Venezia

At long last...I am returning for a few post-script entries to the Harlaxton story. It seems amazing that it is nearly a month since I last wrote here and even looking at these pictures from Venice makes even this short trip to Italy seem to have happened lightyears ago. I apologize for the delay but as you can imagine, by the time I returned to England, the Christmas festivities were upon me and there was no time to get back to story-telling.

So...I pick up our tale from our last conversation beginning with a little drama. The coaches departed on schedule with only one unfortunate incident involving four very intoxicated students who were allowed to board the bus despite being explicitly told that no one would be allowed to do so if they even had the faintest whiffs of alcohol on their breath. One of these students was so out of it that he left his backpack holding his passport, cell phone, wallet, and who knows what else at Harlaxton. This all happened for reasons I will not discuss here but let me say that I am glad I didn't have to endure that coach trip to Heathrow with them. This delinquent's backpack went on our coach which left the manor at 3 am and he was instructed to meet us at the airport or else his pack would return to Harlaxton again. Imagine our surprise when he didn't turn up. As planned, the coach left with his stuff aboard. When he did show up later than he was told to...and now more sober and panicked...he begged us to do something but all that could be done was to call the coach driver who thankfully hadn't gotten far out of London again and have him turn around and bring the student's stuff back to Heathrow. I assume he eventually got his things back and so could leave the UK for home. From then on I had my sights set on my nine days in Italy and our first stop: Venice!

As I hope the opening picture communicates, Venice was one of the most beautiful places and December was clearly the time to be there. Although the weather can be quite rainy, we had a reasonable amount of sun and no rain. Given the time of year, we shared the city with the locals and relatively few tourists.

We got into town on Thursday (Dec. 10) afternoon, were checked into our hotel, and set off to explore. I spent much of my time wandering with Ian, the Harlaxton staff person who was "in charge" (he is in the picture with me here) and his daughter Michaela. We walked the circuitous streets of Venice...over bridges, down alleys, always following the yellow signs that directed one to the Rialto bridge, San Marco, or back to the train station. If you have not been to Venice, it is a small city but you can easily lose your sense of direction (one bridge over a canal looks like all the others) so seeing these signs always provided a sense of comfort that you were going the right way.

Now I was last in Venice 23 years ago on my post-college grand tour of Europe in 1986. I was with two women classmates of mine and we had all of about six hours in Venice...enough time to get on a boat, go down the Grand Canal to San Marco, and then wander the church before heading back up the canal to catch a train to Florence. That was in June. There were mobs of people and pigeons everywhere. Imagine how surprising it was to see the piazza empty! It was wonderful! Walking along in front of the beautiful doors to the church under the Campanila virtually alone in the late afternoon was just spectacular. We decided to go into the Doge's Palace, the old center of political power, to see the beautiful rooms with their grand murals. Once the sun began to set, the temperature dropped so we set our sights on dinner. Of course, after three months of Harlaxton, I was ready to dive in to the cuisine of Italy. We took it slow on the first night: collecting an assortment of things to have a bit of a picnic in the hotel. Lovely prociutto, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, cheeses, and crusty breads washed down with delicious wines from the Veneto (the region around Venice) made a perfect first meal. Of course we topped it off with gelato! Ah how I had forgotten how wonderful it can be. I chose scoops of 70% cocoa-dark chocolate and pistachio for my first round. A combination made in heaven!

Our first full day in Venice started early with a boat ride down the Grand Canal toward the island of Murano, known most as the place where Venice glass is made. There a shops and galleries all over the small island but the further away from the docks you go, the less touristy the shops become and the less expensive the glass gets as well. I only took one picture on Murano it is the one with the bell tower standing behind a blue star sculpture. The star is made entirely out of handblown glass. The shops were full of the most amazing glass pieces...from the sublime and intricate to the tacky and absurd. Everything could be had for a price though and most dealers were happy to haggle with you. I tried my hand at this in the shop where I purchased a small cobalt blue vase with a tracery of grapes and ivy handpainted in gold around the edge and was promptly told that there was no cost reduction in that shop...I at least tried!

We took the vaporetto (one of the water taxis) the long way back around the far edge of the islands to San Marco again. As you can see in the picture, there was just an amazing view of the gondolas in their blue covers that just made a gorgeous view out toward the other islands and San Giorgio Maggiore which is also the view in the last picture...taken just before sunset.

Venice was a wonderful city. In hindsight, I think one of the other things that made Venice special was the lack of automobile traffic. One either walked everywhere or took the vaporetto. Of course the food was also wonderful. The fresh thin-crust pizzas, the seafood dishes, and the regional wines were all stellar. It was a perfect beginning to life after Harlaxton.