More about Venice

I'm surprised no one has said, "what gondola?" I wrote in the blog about Venice that you could see nine gondolas then didn't put in the photo so I've gone back and added it. Since I'm writing I'll add a few more things about Venice and/or Verona.

The two big, big tourist attractions in Venice are the canals (with gondolas, of course) and the Carnivale (pronounced car-nee-vol-ay) in the spring which is much older and much bigger than Mardi Gras but happens about the same time. Everyone there, too, wears masks and the masks have become as famous as the carnivale itself.

Every little vendor stand has masks for sale and they range from cheap plastic ones at about $14 to very expensive ones at about $200. If you look carefully over my right shoulder in this photo you'll see two of the nicer masks. Probably the 35 Euro kind.

The vendors also sell everything from necklaces and rings to knick-knacks to nice pieces of art in a blown glass made in a nearby town. In addition to the sun hats, the umbrellas, the maps and the information books about Venice, those vendors do a great business. It must take in a lot of money because there's a vendor about every three steps.

In addition to that, like Tracy said in her blog about New York, the men selling purses are every other step along the way and you are accosted by their sales pitch---in your face if you happen to look their way. I've seen them chase after women to try to put purses in their hands.

All this among buildings of such beautiful architecture and placement that it takes your breath away. Many of the buildings took over a hundred years to build and have stood much longer than that. And the stonework is nothing less than art. It amazes me to think that most of the buildings I saw were older than our United States. People were living and working in them while settlers were chopping wood to form a primitive log cabin in our wildernesses.












When I think of Venice, though, I shall forever remember the music. As we walked the streets the sound of a lone violinist would fill the air, then just past that a string ensemble at an outside cafe, a flutist a little farther on. A museum with a display of violins, violas, basses, etc built by hand over the past three hundred years with music from Vivaldi playing in the background. The most amazing site and sound was a man playing a set of glasses on the street. It was so beautiful yet plaintive we were captivated by it's sound and stayed to the end of the piece. And it was no ordinary piece, it was a concert with harmonies running in and out and all through our souls leaving them more content for having heard it.