A Venetian Retrospective OR Freezing and Wading through Beauty!

Gonna throw in some variety with another retrospective this week! A couple months ago I wrote a post about visiting Paris with my then-fiancee. Spoiler Alert: Soon after that she became my wife.

From Paris we went to Rome (where we got married), then Florence, then finally: Venice.

I guess I could go in order. But that's just what they'd be expecting...

We got to Venice on January 3rd catching the tail-end of the Christmas/New Year's crowd but a month or so before the Carnivale crowd.

Which was, in my opinion, a very cold, very wonderful time to go. Most of the time when I see pictures of Venice it's on a bright sunny day in summer. The squares are packed, gondolas glide gracefully along the water, and the whole place is bursting with life.

Not so much when we were there.

Carting tourists around or staying at home with mulled wine...
...Guess which one the gondoliers chose.

Not to say the place was deserted. But you could wind your way through the alleys and side streets of Venice without running into people, quickly getting lost in the twists and turns that are navigating through Venice.

Someone's courtyard? Nope! Just another Venice street!

And there are a lot of twists and turns. Navigating in Venice is basically done by this method: 1)Look at a map to figure out the direction you want to go. 2)Wander in that general direction. 3)Eventually you might make it there. Maybe.

For longer distances, you could take the bus.

And yes, their bus is a boat.
How awesome is THAT?!?

But the alleys are where I really enjoyed Venice, and we spent most of a day just wandering around through alleys, getting lost, making random decisions by impulse.

We had to make tough decisions like: Do we go over the canal or into it?

The city would go through a series of tiny, winding alleys, then open on squares with long-disused wells and neat buildings, then plunge back into the alleys.

Neat buildings with odd decor, might I add...

That's a well.
...annnnnnd more alleys!

Random buildings would have random informative plaques detailing something significant that had happened in that building. This would have been completely fascinating, except we were in Italy, so they were, of course, in Italian. I meant to translate these later. Which I totally never did.

Informativo!

Occasionally random gems of shoppes would be hidden away in the alleys and wanderings. We found a random Irish pub filled with local Venetians. (Yes, Irish pub. They're actually a big thing in Italy.) We found an incredible leather and paper shop. I got a notebook from there that still, to this day, smells slightly fishy. Not to mention dozens of other random shoppes with glass, masks, and random Venetian things.

This shop was closed when we went by.
Which is good, because I was a little too creeped out to go in.

But because Venice ends in water on all sides, getting lost was much more fun than other locations, because sooner or later you'd know exactly where you were. (Hint: Next to the water.)

For example, the time we wandered vaguely in a general direction through a variety of sketchy alleys...

And though a couple buildings.

...And came out near the water, next to a chapel I didn't know was there!

Behold, the Chapel of St. Someone-Or Other

Sure, I could have found it by looking at a map, but it was much more fun to wander and stumble upon it. It was neat, with its own collection of art, and very different from the larger cathedral in Venice. Some of which I totally didn't get.

Ah yes, the parable where Cupid steals a staff
and becomes a bishop for a day...

Beyond random wandering, we also got to enjoy the various standard tourist-type activities of Venice, like taking pictures of canals.

Big ones...

Small ones...

Ones right outside our hotel room window...

And, of course, St. Mark's Square, the center of Venetian tourist activity. But with a winter twist:

Occasional flooding.

And little kids putting sissy adults in their PLACE, yo!

During certain times of year and certain times of the day, the water level of the lagoon will rise enough that lower parts of Venice get flooded. Sometimes this means finding another way or wading through the water. But in well-trafficked areas, it means very efficient workers break out the walkways.

BAM! Your flood self is neutralized!

And I mean efficient. I saw these guys do it only once in three days, and it was impressive. Burly Italian men in knee-high boots wading into the water, slapping down metal braces, then equally burly men coming after them with boards. A few seconds later and they'd be gone, off to save another person from getting soaked.

When the waters receded, they'd come back out and take the walkways away just as faster, if not faster. Someone had seriously thought this whole thing out.

Seriously.
Side spots for tourists to take pictures? Genius!

You may have noticed everyone being bundled up in all the pictures. You may have noticed snowflakes. That's because it was cold. And that water flooding the square? Also very cold.

But you know what? I'm glad we went then, and wouldn't have had it any other way. Like all parts of the world, certain part of Venice had left up the Christmas lights, so we got to experience empty alleys and squares still festively decorated.

This is a pretty main side street,
and during the summer would be packed.

A far corner of Venice. Almost completely deserted.
Also, that restaurant was a total locals-only place.

We wandered around enjoying the stillness and beauty that is the man-made island of Venice.

Not even that late at night, but still mostly to ourselves.

And as we went to view the famous Bridge of Sorrows, which was currently being restored, we were reminded that, like most great places of man-made beauty, sometimes bills must be paid.

If you look closely, you can see the shocked face on the bridge.

Finally, I'd like to offer this final picture as a palate cleanser, since it's kind of a bummer to end a post on commercialism.

Ahhh.... Much better.