Venice is like no other place we have been. In the 5th and 6th centuries barbarian invaders forced the inhabitants of the mainland to find refuge in the lagoon islands. Venice grew to become an important merchant power dominating the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. Marco Polo left here to go to China and bring back noodles and then call them spaghetti but obviously there are not enough trees in Venice to eat the noodles with chopsticks.
20 million tourists a year come here to visit. We are staying in a hostel near the Grand Canal and a short walk from the train station. It is such a pleasure to wander the lanes without any vehicles but the beeping from the barges that are bringing goods into the stores is rather annoying. We have seen the water ambulance rush to the hospital and the postal boat deliver the mail bags. We watched a family move house and have their furniture loaded onto a barge with everything wrapped in bubble plastic. The workers renovating houses barrow their earth and bricks to waiting open barges to take them away. Cement trucks are anchored onto barges and the mixture is pumped through long pipes. Men push trolleys ladened with boxes up and down the 400 bridges, and along the 150 canals.
Venice is made up of 117 islands and it is an easy place to get lost in but it is also fun doing that. A guy in the hostel went for an hour long walk and ended up back at the hostel without knowing where he was going. The hostel manager keeps bags for guests who catch late trains and sometimes they get lost and miss their trains so have to stay longer, others go to bars and when the bars close at 2am they may not find the place until 8 or 9am. The 'vias' are not very well signposted and when they are, you have to look up high on the house walls to find the signs. They maybe there so that when the place is under water you can still work out where you are.
We were woken by the flood siren at 5am and when we got out of the hostel the path and bottom step was flooded. There had been a lot of rain and when the tides are high it floods. The council has board walks stacked in the middle of the streets and these are laid out over the street and squares so everyone can go about their business.
The lowest point in the old city is San Marcos (Mark) square in front of the cathedral. The police patrol the boardwalk to keep the photo-snapping crowds moving.
The hotels and stores make a lot of sales of umbrellas, rubber boots, and plastic- soled plastic bags that tie under the knees, for those who don't have anything to keep their feet and legs dry. Meanwhile the locals put on their waders and carry on as normal. The city is sinking into the mud and the water levels are rising.
With so much exposure to salt and water the houses are slowly eroding away. The water gets behind the layers of paint and exposes the sandy cement layer which crumbles away to leave the porous red brick exposed. It is pretty expensive and time consuming to be looking after a property in Venice and for those who can't afford to look after the outsides, they will have damp mouldy inside walls as well.
We stayed at a hostel where the manager cooked traditional meals for us in the evening. We drank wine from some small local family wineries. The wine was sold in barrels to wine shops as it was not economical to bottle it. Customers took their plastic bottles along to the shop and had them filled. At just over a euro a litre it was very palatable.
Carnival celebrations begin soon so there are hundreds of stalls and shops selling carnival masks.
Other stalls sell interesting looking pasta shapes
and colourful vegetables.
The gondola boatmen make a lot of money. It costs 20 euro per person or 80 euros for the boat and in the summer they can do 3 or 4 trips a day and so make a lot of money- a lot more than average Italian workers.
