The Last Bits of Venice

First, I want to tell you about Italian television. The kids love cartoons and there are lots of cartoons in Italy except that they are all American cartoons with Italian dubbing! And not only are they American, they are like 1970's American cartoons. We saw Kimba, He-Man, Popeye, The Flintstones and Code Lyoko (the only contemporary cartoon). And the funniest thing is that Popeye totally works in Italy: Popeye, Olive Oyl & Bluto all look Italian, Olive Oyl's name IS Italian... We couldn't believe that we had to travel to Italy to figure that one out.

The city of Venice is divided into six areas or "sestieri". We stayed in the Castello sestiere which is the largest of the six. The district grew up from the thirteenth century around a naval dockyard,the Arsenale. It became divided between the Arsenale, then the largest naval complex in Europe, and the monasteries in the north of the quarter. It was later altered by Napoleon, who planned what are now the Bienniale Gardens. So on our next to last day, we walked down to Arsenale and through the Bienniale Gardens. It was a very nice area and we enjoyed our time in the Gardens. My ever industrious nine year old stayed busy scrounging items from around the bushes to make some of his own art.


We had a nice lunch when it started to get hot.

The Italian Naval Academy

This means "potter".


My mafia family

Another shrine to Mary and Jesus

After our sight seeing, we went back to our place for a siesta and to pack up our stuff. In the late afternoon, we all hopped into a gondola because, well, what's Venice without a gondola ride??? It was so quiet floating through the canals. Very surprising.


The Rialto Bridge

My favorite bridge is the Bridge of Sighs, but we didn't get to see it on this trip. This bridge connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. From Wikipedia: "The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out of the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. Also, they could barely see any view from inside the bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows. A local legend says that lovers will be assured eternal love if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge." Que sera, sera...




All of the gondolas have these golden seahorses on them.

On our final day, we locked up the flat and headed over to the train station to stow our luggage for the day because our flight wasn't departing until 9 PM. We decided to spend the VERY HOT day in Murano which is about a 45 minute vaporetto trip from the train station even though it is only about a mile NE of Venice. Murano is a huge center for glass making which began when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction to the city’s mostly wood buildings, ordered glass makers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291.

Finn is getting ready to give a chunk of change to the accordion player behind him. This guy was pretty good.

A very cool street display of glass by Simone Cenedese entitled Cometa De Vetra (Comet Glass Star) 2007


Finn awaiting the vaporetto

Pretty window at the Museo Vetrario (Glass Museum)

Shrine with glass flowers

We headed back to get our things and make our way to the bus station just next to the train station to catch a bus to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, we were all so hot and tired, we just sat. I think it took four hours for our bodies just to cool down.
I hope you enjoyed our Italian saga. Our next big trip will be to Valencia and Madrid, Spain in October.