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Hidden Venice

The domes of St. Mark’s and to the right, The Doge’s Palace.

Marco Polo liked the place.

                             He even had a home there.

                   Whenever he and his friends went swimming in the canal, they would call out MARCO!

                   But he remained silent.

                   This really confused his friends because he was the one who invented this game!

                   We called out his name every time we crossed over a bridge (and with 430 of them, we passed over a lot!)  yesterday with the same result. 

 No Marco.

                   What we did find was a city that has changed remarkably little since the days that Marco lived here.

          I need to post a disclaimer here for your viewing information. I took around 250 photographs of Venice and all of its hidden sights. No, I am not going to post all 250 photos here today, but if you think that I could choose just a small amount of them, you would be sorely mistaken! What I can tell you is that you will be treated to a view of Venice that not everyone gets unless you are a resident (or have one show you around!) There will be endless examples of the really photogenic hidden corners of Venice awaiting you if still care to read on!                  

                   So, without any more explanation, here comes Venice!

What away to start a tour of Venice! But we did! Isabella brought us to a very nice spot for Cappuccino and goodies!

                   Walking through Venice is like being in a time-warp, there is really nothing modern about this city. Even the problems of today mirror the ones of long ago. Flooding, fresh water, sewage, and transportation in general, are all issues that will probably be with Venice for the next thousand years.

Inside a small square, just the everyday life of a Venetian on display.

                   We had booked another private tour with Tours By Locals, as along with Jerusalem, this city is too important to trust to a general group tour. By now you know our feelings on group tours vs private tours and the outcome of yesterday just cemented our opinions of private tours.

A Venetian traffic jam!

                   For this tour we had Isabella as our guide. Isabella, or Isa for short, is a resident of Venice. And not just an outskirts-of-the-city dweller, she lives in the heart of this Waterway’s ‘R Us, canal-strewn, let’s build on some islands, little town.

Introducing Isabella! (And you all know Paula!)

                   There are 118 separate islands, all connected by 430 bridges that span the 26 miles of interconnecting canals. The Grand Canal, the large serpentine waterway that basically cuts the city in half, is almost three miles long and is 300 feet wide at its broadest point. The back water, smaller canals can be just a few feet deep, while the larger, main ones range from about 6 feet to 15 feet deep. You may have seen on the TV a few weeks ago, that “the canals of Venice are drying up”. It is impossible for the canals to dry up as they are connected to the Lagoon, which in turn, is connected to the Adriatic Sea. What did happen was a combination of tidal and meteorological factors. There was a lunar tide coupled with a strong offshore wind which pushed the waters of the Lagoon towards the Adriatic. This happens from time to time, and it seems the only ones to make a big deal about it were the media folks. The Venetian’s use this fortuitous event to clean out some of the canals and do periodic maintenance.

Doing what girls do… looking longingly in the windows of the bakery!
There are hundreds of Piazzas in Venice. Each Island, or section of the larger ones, had a courtyard, for homes to look out onto. This in the back, and a canal in the front.

                   Venice is a little over two hours north of us here in the port of Ravenna. Isa had her driver, Daniel, pick us up when our ship docked at 8 am. Daniel, possibly one of the most pleasant persons we’ve ever met, was a fountain of information about Italy and this region specifically. He made our drive north seem like it was just a hop and a skip away. Daniel was also our return driver later in the evening and we could not have been happier. The true professional that he is, he knew that we were exhausted from the day and courteously let us (me) doze off from time to time without interruption.

                   Our exhaustion was a very specific kind of tired, it is called V.S.F. or Very Satisfied Fatigue. Our requests to Isabella were detailed in their generalness….. Please get us into the places that the tours do not, or cannot, take people, but we need to see the Big Three, the Rialto Bridge, The Bridge of Sighs, and St. Mark’s Cathedral and Piazza.

                   These requests were met, and surpassed with results that I could not even imagine! I did not know how to get where we were going, even if I had had a clue! The accompanying blog photos will do it justice, I have no doubt!

The next seven photos are of the beautiful, tranquil, back canals. Think secret rabbit warren, accessed through small underpasses through buildings!

Like this one! If you know Italian, and you live in Venice (because you can find “sotoportegi” only in Venice!) you know what a “Sotoportego is! And then it opens up onto scenes like these…..

All of these alleys and canals led to some more inhabited areas. The Squares/Piazza’s were all very lively places as you may imagine on such a beautiful day!

In the local fish market.
Some were a little quieter than others!

We went all over the city, in and out of Piazza’s, through buildings, and up onto a portico that overlooked the entire city! As you can see, we had incredible weather for our day 🙂

The Grand Canal from way up on our secret vantage point!
Looking over towards St. Mark’s.
The “Roofs of Venice”.
The Grand Canal looking the other way.
On top of the world, in more ways than one!
Back to ground level, we passed the Bridge of Sighs on our way to St. Mark’s.
Winding through hidden alleys……
……..and tiny back-water canals.
Ahh…. which way to go?
Isabella showing us the “little” door, inside the big, “bring in the furniture” door.
This looks like a nice neighborhood!
This one too!
Sometimes you need to look underneath…….

We stopped for lunch at a local cafe where we elected to eat inside where the service was a bit quicker and there were no smokers! Isabella asked if we liked pizza! Paula declared, after finishing, that so far this day she has had the best croissant, pizza, and glass of wine she has ever had in her life! So, I guess that the trifecta had been hit! But there was still lots more to come, as we still had hours in front of us!

They drizzle olive oil on their pizza, and we can say that it was very tasty!

                             On top of bringing us to all the hidden gems and views, Isabella provided us with not only the necessary information that accompanies this kind of tour, but with some very specific insights and tid-bits of trivia that made the day even more special.

The coup ’de’ grace came when we visited the inside of St. Mark’s Cathedral. There are many ornate and majestic churches around the world and I would be hard-pressed to rank one over the other, but….. (here it comes, the statement after the word but is used 😊) I have yet to see a building where almost the entire interior is one giant mosaic, and a grand one at that! Here Isabella was at her best. This was not just some random tour guide’s knowledge picked up over time, this was a deep-rooted Biblical knowledge that sewed all of the scenes together seamlessly. Laser pointer in hand, she step-by-step started with Genesis and wound her way into the New Testament with ease, and when needed, referred back again to show a prophecy come true.

The next few photos show the interior of St. Mark’s. All of what you see are gold-gilded mosaics! Probably millions of tiny squares on the ceilings and walls all tell the stories that the people of the day came to church to learn. Think of it as an “Illustrated Bible”. Isabell’s laser-pointer was quite necessary to point things out so high up above!

The body of St. Mark, yes, the Mark of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is in the sarcophagus in front behind the grating. Wait until you see the reverse of that large icon in the rear!
This is the back of that large icon screen which could be rotated when needed. These are all of the important Saints of the Church outlined in precious gems, as seen in the next photo.
It is all gold leaf over silver.

          And then we went upstairs!

          What a view, both inside and out!

That is not gold paint…. it is all mosaic tiles!
From out on the roof overlooking St. Mark’s Square.
The mechanical part of the Clock Tower. Each figure rotates and strikes the bell with their hammer. The Lion is the symbol of Venice, it can be seen everywhere.

We then made our way outside and through St. Mark’s Piazza, over to the edge of the Lagoon where we met Marco, our water taxi driver. It was just the three of us in the gorgeous mahogany-trimmed boat for this end-of-the-day event. Microphone in hand, Isa showed Paula and me (who were perched on the back of the boat like visiting Royalty) the sights that can only be seen by being in, and around, the incredible canals of Venice.

Yup! that’s us in the back of a beautiful Mahagony Water-Taxi cruising on the Grand Canal! Yes, that shiny stuff in front of us is some mahogany, and its over 20 years old!
The Rialto Bridge. It has 24 (high-end!) market stalls on it. It was built to rival the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
Looking into St. Mark’s Square, Doge’s Palace on the right.
A “Bus” in Venice.
When you have “busses”, you need some bus stops!
On the Grand Canal.
The hospital needs ambulances of course! There were about 12 of them, and an Emergency Room Entrance on the canal too.
And here is one of their firehouses, the building on the right with the arched “garages” in it. That is a Patrol Boat coming out of it.
Back in the day, this chimney was designed to help prevent those fires. That cone at the top creates vortices as the hot air rises. The vortices keep the ashes and burning embers swirling around, giving them time to cool down before landing and causing a fire.
One of the three bridges that cross the Grand Canal.

          The water-taxi ride lasted about an hour and brought us back to where we had first met Isa that morning. Daniel was waiting there for us, and after some good-bye hugs and sincere thanks we were on our way back to the ship, where we arrived at about 8:30 PM.

                   A tea, cold glass of milk, and a piece of chocolate cake later, we called it a day.

                   Nope!

                   We called it a V.S.F. day!

Oh, and we found Marco playing in the pool when we got back on board!

The Rialto Bridge complete with the requisite Gondola. Photo taken from a “hidden” spot on the Grand Canal. We were the only ones there 🙂

16 replies on “Hidden Venice”

What an experience. Just beautiful. What great shots! Especially loved everything from St. Mark’s!

Furiously flipping through thesaurus to find words to do this justice but I need more time. What a wonderful way to see one of the world’s most beautiful and unique cities.

Thanks Isabella! We will do our part to advertise your incredible city!

Thank you for that wonderful tour of Venice!! The words, the photos, the food… Grasie’!

Sei la benvenuta Katy! grazie per essere venuti nel nostro viaggio!

This is the first place we will visit this summer on our Viking Cruise. We will spend an extra day before boarding the ship. Thanks for the ‘”pre-tour.” Getting excited!! So much to see! We have done private tours before. I think we might do this again. Fabulous pictures (as always)!!

Though we have both been to Venice several times, your story makes us want to go again with Isabella as our guide. The best experience by far is still meeting wonderful people who become lifelong friends. We love to travel but it is people like you and Paula who make it extraordinary. These are the memories we cherish most. Thank you for sharing your pictures and perspectives!

This place looks unbelievable! Your photos are amazing. I can’t even believe St. Marks.

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