Day 24: Venice to Milan

Day 24:   Venice to Milan  ,  Monday January 3^rd

(I’ll again have to post three days – Day 24 Day 25 and Day 26 without photos and I will add them later.)

As we drive out of Venice, heading towards what our guide Victor describes as the ugly industrial city of Milan, we now have a better understanding of Venice.

We have had a fabulous day and are both coming away adding Venice to our list of favourite cities.  Most of the forty people on the bus tour headed off late thismorning for a cruise around the islands of Venice.  We chose to pass the several hours just wandering the  city and we haven’t regretted the decision.

First, before I forget what Victor told us yesterday about the geographical and historical background of Venice, I must write it down.  He explained that geographically, it has been formed as a result of the meeting of the Adriatic Sea with the mouth of several rivers which flow down from the Alps.  Those rivers carry with them glacial morraine pebbles.  The equality of the forces , the sea and the river, means that at the point at which they meet, there is little forward movement of the water.   Therefore the morraine pebbles have dropped to the bottom of the river and sea bed.  Over the millions of years that this has been happening, the buildup of pebbles has become a solid base and eventually islands have formed. 

Until the 1400’s, Venice was in a prime positiion for trade.   Situated as it is at the head of the Adriatic Sea, it was a major gateway for trade between east and west.  Huge taxes were charged for goods to pass through the city and Venetian merchants became very wealthy.  Many of the islands were connected by bridges to  become a city of beautiful palaces, three- or four-storeyed residences, narrow winding streets, narrow canals and one major canal, the Grand Canal.  Each tiny island was a district in its own right and they are all connected by slightly peaked stone bridges.  Dozens of beautiful churches were built, all of them with rich trimmings of marble, gold leaf mosaics, rich coloured  frescoes, intricate stone carvings, mosaic tiled floors and high domes.  The best known of these is St Marks, which has pride of place in the centre of the city.

Then with the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, new trade routes were established and Venice was no longer a city through which all trade passed.   One by one the merchants left the city and it gradually fell into a state of decline.  By the twentieth century, Venice was a sad shadow of its former self.  In the latter half of the twentieth century, it was realised that major restoration needed to be done to save the city.   All industry was banned from the old part of the city and major works such as the restoration of St Mark’s bell tower were undertaken.   The city’s only imdustry is now tourism and the thousands of people who live in the old part of the city would all be involved with the tourist trade in one way or another.

One of the main tourist attraction is, of course, the goldolas with their famous gondoliers. In summer, no doubt the city is abuzz with them.  However, today, with temperatures struggling to get over zero, very few gondolas were on the canals and we saw many gondoliers standing around chatting together to pass the time.  Another means of transport is by water taxi.  These go on the Grand Canal and on the beautiful lagoon which surrounds the old city.

Dozens of other little islands lie in the lagoon.  Many of these are home to fishermen and their families.  One of these is Burano, where beautiful lace is made by the women.  Another is Murano where beautiful  glass objects are produced.

Before the group went off on their cruise of the lagoon, we went to a Murano glass outlet where we were given a demonstration of the glass blowing – much more involved than I have seen in other glass blowing demonstrations.  For a welcome change, there was no apple tea involved and no high pressure sales team.    It was a team effort between two craftsmen to produce one tumbler with a patterned rim, so we can see why Murano glass has such a high price tag.  With all of it being way beyound our budget, we  did not purchase any, but before I left Venice I made sure that I bought a Murano glass charm for my bracelet.

So, with the rest of the day to ourselves, firstly we went into St Mark’s cathedral.   This seems to belong to the Renaissance period, with walls and dome covered with gold mosaics  but there was not the other lavish gold decoration that belongs to the later Baroque period.  Like Sancta Sophia in Istanbul, the walls are of book-matched marble panels. The floor is marble and mosaic tiles and with the ebb and flow of water over the centuries, it is an undulating surface.  The rising of the water into the city is quite common, especially in winter and indeed, while we were there, there was some substantial water creepage, to the extent that walking platforms were laid out in readiness for the water to rise higher than it actually did.  Roger is fairly certain that a couple of the Renaissance composers were resident at St Mark’s Venice, but we need to consult the internet to confirm this.

Beside the cathedral is the 100 metre high bell tower, the Campanile.  We took the lift to the top and had a wonderful panoramic view over the whole city.   Although extremely cold, it was a wonderful experience, made all the more memorable by the shock to the system when the bell started tolling:   boing, boing, boing….on and on it went for about 20 boings!   It drew my attention to the bell itself (there are several of them but only one was tolling at that time – thankfully).  The bells are all mounted on carved wooden timber cross pieces and then from them, at the top of each bell, are sad looking faces.   They are really quite cute.

We spent the rest of the time before the group returned, wandering the streets, window shopping and a bit of real shopping too.   We were glad to retreat into a nice warm restaurant for lunch and we had the best lasagne we have ever tasted.  It just melted in the mouth! 

When it was time to start making our way back to the meeting point, we found that we had wandered too far and although we both have a good sense of direction, we were thoroughly lost.   Every street looked the same and we seemed to be going around in circles – made worse of course by the fact that we started to panic about time.   However, after saying “San Marco?” at several point s along the way to anyone who looked to be a local – tradesmen, gondoliers, cart pushers etc, we finally found our way back to St Mark’s Square. 

From there it was a boat ride back to where our bus was parked and we were on our way, driving to Milan.  It was jut before 7pm when we reached the centre of Milan and we had just a few minutes to see the unbelievably HUGE “wedding cake” gothic cathedral before the spot lighting was turned off.  Then the interior lights of the cathedral were turned on, giving a view of the wonderful stained glass windows.  Every one of the hundreds of windows  was lit up – something we have never seen before.  Apparently this is the first year they have done it, probably just for the Christmas season, so it was a bit of a thrill.

We then walked through the world’s second oldest shopping mall.   Built in 1883, it is just fabulous.  Not a rabbit warren as shopping centres are now, it is just one very long internal walkway with beautiful shops on each side.   Being Milan, the shops are of the highest calibre – Gucci, Louis Vuitton etc.  The mall has a beautiful dome in its centre.  The dome was illuminated with gorgeous blue lights.  Then from the dome, the roof over the mall’s central walkway is also domed.  It reminded me of the Crystal Palace in London, which was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851.  With this mall being built in 1883, I imagine its design could well have been inspired by the Crystal Palace.  We ventured into a restaurant and suffered the look of disdain from the maitre de when we just ordered drinks.  It was a lovely atmosphere to sip a beautiful red wine.

(Sorry , this is not the best photo, but I am putting them in in a hurry and I haven't yet edited them.)

We still had not checked into our hotel.  With the hotel being quite a way out of the centre of Milan, it was quite a while until we eventually arrived there.    By the time we had had dinner, it was 10pm – well and truly bed time with our early start the next morning.  So I am sorry blog followers, I was just too tired to get onto the internet last night.