The Grand Tour (Day 13): Venice

Today, we slept in (well, at least relative to the rest of our schedule on this trip) and got up to go to Sacrament Meeting in Mestre (the city on the mainland).  We looked up the ward location on lds.org, and also noted the Sacrament Meeting start time.  We got ready and caught a vaporetto to the train station, so we could transfer to the mainland.

Becky at the Vaporetto Stop waiting for the boat

It sounded like a great plan, but the vaporetto is not the most speedy transportion option.  By the time it creeps along the Grand Canal and stops at each of its designated stops to drop off and pick up passengers, it took nearly 40 minutes to make it to the train station.  (I had planned on it taking about 10 min.)  I think we could have walked quicker (assuming we wouldn't get lost along the way).  So by the time we arrived at the train station and walked across the bridge to Piazzale Roma (where all of the buses to the mainland stop), it was 10 min. before the scheduled start of Sacrament Meeting.  We figured that if we had any hope of making it, we would need to take a taxi.  So we went to the taxi line, got in a taxi and he quoted us 30 Euro. I think we were taken for a ride on the price, but I count it as a fast offering to the people of Venice.  (Not really).

When we arrived at the chapel, it was fun to hear primary songs (being sung in Italian) coming from one of the windows. A member greeted us and motioned for us to follow him.  We thought he would be leading us to the chapel for Sacrament Meeting, but instead, took us a Gospel Principles Sunday School class being taught in English.  There were several new members and converts in attendance (all of whom spoke English), along with 2 other couples from the US.  It turns out, everyone had looked at lds.org to see what time the meeting was, and had all arrived close to the same time.  In reality they had Sacrament Meeting at 9 am and they were now in Sunday School, so we missed it.  The Gospel Principles class is usually taught in Italian by a ward member, but she called the missionaries that morning and asked if they could teach, and since everyone in the room spoke English as a common language, they taught in English.  (There was a family from Czechoslovakia on vacation and several investigators and new members from what appeared to be Caribbean or African nations).

After Sunday School, we divided up for Priesthood and Relief Society meetings...all conducted in Italian.  With my Portuguese, I got about 20% of what was being said (unless they were reading from scriptures or a quote from the conference talk and I got a lot more), but their gestures filled in the gaps and I got about 50% of what was being said.  A large part of the discussion in Priesthood Meeting was regarding the practice of dedicated a grave as the final resting place for someone, when the government has the option of digging people up and putting them somewhere else if they want.  I'm not sure how it was resolved, but there was a lot of emotional input.

After Priesthood/Relief Society meeting, the missionaries said they had spoken with the Bishop and he was willing to hold a mini-Sacrament Meeting for the visitors who had missed the first one.  We met in a classroom with the Bishop, sang a hymn, and the Elders offered the Sacrament Prayer (in Italian).  It lasted about 10 min.  There was a really sweet spirit there.  Of all of the impressive grand cathedrals we've seen and walked through, none had the rich feelings of the spirit that can fill a room when humble people living the gospel gather together in worship.  It was very memorable even without understanding everything that was said.

As we were leaving the chapel, I poked my head in the chapel just to look and was pleased to see that there were Venetian glass chandeliers!  One of my biggest gripes about our church buildings is the lack of personalization or local touches that could make them unique.  I was so happy to see there wasn't the standard Salt Lake City stocked light fixture that appears everywhere here.  I LOVED that there was a local touch, and it was beautiful besides!

Becky standing in front of the Mestre Ward Chapel

Arcade along one side of the Mestre Chapel

We stayed with the other 2 couples that were headed back to Venice and caught the bus with them.  The bus stopped right across the street from the chapel and took us right back to Piazzale Roma in Venice.

Other couples and missionaries that helped us

The center of Mestre

From the bridge at Piazzale Roma crossing back onto the island

Most of the bridges in Venice are made up of small steps that go up and over.  Not a very helpful way if you are carrying or lugging suitcases.

On our way back to our suite, we stopped by the Train Station and picked up our bathroom passes.  While we were in the area, we stopped at a restaurant I had read about.  Kind of a cafeteria-style restaurant where you pick up what you want and pay for it at the register.  Becky got a large green salad, and I got lasagna veneziano (not a red sauce base?).  I thought it was very good, and was a relaxing place to just sit and catch our breath after walking in the heat from the Church and the train station.

We caught the Vaporetto dell'Arte back to our Suite

We took a nap during the hottest part of the afternoon and then changed clothes into something more comfortable for walking around the City.

You can never get enough shots of canals.  They are so picturesque.

Becky on a bridge with a gelato

The beauty just never stops

Even walking down a street within the city, you get views of these century-old churches as focal points

A Venetian traffic jam

We made our way down to St. Mark's Square so we could walk through the Cathedral.  I had read online that we could skip the line if we checked a backpack at a nearby shop, and then showed the guard our bag check pass.  We walked right in and skipped standing in the hot sun.

The interior of St. Marks is made up of gold mosaics telling the stories of the Old and New Testaments.

The central dome has mosaics of the 12 apostles.  St. Mark's remains (yes, supposedly the real St. Mark) were stolen from Constantinople and brought to Venice to make the Cathedral more important.  Since the Cathedral wasn't finished yet, they buried the bones in a column, and then they forgot where they put them.  One of the mosaics tells the story of forgetting the hidden bones and then finding them again.

I wanted to go into the museums on the upper loggia of the Cathedral, so when we went by an entrance to a museum, we paid our $6Euro each to enter, only to find out it was the "Treasures of the Basilica" which is different than the "Museum of the Basilica".  Since we were close to closing time and we wanted to get to the "good stuff" upstairs, we weren't able to spend much time seeing the "Treasures" and we had the privilege of paying another $6Euro each to enter the real museum.

The original Bronze Horses of St. Mark's.  (Forged in 800 or 900 AD [some think 400 BC] in Constantinople, stolen by the Venetians and brought to Venice in 1200 AD, stolen by Napoleon early 1800s and taken to France to put on top of the Arc du Triomphe, and then brought back to Venice a few decades later after the defeat of Napoleon.  (Copies are on the outside of the Basilica, these are the real McCoys on the inside)

Piazza San Marco from the upper deck of the Basilica.  The Venetian flag is on the left, the Italian flag on the right.

The Bronze Horses (copies) on the outside of the cathedral in their original location

The Horses with the bell tower

When the bell rings, the little men move and actually strike the bell

Piazetta San Marco

 The Venetian flag

The Twelve Apostles

Close up of the horses

Close-up of the mosaics inside the museum (David & Solomon)

Gold mosaics inside the loggia just under the entrance

Dining on Piazza San Marco.  (We didn't eat there....very expensive)

The shops around the Piazza San Marco are filled with high-end, pricey shops....

....everywhere else, there are souvenir and trinket shops.  Oh, and Gelato shops.

Sometimes, you turn a corner and find a scene that is just so beautifully unique and so indicative of Venice.  As I rounded the corner, I couldn't help but take the photo below.  Becky's comment:  "Oh good!  I was afraid we wouldn't have enough photos of gondolas!"  Smart aleck.

I found that some of the small details were some of the most beautiful...like the windows and balconies below, with their flower boxes.

Walking back to our suite to take a break from the heat.  We crossed this piazza.  And we picked up some gelato at one of the shops.

Back at our suite, we went out onto the dock to watch the boats go by.  I snapped this photo of this gondolier because it just seemed to be so serene, indicative of Venice's nickname, "La Serenissima", The Serene Place.

And when you have thousands and thousands of tourists pull into town every day, this is what happens:  thousands of water bottles that find their way into the canals.

A view from our dock at dusk

Playing with our camera's timer.  It took several tries to get one that worked.

As it got cooler, we headed out toward the Rialto Bridge to look for a Gondolier.

View of the Grand Canal at dusk.

The Rialto Bridge at dusk

Streets along the Canal near the Rialto Bridge.  After our gondola ride, we picked up some delicious mushroom pizza (probably the best we found in Italy) from a vendor along here.  (And a granita).

We lined up at the Gondolier stand and were happy that the family in front of us race ahead to get into the line before us.  That was fine when we saw an old gondolier pull up his boat.  The next to pull up was a young, handsome gondolier named Fabio.

Becky getting into the Gondola

I think Becky's smile says she was thoroughly enjoying this

Fabio, the Gondolier

Our attempt at a self-portrait.  It doesn't work so well holding a heavy DSLR camera at arms length, trying to get us and Fabio in the same shot.

Looking out over the bow of the boat.  The gondoliers are all individualized and are family heirlooms.  The ability to become a gondolier is, in some cases, inherited in a family (father to son), and they take great pride in these boats.   When Becky commented on how nice his boat was, he said something to the effect, "Thank you, maam.  I hope you are comfortable in my boat."

Heading down one of the smaller canals off the Grand Canal.  Fabio would tell us about points of interest along the way.

This night was also the championship game between Spain and Italy in the EUFA Euro2012 Tournament.   (Unfortunately, Italy lost.  Also, when we were in London, Great Britain was playing their quarterfinal game, and they lost.  Maybe we were a bad omen by visiting these countries on the night of their big games.)

As we floated along, you could hear televisions playing the game, and cheers and jeers coming from people living in the upper floors of the buildings.  It was also a full moon (just rising over the building)....a perfect combo for a perfectly romantic ride.

Rebecca with Fabio

Fabio, the dream gondolier.  We weren't really sure if his name really was Fabio, or if it just completed the perfect image.

Returning back to the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge.  There were two prices for rides (all set by the local government):  E$90 for a 30 min ride, or E$120 for a 45 min ride.  We took the less pricey E$90 ride, and while it is was a lot, it was also a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I'm so glad we did it.

We thought that it would get cooler after dusk.  But that wasn't actually the case.  If it were even possible, we would swear it got hotter after the sun went down.  I don't know if more humidity rolled in off the ocean, or what it was, but it seemed even more uncomfortable after dusk.

We picked up our pizza and granitas, sat outside a church where there was an operatic concert going on, and then made our way toward Piazza San Marco.  The piazza was filled with people, and vendors (selling the same trinkets we saw all over Italy).

It was also interesting to see the lagoon water starting to flood the piazza up through the drains.  (It happens at high tides--and since it was a full moon, the tides were stronger).   Sections of the piazza had about 6 inches of water covering them, including the entrance to St. Mark's Basilica.

Each of the three restaurants on the Piazza had dueling orchestras that would play cheesy broadway show tunes, with an occasional pop song, or Italian favorite.  We walked into the center of the piazza and waited for them to play a waltz, since waltz is the only ballroom sort of dance I can do with any reasonable degree of respect.  After waiting for a few minutes without a waltz, we finally settled on a slow dance in middle of the Piazza.

Venice was everything I had hoped it would be.  I had studied so much about it (both from my Art History class, and subsequent readings) that I had a vision built up in my head about what it should be.  And it fulfilled every bit of that.  By far, Venice was one of my most favorite places in Italy....and it was made only more special by sharing it with Rebecca.  We have talked about going to Venice from our early days together, and I'm so glad we were able to finally do it.

And we never used the bathroom passes because we never found the bathrooms.  They were a waste of $3 and a lot of time trying to get them.