October 5 - Assisi, Classe & Venice

Today we drove to Venice, which was one of the highlights for Marg.  She has always wanted to go there ever since she was a little girl.  Our friends Heather and John also spoke highly of the city from their trip there last year and that only served to whet our appetite even more.

St. Mary of the Angels

Before we left Assisi we stopped at church known as the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels).  Inside the basilica there was a small church, which was the original church where St. Francis met with other clerics to form the Franciscan order in the 9^th century.

We then drove north to the town of Classe were we stopped and saw the mosaics in Basilica of Sant'Apollinare.  This is one of the oldest surviving churches in Italy and was one the first Christian churches ever built with the Emperor’s blessing.  Sant'Apollinare was consecrated on May 9, 549 by Bishop Maximian and dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, the first bishop of Classe. Most of the mosaics in the church are in the Byzantine style.  

Basilica of Sant' Apollinare

Basilica of Sant' Apollinare

We had lunch in Classe.  We were told that lasagna was a speciality here.  Unfortunately the noodles were very soft and a bit slimy.  I guess it is their style of cooking pasta but I believe that Marg’s lasagna is definitely better.

It took the bus about two hours to get to Venice from Classe.  The road parallels the Adriatic coast and goes over large bogs, lagoons and inlets.

Venice is a city that is made of 118 islands connected by a series of bridges.  Cars can’t drive on most of the islands in Venice as there are no roads, so transportation is by boat through the canals. 

Our bus parked on a man made island that is used as a massive parking lot on the outskirts of the city.  From there we took a water taxi down the Grand Canal to San Marco Square.  From the canal we got to see the homes of the rich and famous. The banks of the Grand Canal are lined with more than 170 buildings, most of which date to 13th to the 18th century.  The canal is big enough that ocean cruise ships can cruise down the canal past San Marco Square.

Grand Canal

Grand Canal

We then took a gondola ride through the secondary canals of Venice.  Despite Marg’s pleading the gondolier wouldn’t entertain us with a song.  Once you get off the Grand Canal the apartment buildings are not as attractive, but they still have an interesting architecture.  The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wooden piles. Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion in salt water.

Our gondolier

Our gondola ride

Canals of Venice

In Venice you can have traffic jams.  There are so many boats in the canals, personal boats, delivery boats, taxis, public transportation and of course gondolas, that it is a miracle that there are not a lot of collisions

Our hotel is on Lido Island, which is one of the few islands which has roads that cars and buses can drive on.  Our bus took a ferry to the island.  We are staying at the Grande Albergo Ausonia & Hungaria Hotel.  The hotel is an old grand hotel with a beautiful exterior.  All the hallways are Italian marble.  The room is small but again that is normal under European standards.  The dinning room has several grand chandeliers. Despite the poor ratings on the Trip Advisor web site for most of hotels on the tour, we have found all the hotels to be good to excellent.

We decide to skip the tour sponsored dinner at the hotel and instead found a local restaurant that allowed us to enjoy the “la dolce vita” or the good life with the locals.  As expected, wine is much cheaper here than in Canada.  In the stores, good bottles of wine can be bought for about $10.  In restaurants, house wine is about 9€ for a 0.5 litre.

The no smoking movement is not making much headway in Italy.  It is estimated the 40% of Italian adults still smoke.  Luckily the restaurants and hotel rooms don`t seem to smell too bad.

Marg has said that Venice has totally met all her expectations.  Tomorrow, we will further explore the city of Venice.