VENICE, Italy -- The problem with going to Venice is that you know how your trip is supposed to turn out before you even book it.
“The gondola trip was so romantic,” you will tell your friends when you return. “The streets are so quaint,” you will gush.
Before you board the plane, your trip has already been imagined by other people and captured in Hollywood films, on television travel shows and tourist websites.
You know where you have to visit, what you have to see – even what you have to feel. You feel obliged to act out a play that is not your own.
This is the danger of the information age – the feeling that you have been somewhere before you even arrive.
And when you discover something new, you can be swiftly disappointed. Walking along the bank of the Grand Canal, I saw two adjacent signs showing the way to St. Mark’s Basilica and Rialto Bridge.
“What a lovely quirk,” I thought. Five paces later, I saw a T-shirt for sale on a market stall with the same image.
Venice is, sadly, blighted by tacky tourist stalls selling cheap souvenirs and “tourist menu” restaurants.
Thankfully, tourist crowds were thin when we visited for two days at the end of November, and the weather was surprisingly warm.
We flew Wizzair, booked just two weeks earlier, which cost a reasonable Hr 1,300 per person roundtrip. We found a comfortable three-star hotel, close enough and far enough away from the popular St. Mark’s Square and Rialto bridge.
Leaving behind Kyiv’s choking traffic is one of the great pleasures of visiting Venice, which you can experience from the moment you land by taking the boat into town from the Marco Polo Airport for 15 euros.
The small city is a joy to wander around. The winding streets and alleys lead through squares, past churches and over canals. You can drop into one of the cafes around every corner for a panini and a glass of wine or a sweet treat with coffee.
Our wanderings brought us to the Doge’s Palace just off St. Mark’s Square. Built in the 14th century, the palace was the residence of the Doge, the leader of the Republic of Venice, and also housed the political institutions of the republic, as well as its prison.
An aristocratic elite ruled the republic through a complex series of councils, building Venice into a trading superpower whose tentacles reached the Crimean peninsula.
Rooms filled with works by artists including Titian and Tintoretto and especially the Chamber of the Great Council – one of the largest rooms in Europe – underline the power and beauty that lie at the heart of the attraction of Venice.
Next door to the Doge’s Palace is St. Mark’s Basilica – a beautiful Byzantine masterpiece full of gold and color that offers welcome respite from the tourists and pigeons on the square outside.
A walk along the waterfront of the Venetian Lagoon leads to the Giardini, which every two years hosts the Venice Biennale, an exhibition of contemporary art from scores of countries.
We enjoyed some of the pavilions, but the works were very hit and miss, and we were perhaps unable to appreciate as much as we wanted because our time was limited.
We returned to our hotel by waterbus along the Grand Canal admiring the palazzos – some restored, some slowly deteriorating – amid the bustle of everyday Venetian life.
A full day of wandering, looking and inquiring will leave you hungry. Make sure to avoid the restaurants near St. Mark’s Square, where the food tends to be overpriced. (We even had food poisoning from some pricey roasted turbot.)
Our favorite place was Vecio Fritolin, a small restaurant a short walk from the tourist routes and packed with locals. We enjoyed rabbit ravioli, delicious fried seafood and a perfect creme brulee, along with a bottle of wine for just over 100 euros.
This place summed up the best of Venice: fresh food cooked well, a pleasant atmosphere and a sense of beauty and warmth that will soon draw us back.
Kyiv Post editor James Marson can be reached at [email protected]
