Venice - the most serene republic

Venice

Venetia – the most Serene Republic

Everyone has heard of Venice. The city with streets of water, where cars are boats, and at high tides even the side walks require gum boots. A city of history, trade, the crusades and ancient trade routes; also of renaissance artists, composers and architecture, where scientists could be free of the harsh censure of the medieval church.

Venice is my pick for the trip - one of my favourite cities, a place that I want to experience with the kids and my husband.

There is something so different in

Venice from any other place in

the world, that you leave at

once all accustomed habits and

everyday sights to enter an

enchanted garden.

Mary Shelley

And that is where we are today. Getting ready to enter the enchanted garden, the unreal beauty of time out of place. But first we much pack our bags a day early so that we can escape the ship. Even though we are meant to stay one more night on the MSC Musica and end up back in Bari, we just cannot stay - the service is too poor, the ship unclean and just not comfortable to be on... So off we will get and having booked a hotel using my iphone the night before, (oh how different travel has become these days!), we can look forward to not just a day in this marvellous city, but a night and next day as well.

our guide showing the kids a map of venice

The skies are looking an ominous grey and the forecast is for rain. Luckily the charm of the city is not in its blue skies and perfect beaches, but the history and the accessibility of its art and architecture.

We are scheduled to meet our guide Erika at 11 am at the church of San Zaccaria, right in the heart of Venice. This is another of the tours that we have booked through Context Travel (like the one in the Vatican city), which is tailored for families with young children to bring the city alive. I may know about the history of Venice, but I am not familiar enough with the city itself to teach the kids without loosing their interest. I’m pretty sure that if we go to a museum at this point in our trip the kids faces would glaze over so bad they’d turn into museum statuary. So instead Erika is going to be taking us on a “Lion Hunt” in Venice, something that has supremely caught the kids minds and imaginations for weeks. And of course during our travels through the Mediterranean and up the Adriatic we’ve been constantly reminded of the Venetians and their part in the history of the region.  We’ve spotted many a lion proclaiming who controlled the region along the way….

After a long winding walk through Venice we meet up with Erika, ready to start our hunt, but before we are allowed to learn about the Venetian Lions she sits the kids down on an old well outside the church, pulls out a huge map of Venice and it’s surrounding territory and launches in to the history of early Venice to help the kids understand this extremely unique city.

The Doge's Palace

When Rome was falling and the barbarians were ransacking what is now Italy, the people who lived in the north got tired of being brutalised. So they took to the marshy islands at the top of the Adriatic and started building a community that wouldn’t be plundered. At first they built on the furthest island out, the Lido. But when the times changed and the so-called barbarians got ships they found out that this strategy wasn’t the best. They retreated to the islands that are today known as Venice, nestled in between the outer islands of the Lido and the inner islands that act as a buffer to the mainland. Venice is unique in cities as it has never had a defensive wall. It doesn’t need one. It has the sea and the ever-changing course of the sand islands that are created by the tides of the area. And so a seafaring nation of traders ruled the waves for a thousand years. A proud culture that was the height of western civilisation of its day, and as it’s symbol it adopted the winged lion…

The Lion, as the symbol of Venice, is simply everywhere here in the city. It is usually depicted with wings and it’s paw upon a book, either open or closed, depending on whether Venice was at peace or at war when the statue was carved. Generally in Venice itself the Lions have an open book with the Latin inscription:

“Pax Tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus”

Which means to those of us who doesn’t speak Latin:

“Peace be upon you, O Mark, my Evangelist”.

It is said that the Lion is a metaphorical representation of Mark the Evangelist who is the patron saint of Venice; at least he has been since the 800’s ad when some enterprising Venetian merchants stole his body from Alexandria. He was brought back to Venice to give the city religious prestige to go along with its up and coming business reputation. Not a bad ploy, and even today St. Mark’s body is entombed in St Mark’s basilica, in St Mark’s square – the heart of Venice. And we think marketing is a modern invention. Bwahaha.

Liam learns about roman numerals

All background history lessons checked off the to do list and the kids are armed with a page of photos each. There are lion’s to be found! And we are off. Through the crazy crowds we maze through the winding back streets until we pop out onto waterfront, past the Doge’s palace, the eerie bridge of sighs and ease our way into St Mark’s square. We stop over and over to see if the Lion’s they find are the one’s on their treasure map. And along the way Randall and I are able to pepper the guide with a few of the grown up questions as well.

One thing we didn’t figure into our tour was that not only was it Sunday in Venice, and the Feast of the Ascension but it was also the final day of the America’s Cup so the city was completely filled to the brim with tourists from all over. Wow. As we headed in to St Mark’s square just before noon the crush of bodies was at its height! I think I now know the real reason Venice is “sinking”!

Parade of the Ascension in St Mark's Square

But along with the crowds we also lucked into a rare event. The ancient clock tower in St Mark’s Square had a special show that only happens on the feast of the Ascension. When it strikes noon there is a parade of the three wise men following the angel do a slow walk across the ancient face of the tower. Statues that date back nearly a thousand years - and they get to come out and show off to the world just once a year. The kids were not that impressed, they were more excited by the Lions and the sheer scale and intricacies of the buildings around us, not to mention the novelty of the streets made from water. But for me it was a unique handshake with the past. There go the statues that were carved so long ago, who would have been state of the art technology way back then. And they are carrying containers of Frankincense, just like the ones that we so recently saw in Oman. History seems so far away, but really it’s right here with us, you just have to have eyes that are not dead to the past or the present.

In this crowd there is no time to argue about sandwich choices!

Moving on through the square – oh so slowly through the crowds – we finally convince the kids there is more of Venice to see than just St Marks Square. We pop into a little sandwich shop and pick up some sandwiches to eat along the way. It’s a crush, but with a little food we are all happy again. Lolling on a huge Lion statue we polish off the last of the food and are off again.

We stop to admire a plaque high up on a wall that shows an old lady holding a cooking pot. This, Erika tells us, is to commemorate a rebellion that almost happened. It seems the nobles of a particular family thought that they could be running the government more efficiently than that of the current Doge, so they decided to stage a rebellion and take over the government.

As you do.

So, as they rode down the street, early in the morning, to take over the government and gain control. As they rode past, an old lady looked out the window, figured out what they were doing, and, liking the government that was already in power threw her stone cooking pot out the window and hit the leading horseman on the head. He fell off his horse causing such a commotion that the troops in back, thinking that they had been discovered before they could gain the element of surprise, turned tail and fled. Thus ending any coup that was intended to happen. The old lady was thanked by the government, (the one that stayed in power) by guaranteeing that her rent would not be raised for the rest of her life, and that of her descendants. And they continued to live with the low rent for over two hundred years. Sweet!

That’s one of the things I love about Venice. It may have been ruled by a certain number of patrician families, but the common people certainly were an ever-present force that shaped what those families did with their power.

The servant's entrance of an old Venetian palace

Most of the tourist shops along the way sell carnival masks and they enrapture Liana. The history behind the “doctor’s” masks is so intriguing to me. Everyone has seen the mask with the hideous long nose, something like a huge hooked beak of a bird. The doctors would wear these masks when going into houses of plague patients. Back then they thought the plague came from noxious gasses in the air so they wore these huge beaked masks and filled the nose with herbs and spices to ward off the disease. (Let’s hope it warded off the fleas that actually carried the disease.) The masks they sell these days come in many shapes and sizes (including the doctor mask) and just about every colour. Some are truly artistic creations, with feathers and paint and blown glass.

in front of the Rialto Bridge

By the time we reach the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge it is time to say goodbye to our lovely guide. But before she goes she offers to help us find our hotel, given how maze-like Venice can be, we gratefully accept her offer. Once we know where we are going it seems so simple, but I’m sure if we had been trying to find it on our own it would have taken quite some time! After walking down a very narrow (think one and a half people wide) alleyway we pop out onto a very deserted canal and square. We knock on the door of the building that faces the canal and presto, here is our hotel. It was once a nunnery back in the 12^th century and has mainly been a private residence all these years. Now our hosts have restored a few of the rooms and are renting them out. We have two bedrooms with a kitchen and dining room – all with windows and a small balcony that overhang the canal! And original period paintings painted into the plasterwork. What luck, we couldn’t have found a better place for our family if I’d spent a year researching it!

We spend the better part of the afternoon getting our bags from the ship (a drama in itself!) leaving them at the Venice train station and making our way back into the town by water taxi.

Liam's night before his birthday dinner

Today is Liam’s 10^th New Zealand birthday – meaning that if he was in New Zealand at the moment it would be his birthday – so in true only son spoiled fashion we decide to take him out for a “night before his birthday” dinner celebration and eat at an old restaurant that has been around since the 1400’s. The kids have the pizza (imagine that!) and I have the traditional squid and polenta cooked in squid ink. The kids are revolted, but all have to try a bite at the same time. We then comb the streets looking for the perfect gelateria to end the evening, and end up buying some masks as well. The girls pay out some of their own money to buy Liam a statue of a Venetian Lion for his birthday present tomorrow.

Even though it is after nine o’clock it is still quite light, but we herd the kids back through the narrow alley to our hideaway apartment. They are mostly used to sleeping in one room now, but there is always the restless giggling and/or arguing that accompanies the settling down process. But soon all is quiet and Randall and I can enjoy the sounds of the canal outside our window and the occasional gondola passing by.

What a beautiful city. It is certainly beyond expectation to be here with the family. Accessible history, art, architecture, food and an inclusive ambiance, it’s easy to see why Venice is, and has been, such a draw to people from far and wide.

Croatia and the medieval city state of Ragusa...

Dubrovnik, Croatia

A Medieval city, Sea Food galore and the unfortunate incident of the speedo that blocked my view…

Croatia - our eighth country so far on this trip! Hard to believe we’ve been travelling for so long, but overall it seems like a blink of the proverbial eye. We have all found our travel rhythm and I can’t say any of us are travel weary yet. Not a single utterance of the dreaded phrase “can we go home now” has occurred… In fact we are all thirsty for more sights, history and gastronomy! The kids are living up to our family motto of the travelling family.

 

Today we are visiting the town that Lord Byron proclaimed as the “pearl of the Adriatic” - Dubrovnik, the nearly intact medieval town that crowns the southern Croatian coastline. It’s just a little taste of the Balkan states for us as we only have a morning stop before heading up the coast to Venice, but you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque place.

And one filled with it’s own unique history. It’s said that a town was founded here in the 6^th or 7^th century AD, but more than likely there was an earlier Greek settlement. The town of Dubrovnik has been a UNESCO world heritage sight since the 1970’s and is probably one of the top ten well-preserved medieval cities that you can still visit today.

Originally the Republic of Ragusa, the city of Dubrovnik (called Ragusa until 1918), reached its heyday in the 15^th and 16^th century AD when it’s maritime powers rivalled that of Venice herself. Ruled with the principles of town planning left by the Romans it was a wealthy and flourishing republic with almshouses, hospitals, plentiful public works and a society that valued the freedom of its citizens. In fact it abolished the slave trade in 1418 – how many hundreds of years before England and America?! It sounds like it was quite the enlightened place of medieval Europe. Unfortunately I don’t know that much about this old country, when someone says Dubrovnik to me I immediately think of the Balkan wars of the 1990’s.  

 

I was here as a very little girl with my parents, but the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s and the ensuing war kept all tourism at bay for quite a long time. Sadly the Yugoslav army needlessly bombed Dubrovnik for over seven months catching the outrage of the international community. I remember my mother crying when she read about it in the newspaper. There was no military reason for the Yugoslavs to do so, as it was of no military use, simply an old medieval town. Over 50% of the old town had been bombed with considerable loss of life, but the residents restored their beloved city (with substantial foreign aide) and followed the UNESCO guidelines for restoring their city to it’s former charm. Once the dust had settled in the war, the general in charge of the Yugoslav army was tried by the international Criminal Tribunal and sentenced for his destruction of Dubrovnik. Such needless waste.

So the city we walk through today is half rebuilt from when I was there as a child. There is simmering anger from the people of the town that such an outrage could be perpetrated on the city. There are many signs and posters documenting the bombing, and even a walking tour dedicated to seeing exactly where the bombs fell. It is still so fresh in all the citizen’s minds; they probably can hear the bombs falling in their sleep.

Entering through the main city gate

Inside the "aquarium"

looking across the town

It’s another perfectly beautiful day when Randall, Liam and I catch a taxi from the dock into the town. The skies are so blue and the walls of the town are a sandy colour with a distinct colour of red roof, it make you want to just stop and stare. 

Once we are close to the old town the taxi lets us off, as there are no cars in the old town. Pedestrian only. We get the full medieval effect by walking in on foot, through the huge main gates and down the Placa, or main street. Liam was suitably impressed by the thickness of the walls and the remains of many a cannon. We do a good several hours of walking around the town, drinking in the ambiance, and trying to capture the feel of the medieval world. The old church and the saints that are built into the outside of the sea walls all are now familiar to us from our travels, but are different enough to appreciate the difference of this once enlightened city state.

The sea walls of the old town

some of the amazing red coral jewelry

We take a quick tour through the town’s aquarium, which is a bit of a disappointment on the piscine side, but is a remarkable tour through the insides of the outer town wall.

We also go into a coral shop (initially because it is called Clara’s Stones) and get a first hand demonstration on how the coral is carved. There are so many stores in this part of the world that sells this uniquely coloured coral. It come from the Mediterranean and legend has it that when Perseus cut off Medusa’s head the blood the came from her neck dripped into the deep of the sea and the red sea corals are all that is left. Oh yes, how I love Greek legends. It’s spectacular jewelry, but a bit our of our price range, so we end up finishing our day with a taste of the local seafood, the most gigantic platter of fish, squid and mussels I’ve ever seen. The fresh flavor and the relaxing atmosphere ended our stay in the ancient town of Ragusa, but it was just perfect.

the heart of the old city

A seafood feast!

I was the very last passenger back on the ship before it hauled up the gangplanks, departing for Venice. The ship, not a highlight of our trip to be honest, due to the poor management, poor food and general lack of hygiene was at least very tall and offered the most amazing views of our trip out of Dubrovnik. Its mid day so I head up to the very top of the deck to avoid the herds of over tanned Italian sun worshippers that are literally fighting over deck chairs. Something about the greasy bodies is cloying to me. I get myself a chair on deck 16 and relax enjoying the view, and relishing the alone time. I am the only person on this side of the deck as there is a stiff wind up here that the sunbathers weren’t appreciating.

Unluckily for me, just as I had the camera raised to my eye, poised to take a stunning picture of the Franjo Tudman Bridge, the most foul and heinous crime was perpetrated upon me. A gigantic hairy (sweaty) man wearing what can only be said to be severely undersized speedo decided to stop directly in front of me and lean on the rail. (Remember I was alone on the big old deck, so he could have chosen anywhere.) It was a scaring event, one that I may never, ever get over. But at least for you my friends I was so utterly dumbstruck that I was unable to grace this blog with a photo.

just after the speedo incident, I was too traumatized to get a proper photo of the bridge. LOL

And so I end today’s blog about our experience in this medieval Croatian town and it is time to steam our way up the Adriatic… getting ever closer to the most serene republic of Venice….

If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik.

George Bernard Shaw

 

The many faces of Juliet!

Corfu

Pictures do not do justice!

Coming into Corfu must be one of the most brilliantly beautiful sights to see from a boat.

The "new" Venetian fortress

Smooth blue ocean with the island of Corfu on the left side and the mainland of Greece and Albania on the right side. Green forests and sturdy looking Venetian citadels. A cheerful looking town perched between two massive forts with brightly coloured houses spilling bougainvillea and geraniums down their sides. Sheltered bays on one side of the island and pristine beaches on the other. Could you ask for anything more in a holiday destination?
And sailboats a plenty sail these waters with merry makers from all nationality types. Just as ships and sailors have been travelling through here since the dawn of human history.

I've never been here, and it's been thirty years since Randy was here, so this is new territory for the family. We are only stopping for a few hours, but it's the perfect place to have an afternoon stroll, eat some food and say goodbye to classical Greece and prepare for medieval history. Although it seems like we did that yesterday when we left Athens as Corfu is distinctly Venetian!

walking through the old streets

The Venetians ruled the Adriatic for hundreds of years and Corfu was one of their beautiful cities that sprang up along the coastline. The fortresses are Venetian, as is the layout of the town, but Corfu does have a history that spills back to ancient times. This was the island that Poseidon brought his new bride, Kerkyra, the daughter of a river god, and as a wedding present named the island after her. The beautiful nymph Kerkyra (which became Corfu over the millennium) left her name as Poseidon's gift of immortality to their love.

Checking out some of the old Venetian canons

And now it's our turn for a taste of Nymphs, Venetian forts and gyros if I'm lucky.

Inside the walls of the old fort

Midway through the day we disembark in the main town of Corfu, also named Corfu. It's a good thirty minute walk from where we are docked up into the UNESCO heritage old town. It's not hard to navigate through the old streets, just follow the simple rule of keeping the top of the (new) Venetian fortress in line of sight. Then once you pass the "new fortress" (started in the late 1500's) you wind your way through the streets toward the "old fortress"(built after the town was destroyed in the late 6th century AD).... Both are imposing structures and the town grew up between the two, safe from pirate attack and worse. The streets are winding and somewhat torturous, especially for pushing a stroller in, the first and last time I would use it on the trip! Poor Juliet, she was humiliated that I pushed her around all day in it. But now I know that my baby is no longer a baby and can hike with the best of us, it's time to leave it behind. Gee, where does the time go?

yum, yum, Gyros!

After suitable meandering through the town we end up at the old fortress and cross over onto the little island that it sits on. The kids are all on lookout for Venetian Lions, something that we have prepped them for. The Lion was the symbol of Venice and depending on what the circumstances were when the Lion was erected the meaning would be different. But, more to come on that subject when we reach Venice itself. Needless to say we identified quite a few, statues and plaques on the walls to identify the Venetian buildings.

The fortress hosts a number of ancient cannons and Liam would probably still be there today inspecting the mechanisms that made them work if the girls hadn't unanimously bullied him out of the fort and into the main town for lunch.

It's our last chance for Gyros! So of course we stop for the most extravagant helpings of gyros (and coffee for me) before walking back to the ship, or should I say waddling after all that food?

We leave Corfu after such a short amount of time, but as Randall and I stand on deck watching us depart the Ionian waters, we make a promise to return, when we have the time to do justice to this destination, and get to know it a bit better.

As the sun starts to sink we watch the shoreline of the mainland go by. Somewhere along the shore is the border between Greece and Albania. What a difficult time this shoreline has had in the past hundred years. What would it have been like for the Albanians living in abject poverty to watch the sun set behind Corfu with its abundance of Western holiday makers? Or was it really as simple as they hopped on a boat and got work as cabana boys without need of a Greek passport. I am ignorant of the ways of the Eastern block in this region and its hard to know the truth of those times with all the cold war propaganda from both sides. But when you are in this area and you see how close it all it, you would be blind not to sit back and wonder just a little bit what makes people so closely related geographically have such different fates.

And speaking of fates, Croatia is next, another brief stopover, but a taste of this world none the less....

One last Greek sunset

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

G.K.Chesterson

Santorini and Mykonos - Gems of the Greek Islands

Santorini and Mykonos

hiking up the donkey road in Santorini

Ahhh, beautiful Greece. There is a special color for the water in Greece. Azure doesn’t cut it. Turquoise, cobalt, sapphire, cerulean…. No, the best I can say is it is Greek water.

We are anchored in Santorini and getting ready to take a small boat ashore to this old volcanic island. Clara joins us today but Juliet begged us to stay onboard, so we are a family of five at the moment.

Santorini, the southernmost gem of the Cyclades island chain, awash in the Aegean Sea. Once a thriving Bronze Age port, a vital part of the Minoan civilization, the island literally blew apart in a cataclysmic volcanic eruption 3600 hundred years ago and is now merely a shell of an island with a huge sea caldera, big enough for our gigantic ship (and many others) to all anchor in. The eruption, one of the largest in earth’s history, ended not only the civilization on the island but also the entire Minoan civilization - gave rise to the legend of Atlantis.

Looking down from the top of Santorini into the Sea filled Caldera

Pretty exciting stuff, especially for this traveling family.

Again, as we don’t have much time we won’t be able to see the ruins of the town that survived or explore for the underwater ruins that are out there somewhere. (Atlantis, I’ve found it!) But we will climb to the top of the cliffs, see the main town, soak in a little island life and look down into the caldera proper.

gyros heaven

As the tourists line up for the funicular (like a quick cable car) and the rest queue to buy a donkey ride we decide to hoof it up the steep slope ourselves. We hike the mount all the time at home so no sweat, well, some sweat, we can make it. And so we hike up the something like 500+ steps  to the top of the caldera rim.
We are constantly being passed by donkeys, carrying scared looking tourists, clutching their Dior bags and point-and-shoot cameras. Apart from dodging the Donkey dung it felt good to get physical, especially for me after the few weeks of sickness I’ve had. And with every bend in the road the scene gets more and more magnificent.

The view from the top must be one of the best in the world. Fira town perches precariously to the top of the volcanic rim. It has been photographed something like a billion times, and everyone has seen the quintessential white houses looking down onto the blue water. But you know what? It deserves to be photographed like mad and celebrated. It’s a truly amazingly beautiful place!

A fishy pedicure!

So we take our photographs and spend time pointing out the caldera to the kids - how we are standing on the rim of the volcano that exploded so many years ago, and how there is a new island rising in the middle of the water, someday to blow up again – but hopefully not for another 10,000 years or so!

Who needs laughter yoga?

Not far into the town we ran across a foot spa store that is entirely unique to us. I must try this out! There are rows of plush seats with water tanks to put your feet in. The water tanks look like aquariums, because, well, they are aquariums. Each foot bath has a hundred little cleaner fish and when you stick your feet inside they come and eagerly start nibbling at your toes, eating away any dead skin and fungus. It is supposed to be relaxing, but being ticklish, I nearly made myself sick laughing then entire 20 minutes. Each time I would subdue the giggles another little wiggly body would push between my toes and start munching away, and I would break out into another fit of laughter. Who needs laughter yoga when you can laugh silly and get the dead skin taken off your feet?

finally on a donkey

The kids thought I was mad, but all had a go at getting their feet cleaned as well. What a fun experience, and my feet really were smoother when I was done!

The best part was listening to our budding entrepreneurs deciding on their business plan of importing the fish to Mount Maunganui and setting up their own fish foot cleaning business. Liana deemed Clara suitable for charming the customers in, while Liam was relegated to cleaning the fish tanks. Who knows, they may make their fortunes in the fish pedicure market someday!

Fearless daddy leads the way

Fira, is a small town and soon we had exhausted the stores. So we settled for a gyros (just as drippy, slurpy, greasy and yummy as yesterday) and a bottle of water before heading to find some last views. Our limited time only allowed me to have a quick espresso before navigating our way to the top of the trailhead that leads down to the marina 500 meters below.

The kids, who had wanted so badly to ride a donkey on the way up, got their wish on the way down. After some serious haggling the Greek man saddled up two donkeys, hoisted the kids up, handed the reigns over to Randall and walked away. We were on our own, so how to make a tired donkey move? It was a bumpy laughter filled ride down, but we made it just in time for the last tender back to the ship before it steamed off to the second island for the day. Ah, what an experience.

MYKONOS

Arriving in Mykonos just after seven there was never any doubt in our minds that the kids were going to be left on the ship in the kids club while mummy and daddy went out on the town.

Oh to be so free. Just the two of us on a quaint, if tourist ridden, Greek island. The only hands we held were each other’s. The town is made for casual strolling in and the sights are laid back and low key. Mykonos doesn’t have any significant historical sights (at least not that we could see in the few hours that we were docked here) so we had full permission to relax and just be the silly tourists that we sometimes make fun of.

Working up our appetites with a stroll to some of the traditional Grecian windmills we had severe decision trauma choosing a restaurant, but when a table presented itself right on the water the decision became very easy. The view was stunning, the food amazing. The wine went down effortlessly and the company was perfect. Who knew it was so easy to hold a conversation when you are not constantly peppered with questions from the small inquisitive people that follow up everywhere?

walking through the streets of mykonos

A perfect evening to recharge our energies before the excitement and history of our next stop – Athens!!!