Around the World: Part Eighteen
In which I visited a Floating City
Venice is a city in
northeastern Italy and the capital of Veneto region. It is situated on a group
of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400
bridges. It was amazing to view the Venice Island; the concrete structures are
connected to each other through small bridges and bridges. The transport here
is through water buses and water taxis only. The Vaporetto docked at the
destination at 3pm and we set foot on the Venetian land to explore it. We had a
walking tour of places along with the tour guide and her Italian ascent.
The enclosed bridge is
made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di
Palazzo, and connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's
Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that
convicts saw before their imprisonment.
It is a cathedral
church, lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) and
adjacent to the Doge’s Palace. The gable includes St. Mark’s with the angels
and a winged lion.
The tower is 98.6 meters
(323 ft) tall and stands alone in a corner of St Mark's Square, near the
front of the basilica. It has a simple form, the bulk of which is a fluted brick square
shaft, 12 meters (39 ft) wide on each side and 50 meters (160 ft)
tall, above which is a loggia surrounding the belfry, housing five bells.
The clock tower is also
a part of the St. Mark’s Square. The center of the tower consists of a clock:
the inner circle is made of twelve zodiac signs and the outer circle has I to
XXIIII roman numbers engraved on it. The number 24 is XXIIII instead of XXIV,
also the number 14 is XIIII instead of XIV. The top of the tower has a bell
which is stroked by two winged angles on its either sides, at every quarter’s
interval.
The Gondola is a wooden,
flat bottom, elongated rowing boat, rowed by a gondolier using a long wooden
oar. We queued up for the gondola ride in group of six. I joined the group of
the five friends: Anupriya Shringare, Vinodini Waikar, Trupti Jadhav, Tillotama Barhate and Sangeeta. Firstly, the gondolier helped us sit on the small
comfortable seats in the gondola: two adjacent seats, two seats facing each
other, one seat adjacent to those, and one were at the opposite end of the
gondola (where I sat). I sat in the middle of the seat so that my balance does
not shift to either sides of the gondola; but I was wrong, the gondolier
instructed me to sit at the right edge of the seat. Thus, our tour started into
the waters of Venice, passing under many bridges, viewing the watery lanes,
listening to the water which we were cutting through, watching the shops,
different types of gondolas parked across the buildings similar to the way we
park our scooty or bicycles next to our homes, and many more things. Finally,
we entered the Grand Canal and viewed the Railto Bridge, the oldest bridge connecting the San Marco and San Polo.
Here different types of gondolas and water taxis and buses were stationed. The
gondola tour was for half an hour, we returned to the same place where we
boarded the gondola.
We walked our way back
to the docked Vaporetto station, passing through the San Marco Piazza and
through the bridges. Here we relished a gelato
ice cream in the evening and were back, driving through the Vaporetto
and into the bus by 6pm. We drove towards Maharani
Ristorante Indiano, Mestre for our
dinner. The best part of the dinner was the sweet gulab jamun. We drove ahead
to Hotel Russott, Padua for night
stay.
15.05.2019: Tour Day 9,
Country 9, City 1
We entered the green
landscapes of Italy at 08:30am and halted for a bio-break cum shopping break at
10:30am. The journey was through the countryside of Italy. We halted at Restaurant
Rangoli at 1pm for lunch. The lunch
was serving on table, with on demand hot rotis and naan. Post lunch we headed
for the city of Venice. We crossed a
creek through the bridge at quarter past two. The bus left us. We walked our
path towards the deck of Vaporetto (Vaporized
Water Bus). The Vaporetto drove us to the Floating
City, the city of the merchant in
the stories of Shakespeare.
Bridge of Sighs
Doge’s Palace
It is a palace of the
Doge (supreme authority) of Venice, built in Venetian gothic style.
St. Mark’s Basilica
St. Mark’s Campanile (Bell Tower)
Clock Tower
Apart from these
structures, there are two tall pillars in the square, one with the Lion of Venice (winged lion)
and the other with St. Theodore.
We headed towards the Glass Blowing Factory. First,
we had a demonstration on making a glass jar through the blowing and heating
technique. It reminded me of the Science lessons of Class VI wherein we were first
introduced to a substance called glass. Later we climbed up till the second
level of the factory, to the Glass Showroom. Here we were introduced to a
variety of glass objects, some of which are break free. There were many
souvenirs to shop: glass cup and saucers, plates, bowls, kettles, aquarium,
vase, jars, frames, marine animals, etc.
Gondola Ride
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