Venice Untour, Summer 2000
by Jenny Gumpertz , Palm Desert, CA
Hi, Idyllers,
My husband, Gordon, and I are recently back from our really wonderful Venice Untour, and I wanted to do a report on it for anyone interested, and especially for anyone staying at the S. Rocco apartment.
First, S. Rocco (#5)is an excellent place that served us well as a base and a retreat from the crowds. Basically, it's as described in the Untour fact sheet--ground floor, off a sort-of alleyway, just right for two people, etc. It's light, airy, and cheery, and mostly new-feeling. Everything works. Marble (?) tile floors, and uncluttered but nicely decorated walls. Everything feels clean, except for the dirt we kept tracking in from our private courtyard--and we did use the courtyard, not only for hanging out clothes to dry but often for our aperativo before starting out for dinner. The walls of neighboring apartments surround the courtyard and I expect our neighbors occasionally glanced out to see what the Americans were doing, but only once did I see someone looking out a window, and she quickly withdrew after giving us a smile and a friendly "backward" wave that Denny says means a friendly Ciao.
It was surprising that although we were surrounded by neighbors' windows on three sides, we felt private, as though we were living in a little house in the midst of a city. (There is an apartment directly overhead, but it's obviously unoccupied.)
So we did not actually meet any of our neighbors, though on warm evenings with everyone's windows open, we could hear occasional animated dinner conversations, giving me the feeling sometimes that we were in an Italian movie.
Outside the bedroom window is a kind of wild-growing area with two pomegranate trees, a fig tree, flowers, tall grass, and several kinds of birds. I loved looking out there every morning just for the freshness of it, and also to check the color of the sky. I believe the weather comes from that direction (at least the breeze comes from the Grand Canale that direction), so we could make a good guess as to the day's weather.
The washing machine (no dryer, of course, being Europe) is tucked unobtrusively into the bathroom, and the stand-up shower is actually enclosed (a small but workable stall), so no spraying of the whole bathroom when you shower.
The living room has cable TV with 41 channels in Italian (CNN is on in English for an hour at midnight, Denny tells us), in case you want to brush up on the language that surrounds you , for the San Rocco neighborhood is definitely not a big tourist place, despite the Scuola San Rocco and its incredible Tinterettos. We went to a chamber concert at the Scuola and heard about five English words all evening.
The apartment has a phone, which is an enormous boon. You pay for whatever calls you make, at a very nominal rate.
The neighborhood is infinitely more peaceful than anything near San Marco, and it's very convenient for traveling. You can get just about anywhere from the S. Toma' vaporetto stop a few minutes' walk away. It is less convenient for marketing, so we bought a little cart for transporting groceries like everyone else there does and left it in the apartment for whoever comes next. There is a small grocery store about 10" walk away and over only one small bridge (one learns to notice such things). But two large markets, Standa and Bila', are within easy striking distance by vaporetto. Be sure to ask Denny the easy way to get to the Bila' store, from the Academia. The Standa store is near Rialto. We found the marketing to be fun. Incidentally, there is a really excellent gelato place next to the Scuola--it's the one that always has a crowd around it.
In fact, getting around now to the subject of Venice as a whole, we greatly enjoyed the work of just getting along the way the locals do. I guess it's a matter of personal tempo. We had intended to do several days of day-tripping and ended up just settling into Venice itself. (We called it our "Venice immersion experience.") We had already been to Verona and some of the other places on the Untour suggestion list. We did take one all-day van tour that Denny suggested, which was a lot of fun--Avventure Bellissime Tours (in English). We did their Hills of Veneto tour, which ends with a tasting of Prosecco wine, a lightly sparkling white wine that we liked very much. If you are lucky, you may get to taste it at Denny & Luigi's restaurant following the orientation meeting. (Their food was among the best we had on the whole trip.)
We also enjoyed being taken by Denny on an Untour-hosted visit to Monastero Armeno Mechitarista on Isola di A. Lazzaro. The monastery visit was quite interesting and was something we never would have done by ourselves. We went there on the same boat that she had picked us up in at the Venice airport. I loved that boat (and its very great owner/ driver). Arrival in Venice by speedboat--a private water taxi, actually--is a real thrill, as is most of Venice anyway.
Gordon and I are not great church & museum buffs--we seem to tire easily in them. Why, then, go to Venice??? Well, besides the churches and museums we did visit, there are just a lot of other things to see and do. As I said, a matter of personal tempo. We tramped the neighborhoods looking in shops, marveling at the marketplaces, and comparing sights from one area to another. And taking many pictures. Each neighborhood has its own personality. And the other islands. The day we picked to go to Lido happened to be also the opening day of the Venice Film Festival. We sat on the terrazza of the Excelsior hotel drinking ice tea at Lit. 10,000 per glass, watching people buzz around us with badges and briefcases and clipboards and videocams, and interviewing each other. When we'd seen enough of Lido, we caught a vaporetto home that surprisingly took us the longest route possible, past vaporetto stops that made us consult our map to see where the heck we were. But who's in a hurry, and we got to see areas we'd otherwise have missed.
We also went to the island of Chioggia to see the fish market, which means a vaporetto to Lido (shorter route this time--we're getting smarter), then a bus across the whole island, then the bus rolls onto a ferry that crosses to the island of Pellistrina, then the full length of that island. At that point you get off the bus and catch another ferry that finally goes to Chioggia. The trip can take a couple of hours and there is a somewhat faster way by land, but I'll bet it's less interesting. I'm not going to try to go into detail on this kind of stuff--the great sea wall, the fishing huts--or this piece would never end.
Back in Venice, we were lucky enough to be there for the Regatta Storica, a yearly parade of decorated boats, the Venezian equivalent of the Rose Parade only smaller. But nearly as grand, because the boats are grandly done and the riders are all in historical costume--doges, etc. We paid our local gondolier $20 each for two seats in a boat to watch the parade. They gondoliered us across the Grand Canale to the other side and offloaded us onto another boat sitting in the midst of many, many others--this is a big event, and by parade time the canalsides are jammed. After the parade was over we expected to leave, but we saw that nobody else was thinking about going home--they were getting out their picnic baskets, setting up tables in the boats for playing cards, etc. They told us the races were coming next. So we waited and just watched the great local scene. About a half-hour later a small boat came dashing up the canal rowed by two standing women who were really putting their backs into it, and everyone began to cheer, and the women passed out of sight and then a clump of more small boats came chugging along with more women really hitting the oars hard. More yelling and cheering between rival groups of onlookers.
We waited awhile longer and then finally the men came rowing by for their competition--all this in wonderful striped outfits--and then we waited a while longer and heard that more racers would be along soon. But we were pretty well done in by that time and decided to leave. Only problem was, there was no way to get back across the Grand Canale to our home. The canal was filled with official boats and nobody was allowed across. So our gondolier told us just to walk to the Accademia bridge. Easier said than done. It was the only time we were caught without our map, but he told us (and this is the way all directions are given in Venice), "just walk through there and turn right" (and who even remembers which language he said it in). Nary a hint of the complexity that lies ahead. We did finally get to the Accademia bridge--in fact, we had it in sight from time to time but just couldn't figure out how to get there--and across it and home, but it took us about three times as long as it should have. Moral: Keep your map (and Denny's phone number) on you at all times. Though even the map is only a help, not a solution.
We've been home for nearly three weeks now, and the feeling of our Venice Untour is beginning to fade a bit, but we brought back with us a deep sense of having really experienced a unique and unforgettable place. We know that many people would have spent more time in other kinds of activities than we did, but we enthusiastically recommend Venice as a first-class Untour, in which you can build whatever kind of experience you want.
We also want to say that Denny was great to us and we appreciate her thoroughly. The three of us had lunch together at her favorite pizza place, and she was right about how good it is. We're only sorry that we didn't finally make it to her favorite gelato place. Oh, well, got to go back and do that.
OK, this is it for the Venice report. I'm sure I've left out dozens of things I should have mentioned. If anyone has any specific questions about anything, just ask.
Jenny Gumpertz