Our friends Clara and Tim (who was a little sad because his team, St Kilda lost the Grand Final in the final 5 minutes) meet us for the 9am shuttle as we are splitting the cost of a Gondola ride. Gondolas are the original form of transport in Venice. The
gondola boat is black with gold trimming and can have up to 6 people in it. The gondolier stands on the back and uses a paddle to row and steer the boat around. He wears a blue and white or red and white stripped shirt plus in summer a short sleeved white over shirt and in winter a long sleeved black over shirt. The control he has over the boat is amazing considering they only row on one side (you'd think we would go around in circles). He demonstrates this as we glide up the grand canal and park on the other side to allow another gondolier the opportunity to walk across our gondola to his one, which is further away
and too far to jump. He doesn't even touch the poles on either side the way a normal boat would.We cruise the Grand Canal and Clara is a bit nervous that we might tip up, but he really does know what he is doing and eventually turns us down a small canal to check out the back streets! We can see the effects of the rising sea level on Venice. 100 days of the year parts of Venice flood due to high tides. They are particularly bad when there is a spring tide (super high tide) which can leave St Mark's square a few feet under water. Note that the square is the size of two rugby fields and is rather large, so it's a lot of salt water. Today isn't one of those days however and the ride goes very comfortably for around 40 mins. One of the things that Mike liked most was the way in which the gondolier would indicate when approaching a blind corner. In a loud booming voice they would call out in Italian to alert any other of the silent moving vessels. The ride cost 80 euros total for the four of us and even Mike conceded that it wasn't poorly spent. Note: that even before we left he was dubious because it's a tourist trap and really
expensive.Once the ride is finished, we set our sights on one of the other of Venice's most famous products -glass. For many years Venicians have been regarded as the best glass blowers in the world, however in the 13th century the city forced all the glass workers to relocate onto the island of Murano, because too many fires were breaking out in within Venice. This is the reason that "Murano Glass" is now considered the premium quality in it's field. A lot of the shop windows in Venice advertise "only Murano Glass -no Chinese" to state their authenticity. The day before we'd purchased a trinket from a shop where you could watch a guy making them with a bunson burner... technically that made it Venician Glass (not Murano) but at least here we knew for sure it wasn't Chinese! To get to the island with the real deal, we catch a 10 minute ferry along with half of the population of Italy. Luckily a lot of them get off at the first stop (a different island) and we can have a reasonably peaceful walk around Murano. I say peaceful, but that doesn't mean it wasn't stressful as we frustratedly struggle to find a factory that is giving a demonstration of their art. First place 'oh the master isn't here yet, he'll be here in half an hour'. Second place 'sorry, you just missed a demo, we don't know when the next one will be because it depends on when enough people come to see it'. Third place 'it'll be in half an hour'. By this point we're getting dangerously close to siesta time so we circle back to the first couple of places again.
First place '200m that way' (think the master decided not to come in today). Second place which was 200m away 'still not 20 people'. Third place 'it'll be in half an hour'!! We wait it out at this place and even though it's late -it's worth the wait. The master has so much control over the liquid glass and works so quickly that we finally begin to understand how the sheer volume of sculptures can be created (every second shop in Venice sells glass... the other half sell masks!). He makes two vases and two horses in about 15min, although to be fair he wasn't really concentrating that much and seemed to be on autopilot (you should be aware that one of sayings in Italy is "it's good to do nothing"... they aren't known for their hard work!) It takes 25 years to become and master and the craft is most often handed down throughout the male bloodline. In our search around th
e island we found two really wonderful vases (that just happened to match our recently purchased masks) that were marked at 2000euros and 3000euros each. The owner drops the price to 1200 for the smaller one straight away and throws in free delivery to NZ! This is obviously well outside our Italy budget, but it was nice to know he thought we were genuinely interested (no Pretty Woman moment here!) We head back to Venice, but are too chicken to catch the ferry direct to St Mark's (our ticket is to the closer terminal -even though we know no one would ever check). We make the decision not to bust a gut to walk there, due to the fact that it's closing soon and there's a good chance the Italians would have closed it again for some reason anyway! We found the only Maccas in Venice, didn't buy anything but saved 1.50 each by using their toilets. Unfortunately we miss the bus by a few minutes, which shouldn't be a problem because we'll just take a
seat, relax and grab the next one. The spanner in the works is the fact that Topdeck (a tour company for young people) has a group of around 50 people gather to catch the same bus. Of course the camp site hasn't communicated who should be getting on the bus -so a full on rugby scrum forms when it arrives. We see an 8 seater minivan arrive with the camp sight logo on it and bust it on board when we hear that the 50 seater is reserved for Topdeck. We hate to think how many people missed getting back to the campsite. Back at the campsite it is pizza, beer and wine accompanied by mozzies for dinner before an early night to catch up on our beauty sleep. We must also note here that we would not advise anyone to stay at PLUS Alba D'Ora. Why? Firstly there is the bus issues to and from Venice, secondly they lied about their services by email, thirdly their staff are rather rude - best example was when Shona asked at the supermarket if they had water. She'd gone in looked in the two open fridges and couldn't find it. The guy's response "no, no, no" shaking his head as if she was stupid. The water was in two chest fridges along a wall and did have signs but not from the fridges where you first look. Add in the mozzies, the fact that the blankets in our room had dust in them and Mike sneezed and sneezed. It was not a fun stay. Anyway it's our last night and we are not going to let the accommodation spoil Venice.
gondola boat is black with gold trimming and can have up to 6 people in it. The gondolier stands on the back and uses a paddle to row and steer the boat around. He wears a blue and white or red and white stripped shirt plus in summer a short sleeved white over shirt and in winter a long sleeved black over shirt. The control he has over the boat is amazing considering they only row on one side (you'd think we would go around in circles). He demonstrates this as we glide up the grand canal and park on the other side to allow another gondolier the opportunity to walk across our gondola to his one, which is further away 
and too far to jump. He doesn't even touch the poles on either side the way a normal boat would.We cruise the Grand Canal and Clara is a bit nervous that we might tip up, but he really does know what he is doing and eventually turns us down a small canal to check out the back streets! We can see the effects of the rising sea level on Venice. 100 days of the year parts of Venice flood due to high tides. They are particularly bad when there is a spring tide (super high tide) which can leave St Mark's square a few feet under water. Note that the square is the size of two rugby fields and is rather large, so it's a lot of salt water. Today isn't one of those days however and the ride goes very comfortably for around 40 mins. One of the things that Mike liked most was the way in which the gondolier would indicate when approaching a blind corner. In a loud booming voice they would call out in Italian to alert any other of the silent moving vessels. The ride cost 80 euros total for the four of us and even Mike conceded that it wasn't poorly spent. Note: that even before we left he was dubious because it's a tourist trap and really 
expensive.Once the ride is finished, we set our sights on one of the other of Venice's most famous products -glass. For many years Venicians have been regarded as the best glass blowers in the world, however in the 13th century the city forced all the glass workers to relocate onto the island of Murano, because too many fires were breaking out in within Venice. This is the reason that "Murano Glass" is now considered the premium quality in it's field. A lot of the shop windows in Venice advertise "only Murano Glass -no Chinese" to state their authenticity. The day before we'd purchased a trinket from a shop where you could watch a guy making them with a bunson burner... technically that made it Venician Glass (not Murano) but at least here we knew for sure it wasn't Chinese! To get to the island with the real deal, we catch a 10 minute ferry along with half of the population of Italy. Luckily a lot of them get off at the first stop (a different island) and we can have a reasonably peaceful walk around Murano. I say peaceful, but that doesn't mean it wasn't stressful as we frustratedly struggle to find a factory that is giving a demonstration of their art. First place 'oh the master isn't here yet, he'll be here in half an hour'. Second place 'sorry, you just missed a demo, we don't know when the next one will be because it depends on when enough people come to see it'. Third place 'it'll be in half an hour'. By this point we're getting dangerously close to siesta time so we circle back to the first couple of places again. 
First place '200m that way' (think the master decided not to come in today). Second place which was 200m away 'still not 20 people'. Third place 'it'll be in half an hour'!! We wait it out at this place and even though it's late -it's worth the wait. The master has so much control over the liquid glass and works so quickly that we finally begin to understand how the sheer volume of sculptures can be created (every second shop in Venice sells glass... the other half sell masks!). He makes two vases and two horses in about 15min, although to be fair he wasn't really concentrating that much and seemed to be on autopilot (you should be aware that one of sayings in Italy is "it's good to do nothing"... they aren't known for their hard work!) It takes 25 years to become and master and the craft is most often handed down throughout the male bloodline. In our search around th
e island we found two really wonderful vases (that just happened to match our recently purchased masks) that were marked at 2000euros and 3000euros each. The owner drops the price to 1200 for the smaller one straight away and throws in free delivery to NZ! This is obviously well outside our Italy budget, but it was nice to know he thought we were genuinely interested (no Pretty Woman moment here!) We head back to Venice, but are too chicken to catch the ferry direct to St Mark's (our ticket is to the closer terminal -even though we know no one would ever check). We make the decision not to bust a gut to walk there, due to the fact that it's closing soon and there's a good chance the Italians would have closed it again for some reason anyway! We found the only Maccas in Venice, didn't buy anything but saved 1.50 each by using their toilets. Unfortunately we miss the bus by a few minutes, which shouldn't be a problem because we'll just take a 
seat, relax and grab the next one. The spanner in the works is the fact that Topdeck (a tour company for young people) has a group of around 50 people gather to catch the same bus. Of course the camp site hasn't communicated who should be getting on the bus -so a full on rugby scrum forms when it arrives. We see an 8 seater minivan arrive with the camp sight logo on it and bust it on board when we hear that the 50 seater is reserved for Topdeck. We hate to think how many people missed getting back to the campsite. Back at the campsite it is pizza, beer and wine accompanied by mozzies for dinner before an early night to catch up on our beauty sleep. We must also note here that we would not advise anyone to stay at PLUS Alba D'Ora. Why? Firstly there is the bus issues to and from Venice, secondly they lied about their services by email, thirdly their staff are rather rude - best example was when Shona asked at the supermarket if they had water. She'd gone in looked in the two open fridges and couldn't find it. The guy's response "no, no, no" shaking his head as if she was stupid. The water was in two chest fridges along a wall and did have signs but not from the fridges where you first look. Add in the mozzies, the fact that the blankets in our room had dust in them and Mike sneezed and sneezed. It was not a fun stay. Anyway it's our last night and we are not going to let the accommodation spoil Venice.
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I'm glad you decided to do the gondola - even tho it's expensive it wouldn't be a trip to Venice without a gondola ride!
ReplyDeleteI'm just surprised you didn't buy a complete SET of those vases at the great prices he was offering! :) CHEPO'S! hehe
ReplyDelete