We’re With the Wedding Party!

Venice, Italy – what more can I say!

After parking our car and taking a water bus, we went to our flat we rented through VRBO.  It turns out we were just doors away from George Clooney’s Cipriani hotel when he was getting married!

There were paparazzi outside our door and when we would leave the flat the photographers would check to make sure we weren’t part of George’s entourage!  Sadly, I don’t think our invite was forwarded to us in time so we weren’t able to attend their special day!

We were right across the water from Saint Mark’s Square so it was fun to catch a water bus and steam across quickly. There are still quite a few tourists – but we are noticing a decline in the crowds.

We arrived in the late afternoon and were interested in taking a walking tour so that we could orient ourselves. There was one for 4:45 at the train station so we actually ran through the streets and over the bridges to make it in time. We didn’t think we could do it – but we all successfully dodged the tourists, small animals and street vendors. We think we are ready for the “Amazing Race”!

What was incredible was that our meeting point was the exact location where Oliver and I spent our honeymoon 16 years ago….we knew the location of our room because we recognized the balcony of our hotel.  We also recognized the church steps across from our hotel where we ate pizza and drank the local wine….ah what great memories! We thought it must be a good omen to start our tour from this spot!

Our honeymoon balcony

Memories of drinking wine on the steps 16 years ago.

Our tour guide Gloria led us on an interesting tour around the island – it was neat to see the city in the twilight. We knew that Venice is built in a lagoon and rests upon wooden stilts in a soft mound of sand/dirt. What we didn’t know is that every small island, (there are over 100 of them) all have a church, square, and well for water. Each island is connected by both private and public bridges.  This is the reason why Venice has so many churches! Nowadays some of them are used for a variety of purposes, for example one is now a basketball court and one of the most beautiful ones is a hospital!

We love the architecture in Venice – so many different styles such as Baroque, Renaissance and Byzantine  All of the buildings are beautiful and unique in their own way. We all loved the city on water and spent a lot of time just wandering the labyrinth of canals and bridges.

We learned a lot about how the island is in constant need of maintenance due to the water damage and erosion. The city has developed different strategies to stop water from leaking into homes. Still it’s a never ending battle and some homes are now experiencing erosion and leaning against each other.

Wooden braces to hold up the homes.

Evidence of erosion.

The iron gate stops the water from leaking into the home.

One area I found interesting was the Jewish Ghetto.  The Jewish community were great contributors to the Renaissance of Venice, however, they were forced into a gated community and were prohibited from interacting with the Christian population except for work purposes.

This made me think automatically of Shylock and the Merchant of Venice.  We saw the pawnshop used in the movie that starred Al Pacino as Shylock.  We shared the story with the girls and they were quite impressed with character Portia. Women always seem to save the men in Shakespearean plays!

Some other notable characters from Venice include the notorious lover Casanova and the explorer Marco Polo.  We visited the courtyard of the old Polo palace .  According to our tour guide, she said the book about Marco Polo’s Travels, written by his friend, was all lies.  That is why locally it is known as the Courtyard of a Million Lies!

Another neat place we saw was a bookshop that made good use of a gondola.  The store is a regular ground floor shop, but twice a day the tide sweeps through and fills the store with water.  To save the books, the owner puts them into a gondola, bathtub or anything else that will keep them from getting damaged.

The bathtub protects the books!

A gondola bookshop.

We were all impressed with the beautiful Murano glass.  At a quiet moment one afternoon, we watched an artisan craft some beads to make jewelry with some very unique patterns and special designs.  The girls have seem glass making before – but this was something very special.

Another favourite were the masks for Carnival.  The girls were so inspired by the incredible designs that they asked for an additional project. Research more about Carnival and design their own masks! How could I resist such a request? We took lots of pictures of the gorgeous masks for inspiration and then found some plain masks for them.

Of course I had to connect it all to literacy and music. What better way than Classiscs for kids and Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery. It is a story that we have listened to for years and have enjoyed as a family. We were able to download it from iTunes and spend an afternoon painting and listening. The girls connected to the story in such a different way now that they had seen all the sites of Venice.

If you haven’t heard of it before – click on the link and listen to the intro to the story.

Ring of Mystery

*****Update – here are the completed masks – the girls did a great job!

Masks for Carnival!

The completed creations!

The bridges in Venice are spectacular.   We spent a lot of time taking photos of the very famous Rialto bridge–it is one of the oldest marble bridges famous for the shops all along it.  It is also the best place for taking photos over the Grand Canal.

And who could miss the Bridge of Sighs?  For those who might not know the story, the prison is connected to the courthouse by the bridge.  When a person is convicted of a crime and are sent to jail, they have one last moment to look out to sea before they are imprisoned.

Bridge of Sighs – Last chance to take a look at the water

Of course we did what all tourists do and took a wonderful ride on a gondola!  Our gondolier, Sebastian, was lots of fun and shared some interesting stories about Venetian history.  He also sang and whistled for us!  It was very enjoyable and we all had a great time going through the small canals. The gondola ride is now on the Top 10 list for both Mik and Zoe.

Although we are visitors, we always try to eat locally so we were very pleased when we found a local establishment. Unfortunately, they had no room for us, so they called another local place who did have a table and they quickly sent us to a far off restaurant at the very end of the island in a back alley – it was awesome!

We tried all sorts of local dishes…polenta is particularly popular as are fish dishes. Baccala’ Mantecata is the most famous and is a mixture of dried cod, olive oil and spices.  We had it spread on bread which was a perfect way to start our dinner.

We tried another dish called Sarde in saor which are anchovies/sardines and shrimp with pickled onions, raisins and pine nuts.  We all really enjoyed the very unique flavour…the girls devoured the anchovies!   The kitchen was running a bit behind so they sent us a plate of seafood rissoto to try – and it was spectacular.  It was the first time Mik and Zoe had tried rissoto and they are now hooked.  Mikhaila says Italian food is now her favourite!

The girls ordered the local pasta favourite called Bigoli in salsa.  The pasta noodles are thicker than the pasta in the rest of Italy and mixed with olive oil, parsley, fish and pickled onions.  It was very tasty.  Oliver and I both had fish – bass and codfish.  We drank the local wine called “ombra” and enjoyed the very relaxed pace atmosphere. We are loving the “slow” life and pace of the Italians…

We think we should contact George Clooney and give him some advice on how to make sure his marriage remains strong and happy – make sure to visit Venice often for the beautiful architecture, scenery, music, art, and the great food!

Congrats to George and Amal!