Gloryfades.org

I awoke on the Tuesday of my departure from Rome really early. I had a train ticket for the 8:05 train to Venice and I was worried that I wouldn’t make it so I got up around seven. My bags were packed so I only needed to get dressed, washed and breakfasted before heading off to the station which was about a ten minute walk from the hostel.

I said goodbye to the concierge, for lack of a better word. I’m sad to say that I never really caught the girl’s name but she was a lovely person the entire time I was there. Really friendly and we always chatted whenever I came home from my day of exploring so we spent a good ten minutes saying goodbye to each other.

I should mention now that I went to Italy without a watch. I have a watch but it’s not a watch that can be worn while travelling. It’s made of metal and kinda heavy and it’s just not conducive for travelling, so I decided not to take it. I figured that I would have my iPod and my cellphone so I would be fine. When I got to London, though, I found that my cellphone doesn’t work at all in Europe. I figured I wouldn’t have reception since it’s not a GSM phone but I didn’t realize that not even the clock on the bloody thing would work. So the entire time I was in Europe I was a bit time-disoriented. 90% of the time I had no clue what time of day it was.

So when I stepped out of the hostel and began making my way towards the train station I was shocked to find that it was 5 minutes to 8! I wasn’t strictly panicing because some of the clocks that line the streets of Rome don’t really work properly so I figured that particular clock was just fast. But then I saw two more clocks that read the same time. I really started to panic. I walked as fast I could possibly go with the fresh burn on my back which had - by that morning - begun to really hurt.

This is what I did to myself on the last day in Rome. Suffice it to say that it hurt. A lot.

Well, I managed to make my way to the train station in record time, even with the massive burn on my shoulders slowing me down but alas, I missed my train by about five minutes. I had to wait until the next train in two hours so I sat around reading for most of the time.

Eventually, I boarded a four hour long train to Venice. The ride was long and boring and I got really hungry by the end but I stuck it out. I didn’t really want to buy anything on the train and I had a couple of apples with me anyway. I figured I’d get something to eat with Gord once we met up. I was worried that he’d be freaking out over me being two hours late. There was nothing I could do about it, though. I hadn’t thought of bringing the phone numbers of the hostels and hotels with me so I was plum out of luck.

I finally got off the train at Venice. I bought a map of the city at the train station because I was convinced I’d get lost looking for my hotel. The hotel’s website didn’t really have great instructions on how to get to it from anywhere so I was nervous. Once I had a map, though, I realized that the place was laughably close to the train station. It was literally five minutes away, on the same island.

I rushed in and the lady at the check-in desk gave me my room number. I was happy to hear that my “friend” as she put it was already in the room. I thanked her and went upstairs but - of course - I wasn’t able to find my room number. She gave us room 212 but it went from 210 to 213. One room only had the word “Private” written on it. I didn’t want to assume that was mine so I went back downstairs to ask and she told me that it was that room. I wasn’t happy about that; I was hot and sweaty and my shoulders hurt like a bitch. I knocked on the door though and was met with a lovely boyfriend.

Seeing Gord after several long days of being alone in a foreign country was like a Godsend. I was so happy for the company and the conversation. We exchanged stories while I showered and then had some Sprüngli chocolate before heading out to see the city before sunset.

So I’ve never been to Venice before. After Florence, Venice is one of my favourite cities in Italy. Perhaps I’m biased because I got to spend two really lovely days there with my boyfriend but I don’t really care The colours in Venice are just … something else. I mean, in everything. The buildings, the water, the sky, the art - it all looks like it was painted with a darker and more vibrant colour than anywhere else.

The thing about Venice is that it’s packed to the tits with tourists. My Rough Guide says that Venice’s population is shrinking each year and tourists outnumber the actual citizens 5 to 1. That’s insane, but I can very well believe it. I have never seen so many bloody tourists in one small city. Enough talk, though. More pictures!!

Did I mention how much I love the architecture in Venice? Everything is just packed right into everything else and right onto the canals. You can’t really go too far before hitting a canal.

This was in the display window of an art gallery specializing in reproductions of famous abstract art. The sculpture is by Salvador Dali, although I can’t remember what it’s called!

San Marco’s Square near sunset. We eventually found ourselves here after wandering around for quite a bit. We took a really shitty map with us - not the one I bought - so we didn’t really have much of a sense of direction. We eventually made our way home, though!

The second photo we took while the woman wasn’t looking. I posed in front of the camera so it wouldn’t look like Gord was taking a picture of some random chick, when in actuality that’s what we were doing! It’s a shame the third picture didn’t turn out better than it did cause it was an amazing photo. That cat was just sitting on the window sill, watching the world pass it by as it sat there. I made Gord take the picture and I tried to call it back when it started to leave, but alas .. it didn’t speak English!

We wrapped our first night in Venice with some cheap pizza at a place called “Pizza & Ice Cream” (we learned that the following day when we went again for pizza!). I can’t explain how nice it was to be with someone you know and speak in English. There were days when I’d go for hours without saying a word because I had no one to talk to. That isn’t to say that when I did meet people I was shy - on the contrary, I tended to talk their ears off!

The next morning we awoke late. We managed to get out of our hotel room once the cleaning ladies began knocking on the door. Breakfast consisted of yummy, yummy Fanta and a panini on a dock that was basically a set of steps leading into the canal. It was really cool to just sit there as the tourists passed by.

The second and third photos are mosaics on the front of San Marco’s. Directly below them stood about fifty people waiting in line to get inside. We crossed that bridge to get to the art musuem. We wanted to see the top three things in Venice - the art museum, San Marco’s and the Palazzo which is the home of the Doge. Since San Marco’s was packed by the time we reached it, we headed for the art museum, the Accademia. When we found it it was nearly empty (well, a lot less packed than San Marco’s) and blissfully air conditioned! The day was hot. Really hot. So being out of the sun was a welcome reprieve. Gord and I spent an hour or so gazing at Venetian paintings and making comments on some of the expressions on the faces of the portraits. It was highly amusing.

Before we found the Accademia gallery, though, we found a free exhibit of old instruments so we went inside. There were signs everywhere for a concert taking place that night and since Gord and I were feeling adventurous, we decided to buy tickets. The concert was held in an actual church. I’ll write more about that when I get there, though

After spending a chilly hour in the Accademia we sauntered back to San Marco’s square. Although it was slightly cooler than earlier in the day it wasn’t much cooler. We decided we would still go into San Marco’s but not until we had a coffee at Caffe Florian which is the oldest cafe in all of Venice. It dates back to 18th century and has served such distinguished customers as Henry James and Lord Byron! I really wanted to have a coffee on the terrace so we found a cozy spot right beneath one of the arches.

The little old lady in the first picture behind me sat there the whole time we were there, which must have been about a half hour. She was clearly by herself and we really felt bad for her cause she sat there with that exact expression on her face the entire time. She held a napkin in her hands and kept shredding the thing. It was really sad The coffee, though, was quite good! The waiter appeared quite briskly wearing an ivory white dress coat and tuxedo pants. The menus had lots of yummy things but it was all over ten euros. I ordered a simple cafe late which cost me seven euros and Gord ordered a chocolate coffee (I can’t remember the name anymore!) which cost ten euros! We marvelled at the complete tea service which cost about fifty euros and wondered who would order something so extravagant. Not too long after we received our coffees a wealthy family sat near us and proceeded to order the very same tea service we were gawking at. We were totally gobsmacked! Not only was it fifty euros but it barely had any sandwiches on it. I suppose if we were really looking for a Venician experience we would have done the tea service too, but I’m poor, so I can’t!

We also met a Japanese couple who sat directly across from us. They were this cute little couple who spoke very little English. Gord thought commented that it must have been doubly hard for a non-English speaking person to travel to a country where English is *not* the first language, though it’s wellknown. I don’t know if that sentence came out right but I hope you understand what it means

After Florian’s we headed off to stand in line at San Marco’s.

The lines were still long. We figured, though, since we were here we may as well brave the lines. Gord took off while I waited in line to put our daypack in storage since we weren’t allowed to take it into the basilica. While I waited there I stood beside an American man who was waiting for his family to reach him as well. I happened to strike up a conversation wtih him which proceeded nicely up until he literally walked oof while I was in mid-sentence. He didn’t even acknowledge that he was done listening. He was just gone. I was completely stunned at his rudeness and a little miffed by the time Gord got back. It didn’t help matters that I was standing with a gaggle of teenage Latinos right behind me. They didn’t have the sense to put their bags in storage and we had to wait while they left the line - when we got to the front - to go put them away.

Once inside, though, I felt a lot better. It was cool inside the basilica and we let the crowds walk past us so we could breathe a little better. It’s hard, sometimes, to be around so many other people. I’m by no means a claustrophobe and I don’t have social anxiety disorder but at times I wanted to yell at a few people to get the hell out of my way. I suppose that’s what it must feel like to live in Venice where the tourism seems to never stop. No wonder the population grows smaller every year!

The basilica was pretty but by no means the best that I have seen. Perhaps I’m a bit of a snob after St. Peter’s. I should be nicer, though, since it’s a great place to see a lot of Byzantine art. Many things located at San Marco’s were pillaged from Constantinople after the fall of the Byzantine empire. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the basilica but we did manage to sneak one:

Yep. I was buying postcards to send home and Gord took out the camera and we snapped this quickly. It was pure genius, really. I love the way it turned out too. This is one of the few pictures where my nose doesn’t look like it’s been burnt to an absolute crisp :X

After San Marco’s we headed over to the “Pizza and Ice Cream” parlour and had ourselves some cheapie slices again. They were soooo damn good, though! I’m never gonna have pizza without feta cheese again. I swear to God, it was the best thing on the face of the earth! After dinner we rushed back to our hotel to get changed for the concert (symphony?). We wanted to go for a gondola ride that night but each place we asked wanted waaaay too much money. We were quoted 100 euros for thirty minutes by one gondolier. We didn’t have that much time, anyway, so we decided to sit down at a cafe with some Prosecco, the sparkling wine Venice is known for. Since I only had a slice of pizza for dinner the wine went straight to my head and I was nice and buzzed as we walked into the church.

The concert was absolutely magnificent. Perhaps it was the Prosecco but I literally began to weep as the first notes began. I have never heard Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” played live before and the experience will never fade from my memory. From the lovely young man who offered us his seats when we sat down at the side of the church, to the prodigy cellist who played the entire concert without a single music sheet in front of him, to the contrabassist (is that what he was, Gord?) who indicated my sunglasses had fallen when I stood to give him and his fellow musicians an ovation. It was absolutely beautiful.

After the concert I was elated and full of energy. I certainly didn’t want to go to bed just yet so as we walked back in the direction of our hotel we looked for a place to have a glass of wine. The streets were nearly completely empty and I welcomed the reprieve from the tourists. I wished that somehow we could have experienced the same thing during the day, but sadly, only at night do the rubes go home :/ Still, walking along the streets and not getting jostled by other people was really nice. We made it to the piazza where our hotel was located but didn’t find a restaurant where we could have a glass of wine. The bar directly below our hotel, though, was open so we snagged the last table at the patio and ordered two pints. I didn’t know if you could order wine at the bar (since everyone was drinking beer around us) but we later found out that you could. A group of American teenagers came through around the time we were ready to go to bed and they bought bottles (yes, bottles) of wine and drank outside in front of the barfront. It was highly amusing.

But yes, we proceeded to get totally smashed. It was great cause up until that point I had barely had a glass of wine and I was dying for a little alcohol. Eventually, we got adventurous and Gord set out for a pack of cigarettes. We smoked Camels and drank Kilkenny until around one in the morning. Or maybe later, I can’t remember! The details are a little fuzzy!

We left the next morning for Milan but not before finding ourselves a gondola! We bought our train tickets and with the last 75 euros we bought ourselves a 30 minute gondola ride.

It was a really interesting experience. We were nice and cozy sitting on this plush chair near the rear of the boat while the gondolier stood behind us. He took us along the smaller canals where there were less boats and we saw some really nice parts of Venice. The streets were nearly empty too. Since it was near midday at that point I knew that he must have taken us away from the normal tourist traps and I wished that I had gotten a chance to see that part of Venice before we left. It was interesting because we soon found ourselves a bit of a spectacle. Some tourists took photos of us as we passed them beneath a bridge. We got a picture of them taking a picture of us

After the gondola ride we went and waited for our train to Milan. I was still exhausted from our late night so when we boarded the train I soon fell asleep. Not until we stopped in a train station where we were horrified to see directly across from us a team of paramedics working on something beneath the wheels of a train. I was reading my book at the time and tried to keep from looking but I couldn’t stop myself. I was literally staring at a train wreck. I assume it was a suicide, but of course I can’t be sure. It’s not like I could ask anyone! After that startling scene I fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until we reached Milan.

My God, this is taking me forever, isn’t it? I apologize. I tried to write up the whole thing today but I’m running short on time and I’ve still got six more days to go through. Maybe I’m just being too longwinded? I can’t really be sorry, though, because this is as much for my sake as it is for your’s. Probably more mine than yours since I want to keep this so I remember it while you’re just reading up on my journey

Anyway! I’ll continue soon. Thanks for reading if you’ve reached this far.