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Timeless Beauty

Exploring the water world of Venice

By Mark Smith

June 27^th, 2024

Life lessons

I first learned about Venice in elementary school: It's an island in Italy with canals instead of streets. Men in striped shirts sing songs as they row you around. And you eat pizza all day long.

I can now say that everything I heard about Venice is true. But I sure waited a helluva long time to see for myself.

Making new history

Founded in 421 AD, Venice is an island made up of mini-islands - over 100 of them, joined by bridges - in the Venetian Lagoon, near the top of the Adriatic Sea. This seaport location later enabled Venice to become an important financial and trading power.

Nancy had visited Venice in 1977 on a European backpacking trip with friends; Emily stayed here as part of a high-school choir group that performed around Italy.

So, I was the newbie in Venice - our first stop on a grand Italy tour that would include Florence, the Tuscan countryside, and Rome.

Today's forecast: wet and disoriented

Our arrival in this watery city was... wet. In trying to navigate the rainy path to our apartment, paper maps were of little use. Our phones weren’t much better, but at least they didn't get soggy.

After many hours of travel, our brains were mushy and the street signs probably had worn off the buildings’ corners some time in the 17th century.

Plus, everyone spoke Italian.

For 20 minutes we trudged around in the rain, befuddled. Then thanks to Emily’s Google Maps perseverance we found our new home, welcoming us from across a beautiful cobblestone courtyard.

A reset

Our apartment felt like the perfect home base. We got into dry clothes, napped and reoriented ourselves.

By then it was early evening and the rain had stopped. Refreshed and hungry, we headed back outside to have dinner and explore our new neighborhood.

Something is different here

Walking through the Dorsoduro area of Venice, it took a few moments for it to really sink in: There are no cars here. No trucks, no motor scooters, no buses. For three glorious days, we would live in a world without motor vehicles - at least the ones on wheels.

We appreciated the relative quiet - and the fact that most of the people we encountered near our place weren't tourists; they were Italians doing their shopping, eating meals out and enjoying a real Venetian life, without the crowds of the city's famous attractions.

As the sky darkened, the lights in our neighborhood came up.

Buongiorno!

We were enjoying a cappuccino and cornetto (croissant) in a small café when in walked a group of men in their 40's or 50's, casually dressed, outdoorsy and congenial, like they were about to play a round of golf. They had a superior air to them, and acted like they stopped there often.

Boats rule.

I couldn’t immediately work out how they were connected or what they had planned for the day - until later when I realized they must be boat drivers on their way to work, navigating the canals in water taxis, barges, vaparettos (water buses) and gondolas - and that they held an important position in this aquatic city.

In Venezia, boats rule. Even the police are afloat. A televised carabinieri chase would look a little different from those I’m used to.

Properly fueled for the day, we ventured out to experience some of Venice's most popular attractions: St. Mark's Square and Basilica, the Doge's Palace - and the amazing Grand Canal.

Il canale di tutti canali

The Grand Canal is Venice's 5th Avenue, Rodeo Drive, and Highway 5 all rolled into one. We bought 48-hour vaparetto passes with unlimited hopping on and off so we could fully explore this waterway.

Alongside the canal are fabulously old and elegant buildings and homes. Meanwhile, it's a busy and important distribution pathway, just as it was 1,000 years ago. Everything that’s shipped in or out of the city's core moves along the Grand Canal: Lamps and linguine, mops and mozzarella. Moving out of your apartment? A mini-barge will cruise by to pick up your furniture.

Boats of all types and sizes jockey for position. From the also-famous Rialto Bridge, we could see how adept the boatmen were at dodging each other, as if they were playing a friendly game - after meeting for espresso.

Wealth and craftmanship

Between Venice's Church establishment and its powerful trading companies, the city was once among the richest in the Western world.

Some of this vast wealth was invested in the art and architecture of the buildings and of course, the churches. The level of craftsmanship and detail, and the sheer volume of it, is just stunning - not only to gaze upon, but to ponder the amount of time it took for the planners, engineers, sculptors, painters and other craftspeople to carry out their work.

It's flooding. But don't worry.

That evening it rained "gatti e cani" (you guessed it, cats and dogs) for several hours. Just before heading out for dinner we learned that the city was flooding.

Thankfully, this was not the “Acqua Alta” - Venice's infamous high canal waters that occasionally rise three or four feet, right into the first floors of homes and shops. Still, in a city where the canal water is just two inches below the walkways, we wondered what "flooding" really meant.

I had to go look. The courtyard in front of our apartment was an inch deep in water, and the canal was lapping up onto the sidewalks. But to Venetians this was nothing to worry about; everyone here owns a pair of rubber boots. And an electric pump. Some have already vacated their ground floor and now live upstairs.

And in the morning, the sun was out and the canals' water level had dropped, as if the night's torrential rain had never happened.

Speaking of water: We noticed these tiny drains built into the piazzas, walkways and courtyards. The actual drain-holes are only the size of your thumbnail - but there are lots of them. During a hard rain - or worse yet, the Acqua Alta - these help to eliminate pools of standing water.

But, we wondered: doesn't that drainage water just go right back into the canals? Best not to overthink it. The Italians seem to know what they're doing.

A bit later that third day, we're having a Spritz Veneziano alongside the Grand Canal, enjoying the sunshine and awaiting our cicchetti (small snacks, like tapas; they are molto delizioso).

Nancy and Emily are excellent navigators. Here's Nancy, trusty iPhone in left hand, steering us through yet another narrow, unmarked alley.

I can hear myself muttering, "This just can't be right..." But it was :-)

Glimpses of Venice

The art of fine dining

We were learning fast about ristoranti Italiano: You often have a team of servers waiting on you, versus just one person. They'll prefer that you order all of your courses at one time, not as you go - so the kitchen can properly do its thing.

The service will be excellent, and they will not rush you. In fact, when you're finishing dinner, the waiters avoid making eye contact with you - so you'll take your time. It was both amusing and refreshing.

Then when you're actually ready for the check, you must physically catch someone's attention, even to the point of getting up and approaching them. A mere glance or a small hand gesture won't do it.

Then at the end, a nice surprise: if you order full meals, they'll bring you an ice-cold, on-the-house glass of limoncello :-)

Holding itself together

We’ve read over the years that Venice is slowly sinking. We weren't there long enough to notice.

The walkways were literally gritty underfoot after that hard rain, as the buildings and homes lost a little bit more of their exteriors. Throughout the city you can see where a building's most recent layer has worn away, exposing one or even two previous layers.

I would say that Venice is crumbly - but not crumbling.

To our eyes, Venice was in remarkably good condition considering its age, its location on the edge of the Adriatic, and the strain of 20 million visitors per year. It is a great city, unbelievably beautiful and resilient.

On the water

On our last evening we approached a gondolier, asked about his typical route, and arranged to meet him after we had a chianti on the nearby square.

Then off we went. It was quiet; we heard birdsong and the gentle action of the gondolier's paddle as we moved slowly through the water.

The route took us through narrow neighborhood canals; we briefly dipped out into the Grand Canal - beautiful and calm at this time of evening - then back into the neighborhoods.