gently swaying on the waves. Skilful gondoliers in vests and hats show negligent tourists all the charms and horrors of a wonderful city.
My husband invites me to ride the black swan, but. . .
. . . when I see how gondolas collide with boats and cannot pass each other in narrow canals, I lose all interest in this.
Having captured our spouse against the backdrop of shiny gondolas, we move to the embankment to take a grand walk along the Grand Canal, because this is a must-see on tourist routes in Venice.
The Grand Canalis the main "water street" of Venice, almost 4 km long, which goes around the city from two sides. The Grand Canal is not just a canal, it is considered a symbol of the splendor and luxury of the Venetian Republic.
For a walk, we chose a public mode of transport - the so-called water tram "vaporetto". A single ticket costs 7.50 euros, while a ticket for the whole day costs 20 euros, which allows you to ride different routes “until you want”. We buy a ticket and take the 1st route, which takes longer, i. e. in 45 minutes we will get to the central station of Santa Lucia.
Some inconvenience on the vaporetto is a large number of passengers.
And lots of stops where the ship should moor.
All this takes time, but in principle we are not in a hurry and just look at the life of the city from the water street. Everyone is busy with their own business. This, apparently, brought wine for guests:
From the water you can see a whole "parade" of palaces and cathedrals.
Santa Sofia Palace (Ca d'Oro)
Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
We are approaching the most hyped bridge in Venice - the Rialto Bridge. A bridge is like a bridge, you've seen better. But in fairness, it must be said that this is the only arch under the bridge of which ships can pass.
Many ride on a water taxi - these are high-speed boats that do not moor anywhere, and no one interferes with tourists. Therefore, I would advise a walk not on a vaporetto, but on a boat, already convinced by personal experience.
A police boat also runs here (the Venetian police are watching closely).
We arrive on the mainland, at Santa Lucia Station, from where ground transport departs.
The other side of Venice opens from the bridge.
Next to the station there is a small park where you can relax and have lunch.
After seeing the mainland of Venice, we take the vaporetto again and take a different route number 2 and go back to the city along the Grand Canal. From the water, we photograph the Venetian dwellings standing "with their feet in the water".
The cruise, like our entire trip through Italy, ends at the front gate - Piazza San Marco.
And in our memory we will have an unusually fabulous city, bright and colorful, as in this picture, Venice...
