15/7 - Venice
In Florentine buses, even if the ticket machines in the buses were spoilt you still needed a valid ticket, or you could be fined. Wth.
On this day, I left my phone in my shorts pocket and then unwisely hung it on a bar in the shower above my head. It fell out and since this was a higher height than in the falls it was used to, its screen got cracked for the second time in 2 1/2 years (not a bad lifespan considering how often people's phones get stolen/lost/shortcircuited by water).
Santa Maria dell Salute
Basilica
People and Pigeons
I thought feeding pigeons was illegal! Oh wait, this was not Singapore.
On my to do list: Bring pigeon feed laced with delayed effect poison
St Mark and his lion - Facade of Doge's Palace
Some freak on a pillar
Basilica side
Figures striking a bell on the turn of the hour
Bell building
"Out of respect for this sacred place, it is forbidden to give explanations inside the basilica" - this sign was put up by the management, demonstrating that they were both liars and hypocrites. Liars because explaining increases respect for the sacred place. And hypocrites because they themselves gave explanations (albeit free ones).
Inside, photography was forbidden but luckily they didn't damn their souls further with more hypocrisy and lies about why this was so. They did forbid mobile phones in a desperate and contemptible last attempt to squeeze every last cent from visitors, though.
Entrance to Basilica
Shawls were not free or lent but were sold. Bah, what a mercenary city. I'm not sure if they enforced the "no bare shoulders" dress code though.
There were lots and lots of lavish mosaics inside, all of them on gold backgrounds and with evident Byzantine influence; the figures on the arches looked like Byzantine princesses, and Greek characters could be seen on the scrolls in the mosaics and on the mosaics themselves. No wonder non-flash photography was banned - postcard sales would be hurt too much otherwise.
Entrance itself was free, but there were lots of extra which were not - €1,50 was charged to view just the altar alone. The treasury (€2) had a 3-5th century Persian Sardonyx (jug), 3500-2800 BC Egyptian rock vessel and Persian and Chinese plates - objects not usually found in cathedral treasuries. Wth. And there was also a suspicious number of Byzantine artifacts, all dating from before 1204. Ahem. The Byzantine chalices were marvelous - agate was shaped into the body, and the texture of the agate reflected the light differentially. The agate and sardonyx vessels all had a wonderful texture.
An interesting item was an image of the Virgin Mary and Child. Superimposed above the figures on another plane was a golden halo, a pendant and a necklace, so it looked as if the halo was theirs and they were wearing the hewelry.
Church treasuries all have body part relics, but this collection was particularly rich and densely packed (the area was quite small). I didn't understand what the doge from 976-8 (San Pietro Orseol) did to deserve having a relic inside there, though.
There was a skull labelled "S Jacobi Minoris Apostoli". I looked it up and it translates to: "(Head of Apostle Saint James the Less), a younger brother of Jesus, who was the head of the first Christian church." Right.
Upstairs was the Loggia (€3).
View of St Mark's Square from Basilica
The horses of
Facade of Basilica
Andrew wanted to go see other things and had a night train to Paris to catch, so we parted ways here.
Venice must be the most overpriced city in Italy, with the €1 public toilets. No wonder 70% of their money comes from tourism.
I wanted to protest the gouging of tourists around St Mark's Square - by going to McDonalds. For example, granita prices were all standardised at an exorbitant rate - drinking water from the lagoons might've been a more palatable option. Unfortunately McDonalds was too far, so I had to postpone my snub.
In the Doge's palace, phones, film and video cameras were forbidden. I was beginning to see a pattern in Venice. The concession price was €6,50 and school groups paid €5 per person. How kind, one might think, except that many other places, especially outside Italy, offered free admission to school groups. More annoyingly, the concession for school groups as only valid from 1 Sept to 1 March, which coincidentally was the off-peak tourist season. Hah!
"To maintain decorum - and respect other visitors to the museum - those in beachwear or skimpy clothing will not be admitted. Similarly, admission will be denied to those with covered faces" - Sign at Doge's Palace. Wth. It's not even a church.
The reason why attractions offer youth/student discounts is not because they are kind, but to attract these demographic groups, since if they didn't, these people would be partying, drinking and picking each other up, sleeping late and waking up late.
An information panel in the Doge's Palace informed visitors that St Mark was chosen as Venice's patron saint so there'd be no connection to both the Pope and Byzantium. Tsk. They showed their devotion to St Mark by stealing his body from Alexandria and bringing it to Venice in 829, supposedly to fulfill a prophecy that he'd rest in Venice (sounds like an apocryphal, post-hoc prophecy to me).
I'd seen a lot of arms and armour, but what I found in the Armoury was still impressive. There were some very long swords, up to 2 arms' length. I wonder how they were wielded.
The Doge must've been quite sad. He was confined to his palace and needed permission and an escort to leave Venice, and for only a few days at most.
Given that Venice is in a lagoon, it was amazing that the items in the palace didn't seem to be damaged by the sea air.
A painting showed the arrival of St Mark's body in Venice - miraculously unputrefied. I wonder what it's like now. Hurr hurr.
The Doge's palace housed Il Paradiso, the longest canvas painting in the world. It didn't say just how long it was, or how long the longest painting in the world was, though.
Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Chamber of the Great Council) approached Versailles in grandeur in size. Close, but not quite. "Maggior" also seems to be one of the few Italian words not ending in a vowel.
Doge Palace's Courtyard
Giant's Staircase
The Four Tetrarchs, corner of the Basilica
In Rome and Naples, multi-attraction cards were sold, but only the first 2 places were free and the rest were half-priced. In Venice, the discount card cost only €4 and so wasn't bad, but everything else was so expensive, so.
Bell tower
The bell tower, rebuilt in 1912 after a collapse in 1902, had no stairs, only a lift. Aww. I hope a fire never breaks out there, and the lift never breaks down while there're people at the top. The top was very cool and there was a great breeze, making me feel the happiest I'd felt and would feel in Venice.
The top was very crowded and there wasn't much space to maneuver. People were busily camwhoring using cameras with flipout LCD panels.
View
One binoculars was spoilt and there was a piece of paper stuck on it reading: "Guasto. Broken. Kaputt." I thought this was some joke, but I have since found out that "Kaputt" is an actual German word.
Me at the top. Maybe I should've requested another attempt.
There was a DVD of Venice available in Chinese labelled "和平" (he2 ping2 - "Peace"). Wth.
Bells ringing
I didn't know they still worked. If nothing else, it'd deafen us tourists.
I wonder if scaring pigeons, or even running through the square chasing them, was a crime.
Facade of basilica
A 64MB CF card was retailing in Piazza S. Marco for €44. Wth - a 512MB one in Munich had been €40.
Gondolas
Why do the operators all look like escaped felons?
Venetian canals are only slightly dirtier than the Singapore river. This when they're real waterways and heavily trafficked. And this in a country which is largely bo zheng hu.
There was an interesting (and free) historical musical instrument collection in the Church of San Maurizio, with such strangely named instruments as the chitarra lira, violino muto con tromba, monocordo al arco com campana, antifonario and ghirondo. There was even a Violino d'amore salterio (something to do with love, presumably). Unfortunately the light inside was atrocious, so all I have to remember it visually is this amusing story about Vivaldi:
"Soon after being ordained as a priest, his illness caused him to stop celebrating Mass because, he said, it was too tiring, and the functions were scheduled at the most difficult hours of the day for him. Whether or not this was just an excuse to devote all of his time to music has not been proven. What is certain is that the hertiage he left... vastly compensates any personal weakness."
There was also a very apt line on another information panel, on the two person's paupers' graves: "No pilgrimage may be made to the tombs of Antonio and Amadeus: the only way to pay them homage is to listen to them".
Other interesting bits:
- After the Counter-Reformation some instruments were banned in churches. Uhh.
- The 4 seasons is the most performed and recorded piece of Classical music. Beethoven's 9th is a distant 2nd (I thought it'd be his 5th. Hmm.)
"Man on a horse", 2004, bronze.
There was a shop selling stuff by a certain Botero, who evidently had a fetish for fat people.
Grand Canal from Accademia bridge
On the door of the Accademia: "We regret to inform our visitors that we have no air- conditioning (sic) service".
In the Galleria dell'Accademia there were many Venetian paintings. They were alright, but I think they can't compare to the other Italian masters or those of other countries. Even Paolo Veronese, the most famous of the lot, had something lacking in his work.
There was a still life of a cat with a prize salami in his mouth, lifted off a plate.
After exiting the Galleria dell'Accademia, I noticed the sign about photography being forbidden. It wouldn't have affected me anyway, since there was nothing I wanted to take, but there was something seriously wrong with Italy. The country must be full of mercenary people and money grubbers.
Venetian Arsenale, essential to Venetian naval power and still used by the navy. It still looks very much like a 1732 painting.
A peek into the Arsenal
Entrance
Quiet canal
Exhausted performance artist
Him: "A special picture. Very special."
Monument near San Zaccaria
I read the guidebook wrongly and went to see, housed in S. Zaccaria, his supposedly incorruptible body (conveniently enclosed in a reliquary). In doing this, I didn't have enough time to go see Titian's tomb. Oh well. Maybe another day, when the weather is better, and when it is apropos to ride in a gondola.
What I missed Titian's tomb for
The water ferries that serve for public transport in Venice are so expensive and slow. I didn't see one local on them - it was all tourists, for whom the speed was presumably tailored, whether to prevent seasickness or let them enjoy the scenery. The locals all had their own speedboats.
I saw some newlyweds in a special gondola. It was specially decorated and those manning it were not jailbirds - for once. Probably this was the only time locals ever stepped into a gondola.
Berlin is probably the best European city to visit. It's cheap, people speak English, there're many good things to see - culture, history and museums, public transport is good and efficient and the weather is good. Amsterdam is almost as good - it's more compact but also more expensive, even more people speak English and it's the City of Sin - you can get stoned, laid and if you look hard enough you can probably also find a place to get euthanised.
View from the bridge from the train station
Throughout the afternoon, I saw groups of mostly young locals in bikinis and boardshorts crusing down the canals in their boats, cheering and waving at us tourists in waterboats as they sped past us and mostly blaring music loudyly. This was because on this day there was some festival commemmorating the deliverance of the city from a plague. There was a fireworks display from 11pm-12am, but it was too late for me to attend.
The girl in my hostel room had brought a hair iron along. ... women.
On both nights I slept on the floor because it was too hot. The Sri Lankan guy asked: "Why're you still sleeping wearing your T-shirt?" It wouldn't have helped even if I'd taken it off anyway - my top wasn't the only part that was hot.
One of the few good things about Treinitalia is that their self-service machines can help you check schedules and connections in advance. There're no platform numbers, though, but I think this is because they're not confirmed till just before the train comes in.
Around this time, I was suffering from travel fatigue. The combination of hot weather, large crowds and too much traveling (as my father commented) was taking its toll on me - this was my 15th full day of travel in a row, the longest I'd been on the road since 1994 (Brunei doesn't count).
I was getting tired more easily than in my previous trips.
Now I knew what someone meant by "I didn't feel like doing any sightseeing [in Rome]", but I only felt this way in Venice.
July Secret Diary #3 is ready.
