Back from Venice, Florence, Rome & London stopover

[WillTravel]

I'm not too surprised by those dried up canals. I didn't see any rain, and it sounds like there hasn't been much subsequently. A lot of the buildings in Venice look like they are heavily water-damaged, and so I get what people say about the aura of decay in the city. But I never noticed any building that seemed like it was unhealthy or moldy-smelling.

[WillTravel]

La Fenice is a lovely, cream-colored building. There's a gondola stop adjacent, because of course the most well-heeled Venetians are hardly going to take the vaporetto to the opera! I couldn't take a picture because of the darkness, and I'm having a hard time finding a good one. Here is a picture that must be from the construction time, given the scaffolding:
www.lunadfuego.com/Dolce/venezia/fenice.jpg
This looks whiter than I recall, but of course I only saw it at night. I did mean to go back and take daytime pictures, but didn't get around to it. The exterior is pristine, which really sets it off against other Venetian buildings, but the architecture fits right in. The Venetians had resolved to build La Fenice "dovera, comera" (where it was, as it was) so that it really looks like the original. The original was destroyed by arson in 1996.

I wander around in the area between St. Marks and the opera house for a while. I then head back to La Fenice. I can't go in the main entrance with my cheap ticket, but have to go in a door around the side. My seat is up several flights of stairs.

Now I get to the disappointing part, although I had been warned on another forum. My seat is situated in such a way that I have no view of the stage. I have a fantastic view of the whole opera house, but not the stage at all. The top balcony extends around like a horseshoe, and I'm at the end of the horseshoe.

On another forum, someone had posted that she hoped the cheap seats would be more comfortable in this version of the opera house. The seats are indeed very comfortable. They're like armless, plush, white-with-pink-upholstery dining room chairs, that aren't bolted to anything. The entire opera takes 3 hr, 50 minutes and I'm very comfortable the whole time. They do have bolted down seats in the main section, but these look reasonably comfortable.

I can't see the first act, but for whatever reason by a later act some seats become available in an area that has a partial view. Wow, the staging is really incredible. I hadn't thought there would be much, for some reasons, but the Indian/Orient theme of the opera is exploited to full advantage. Great showmanship. Here is a synopsis of the opera:
opera.stanford.edu/Massenet/RoiDeLahore/synopsis.html

It is in French with Italian subtitles. I hadn't much hope of understanding very much, but I knew that going in. I was there for the experience. The singing was fantastic. I had read the synopsis beforehand, and I noticed some other people had printed the Internet site out.

As for the opera house itself. Here is an old picture (for some reason, I can't find a new picture of the interior).
www.culturaspettacolovenezia.it/immagini/feniceoldweb.jpg
This picture doesn't capture the beautiful blue and gold tones of the opera house. I'm used to seeing old grand theatres that have red and burgundy tones, but this one doesn't have that at all. I'm curious about whether I was seeing brass or gold-leaf, but in any event, it shone very brightly. The blue is sort of a sky-blue shade. I'm not sure if it was painted or wallpaper (actually I think it must have been some sort of expensive wallpaper fabric). There are paintings and patterns interlaced with the blue and gold all the way down. The paintings are cherubs and fruit (and probably some other neutral themes too). These paintings are placed in ovals and rectangles. I've read some reviews that say the colors are too bright. They are bright, but I think it worked quite well with this production. And it's nice to see something that doesn't try too hard to be subdued.

I did just now find some pictures, but I think they make the interior look too reddish. When you're there, the blue and gold predominate:
archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/040105venice.asp
You can't see the true blueness of the shade from those pictures either.

I spend more than four hours in the opera house, with being quite early, and it all passes very quickly, despite the inconveniences.

[WillTravel]

Even if I had wanted to get more expensive tickets, these weren't available when I got mine, so it's hard to say how much more I'd recommend spending. But it would be really incredible to have a seat with a good view of the stage. To do that, though, you have to try months in advance, generally.

[LHR02]

Thanks so much WT! The first picture with the scaffolding is pretty much as it looked last winter when I was there. Wonderful that you managed to snag another seat partially through to at least get to 'see' part of the production. Looks and sounds just gorgeous! Not sure why but it seems to have been rather common in the old European opera houses to have 'no view' seats. But even Music Hall in Cincinnati (circa 1890's) home of the Cincy opera is likewise horseshoe shaped in the balcony(s) and if you get way around on either end it is difficult at best to see much of anything. I so appreciate you taking the time to post your reports and the inclusion of 'links' is terrific! Am so glad you made it to Scoula and enjoyed it as much as I did. Did you make it on up the street to my favorite little lunch stop?

anxious for more!

[WillTravel]

I had forgotten to take my notes along so I didn't have the instructions to get to the lunch stop, sadly.

I sent the postcard to you 10 days ago from the Vatican. I wonder why it hasn't arrived yet! Hopefully it's just Italian winter holidays slowing things down.

More later, I promise .

[LHR02]

10 days is nothing gal! I told you the one I sent from Rome to my son arrived in 2 /12 months! I'll let you know when I get it.

[WillTravel]

I know you're right, but I hoped the Vatican would do better.

Dec. 28, past 11 PM
After the La Fenice concert, I still have to eat dinner. Now given it was 11:15 PM, and things seem to close down rather early in Venice, I was worried about finding a place to eat. So I took the first one I found - which was a mistake. The food was terrible, although I did manage to eat it, and it more or less satisfied my hunger. The restaurant is called Teatro Goldoni. And fortunately I also had some food back at the hotel. This is the only substandard meal I get in Italy.

Throughout the trip I tried to drink exactly one glass of wine per day (although wine cannot be taken with Tylenol or decongestants, so keep that in mind). My thought was that this might help keep the chest infection away, and it more or less worked (or something did).

I walk back across the Rialto and along Nuova Strada. I do take a wrong turn at one point, but quickly get back on the right path. I have to say I never really had the experience of being lost in Venice, which everyone talks about, perhaps because my map was too good. All the little streets will eventually end up in a campo (square) - more or less.

Dec. 29
I have an appointment for the Secret Itineraries tour, at something like 11:30. I notice when I arrive that I'm supposed to be there 15 minutes early. Note that I took my time dawdling this morning - probably waiting to be sure my hair was dry (and yes I do have a hair-dryer here) and drinking cappucinos at breakfast and then taking my time on the way.

I fortunately am early enough, but feel stupid for not reading my instructions properly. Anyway, I go and wait, and eventually our guide Nicoletta comes and takes us on a tour. The grand staircase is the first ooh-inspiring sight. She explains the prison cells below and above, the doges' offices, Casanova's escape, and the boxes for denouncing your friends and neighbors. She's good and funny. Afterwards, I explore the doge's private apartments on my own and see the pozzi (well) cells. These, being built at the bottom of the palace, were rather damp and nasty. There is a lot of impressive art and weapons. I take my time going through the palace and at one point seem to be going opposite to the general direction of the tourists, however that happened.

Afterwards I go into St. Marks Square and walk around for a while. I decide to have lunch. I'm rather worried about eating in Venice, but I finally choose a place and go in. I order a Caprese salad, which is always my favorite, and get bread. This is a perfectly fine lunch. I have in my irregularly-kept journal that it cost less than 11E.

I then want to try to find some of the hot chocolate I had the day before. I know it is somewhere in the maze of shops, but where? I try several false leads. No harm done, as I see some interesting things on the way. Finally, I see a painting of a young woman unbuttoning her blouse, about to nurse her infant. Ah-hah, I remember I saw that painting before the chocolate shop last time, and sure enough I soon see it and get another hot chocolate. Sadly I didn't write this place down in my journal.

Now it's time to tackle St. Marks Basilica. I don't think I gave this proper attention, perhaps having been worn out by the Doge's Palace. Yes, it is impressive, but I didn't seem to have the energy to make sense of everything. I'll have to attack this properly on a subsequent trip.

I go to Billa and get a few things. It is fairly late in the day, past 5 PM, and I don't feel like a concert right tonight. I decide to go and do my laundry. It's a little early in the trip, but due to getting so hot with my fever, I did go through my clothes faster than expected and I like to keep on top of this. At the nearby laundry there's an American couple, an Asian woman with two young girls, and a man from Senegal. Only one of the dryers is working. So that means a big holdup as each group finishes the washing part, but has to wait for the dryer. The man from Senegal chats with me, but says he could talk better in French (unfortunately I can't). He's been here for 10 years. I don't ask, but I suspect he's one of the many purse-sellers I see in each Italian city. I'm in the middle of the queue, and finally get access to the dryer. I've also started reading the incredibly stupid Angels and Demons book (of course I was warned about this), and the only merit of this book is that it does have some bits about the geography and attractions of Rome. I'm also wondering if the author gets paid for the product placements in the book.

Cost of laundry including soap is 11.5E, my most expensive load of laundry in any country.

After I finish the laundry, I go to a restaurant across the street. This meal is fine - I get the menu turistico. But he tries to charge me for 2 glasses of wine when I had only one. I protest, and he knocks the bill down, but I think he's still charging 1 Euro too much. However, I don't want to fight about it in case there's some obscure reason I'm wrong.

[WillTravel]

Dec. 30
Being even more of a dawdler, and then strolling through Cannaregio, I arrive at the Museo Ebraico around noon. The next walking tour is 12:30. I proceed upstairs and see various interesting elements of life during the Ghetto period. I also see displayed paintings by the artist Luigi Rocca, who has a "hyperrealistic" style, of scenes in Venice and New York City. www.luigirocca.net/
The museum is quite small, so I've had a good chance to look around by the time the walking tour starts. We're taken to three of the five synagogues in the area. The guide goes through the history of the area, and how crowded the ghetto got at its peak population, the impact of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the reasons for the differences in styles in the different synagogues, information about the Judeo-Roman language, the deportations to the death camps, and so on. She points out of the rather tall buildings in the area. Due to the ghetto being so small, the only option was to add more stories on to existing buildings, so this area has the highest buildings in Venice. At least one of the synagogues has the same architect as St. Maria della Salute.

After the tour, I go to the caffeteria, and have a good, cheap meal. It was 6.10 Euros, including a grilled pita sandwich with cheese and vegetables, grilled pepper, some lovely walnut cake and bottled water. Plus, I get to sit down for free. Luigi Rocca's paintings are on display, and I see one of NYC with the Twin Towers in place. I have to stare at that painting for a while - I still find such scenes pretty affecting. The bookstore is in the same area as the caffeteria, so I take a look around. I really need to get more books, as I've almost gone through my stash. The English selection is limited, but I do see The Periodic Table by Primo Levi:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805210415
It's 11E, though, and I know I can get it cheaper at home. I sort of wish I had bought it, though, because there were a couple days where I was short on reading material other than guidebooks, and I had to make do with Angels and Demons.

When I head out, I see two young women doing a housewarming bread and salt ceremony at the threshold of a building.

I decide to stay in the local area, and head to the backwaters of Cannaregio, to Madonna dell'Orto.
europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/madonna_dell_orto.htm
As always, I love strolling through Venice in areas free of super-high-priced shops. Not that I object to those shops, which after all, help keep Venice afloat (so to speak), but just because I like to see other aspects and areas of Venice. I saw the Tintoretto paintings, but looking at my guidebook it seems I missed out on the Chapel of San Mauro. I can't recall if there was an audiophone here or not.

I then go to Santa Maria Miracoli, which is described as a "jewelbox" of a church. Inside it's mostly all beautiful, expensive marble. There are few paintings, and no side chapels or even side aisles. There's just the center aisle, and then on a higher level there's the altar, etc. I have an audiophone for this church. Apparently its small size was a constraint of the location. There used to be a convent nearby, and a special overhead bridge the nuns could use to get to the church. The marble is very special and expensive. When the church was built in the 1400s, there was so much money available for it that the commissioners had to have several meetings to figure out how to spend it. Venetians now favor this church for weddings, and it's easy to see why. The setup would be perfect for accentuating the bride and groom, and the size of the church is not overwhelming. There's a gondola stop right outside.
www.savevenice.org/site/pp.asp?c=9eIHKWMHF&b=67633
Like so much in Venice, this church could be viewed as being "over the top" when you consider the history of the construction, but the general effect is quite subdued.

I walked back to my hotel and saw a Co-op grocery store, so I stopped in there and got a few food items.

I went back to my hotel, rested for a bit, and then prepared to go out to a concert. On my first night in Venice I had purchased a Dec. 30 ticket to a concert by Interpreti Veneziani.
www.interpretiveneziani.com
Now due to some inexplicable stupidity, I had some vaporetto problems, which are hard to explain, but suffice to say I ended up at Piazzale Roma, and didn't realize the #82 no longer ran at that time of night. I then took the #1, which took forever from PR, stopping as it does at every stop. I was quite worried I'd miss the concert. I kept looking at the map so that I'd know exactly which way to run when I finally got to the right stop. I felt quite stupid, because if I had just walked there, I would have been fine.

I got off at Accademia, and ran over the bridge. Once again I was happy for whatever exercise I had done in preparation. I continued running (such as I do it anyway), and ended up in the building at about 8:38 PM. Fortunately they hadn't quite started and didn't seem upset at all by my entrance, and took the ticket. The place was almost full, but I found a seat near the front next to a man and his girlfriend. The man had his legs open in that charming way to try to prevent anyone from taking the adjacent seat. Given how few seats there were, however, I didn't let that stop me, and sat down. I enjoyed the concert, and the encore featured the cellist who I know has some degree of fame. (BTW, I noticed some men trying the same trick on vaporettos to take up two or three seats. I know people complain about this in respect to public transit generally, but I didn't see it anywhere else.)

After the concert, I looked around the campo. I saw a shop whose name was F*** the words. I tried to figure out what it was selling. Maybe skateboard, surfer, and drag queen wear, but it was hard to tell. I'm probably giving the shop some unfortunate publicity by mentioning it, but it did look odd in this context.

[Nicstar]

this has been great to read!

One thing i've noticed, and this isn't a criticism, just an observation, and an outloud wondering if this is what most people do when they go away, but you seem to have done way more than I ever would? I mean museums, tours, toursity attractions etc? I've been stressing about my money situation, however, if this is the case that most people are budgeting in this amount of paid things to do, I haven't a problem in the world.

I guess I just get bored doing those things. I always do one tour of a new city to get my whereabouts and thats about it.

[WillTravel]

In my case, I really wanted to explore the history and art and culture of each city, so I think all these expenses were a necessary part of that. But everyone has different goals, so it's hard to say what others do. I'm sure a lot of people would consider it pretty boring to go to classical concerts and art museums and churches, and there's certainly plenty to do otherwise if you choose not to. These definitely do add to the expenses. Although I did not spend this much everyday, it was certainly possible to spend 20E on tourist attractions and 15E on a concert in the same day, or on another day 21E for a guided walk and 12E for attractions. I did spend almost 0E on shopping, though!

[LHR02]

Wt...was the 'christmas market' still set up in the Campo Santo Stefano just beyond San Vidal? There's a really good net cafe in that campo that I used frequently. I know the shop you are speaking of....unless it has changed direction it is indeed skateboard stuff with a goodly deal of 'costumes' of a sort thrown in. Do they still have loads of 'goth' looking wear in the window?? (what did I tell you about the #1 ) So glad you got to see the synagogues.....the two oldest 'upstairs' ones were worth seeing especially I thought.

[WillTravel]

I saw the net cafe, if it was the right one, and even tried to go in, but they were closing up at that point. I didn't see a Christmas market, but I might not have walked far enough (or perhaps it was put away for the night?). Someone elsewhere else said they've seen that shop featured in a magazine article, with the author dressed in drag.

[WillTravel]

After the concert, I decide to head back and eat whatever food I have in my hotel room rather than go out to dinner. That will also help reduce the weight I have to carry for the morning trip to Florence.

Dec. 31
I check out in the morning, and have no problem except that the clerk on duty does not know how to figure out how much my long-distance calls cost (I had two short ones to Canada). After about 10 minutes, his boss comes back and I have to pay 2.50 Euros. Not bad.

When I get to the train station, I find that I can't get tickets for the next Eurostar. I have to wait a little longer and get a route through Bologna. No problem - it will just take a little longer than I thought, but I'm not in a hurry.

The Bologna train station is more like a stereotypical Italian place - rushing, chaotic, noisy. I get a lunch of a tomato/mozzarella sandwich and what I hope is blood orange juice from a vending machine. The sandwich is surprisingly good - not gourmet of course, but much better than I expected for 2E or so. The juice, sad to say, is actually a mixture of juice, water, and sugar. I am asked in Italian about train directions by a couple people (one asks about the train to Bari, and one asks something I can't understand). This is the first place in Italy where I see gypsies begging.

I hate to admit this, but I inadvertently sat in first-class for a few minutes from Bologna to Florence. The conductor moved me along. I didn't mean to - honest! Of course I had validated my tickets.

[WillTravel]

I forgot to add that I would have liked to have at least seen the following places in Venice also:

the outer islands, particularly Torcello
Giudecca Island
Accademica
Palazzo Grassi and the Dali exhibition
a palazzo that is done up in 18th-century style and which features period-music concerts
a bunch more churches
the Correr and the "Turner in Venice" exhibition
and many other places too

I did see a couple churches in Cannaregio that did not have admission booths and I didn't take note of their names. They did have nativity scenes, which is one fun aspect of visiting at that time of year.

So I know I missed a bunch of things in Venice, and four nights is just a start on it.

[WillTravel]

Dec. 31, afternoon
At the train station in Florence, I buy an international phone card and a 3-day bus pass. As mentioned, I only take the bus twice and walk everywhere else.

I arrive at the convent, check in, get my nice room, and decide to try to make my 4:30 reservation at Accademia to meet David. I walk over to the Ponte Vecchio, and am really surprised by the crush of people. But of course, it's New Year's Eve. I continue on to Accademia, and notice there is no line, so I walk in without using my reservation. The museum is quite crowded, though. I do get a chance to look at David for as long as I want, and as close up as possible.

I look at the other paintings, and notice one in particular that has only women in it, except for either a baby Jesus or John the Baptist (can't remember which). It turns out this was done for the women's hospital in Florence in, I think, the 1500s.

I then went into this room where they were showing a film of two art critics or professors talking about David. It's in Italian with English subtitles. It's mostly ironic, post-modern, deconstructionist stuff that I can only take for a few minutes at a time, and I actually fall asleep while watching it until it's time to leave the gallery. So while I got to glance at a few paintings, I did not see the full assortment by far.

I walk around some more, see the Duomo from the outside, get some hot chocolate, visit an Internet cafe, phone home, and then walk back to the convent. All the areas in central Florence seem crowded.

I'm served a much-welcomed dinner. They have an arrangement at the convent where you can buy a bottle of wine (I paid 7.50 Euros and it's just right for four nights), and use it up over the course of your stay.

I have about 1.5 glasses of wine instead of my usual 1, which makes me feel a little spinny. We have been given the special allowance to stay out until 1 AM, but I'm tired anyway and am not really into standard New Year's celebrations. I'm in bed by 11, and I sleep right through until 8:15 AM.

In fact, the entire time I'm at the convent I usually sleep for 9 hours per night. At the other locations, my family would call me late at night and early in the morning, and I'd typically get rather less sleep. So much as I hate to admit it, and as much as I liked to talk to them, I think there was some health benefit to not having a phone in my room.