Stepping through the looking glass of Venice
We reached Venice by train, and once you stepped out through those double glass doors it was like entering a whole new world. The streets are paved with water, the buses and taxis’ have no wheels, except the one used for steering.
Our hotel is a charming little place down an alleyway, and you could miss the turn if you aren’t looking closely for it, is located in between two bars full of ice cream, drinks and sweating tourists sitting down at little metallic tables with red and blue table clothes. It feels like summer here, it feels worse than Charlotte with this humidity, I can feel my clothes sticking to my skin with every movement, but you quickly forget about that when you look out around you–everywhere you turn you see something magical.
Stands and stores are full of colorful masks adorned with feathers and hats, lipstick and painted eyes, music notes, long noses and wrinkled facial features. A mask made for almost every personality.
Venice is also known for its glass. The windows gleam with the mesmerizing colors of all sorts of blues, greens and fiery reds and oranges. Little animals, fish and even a few cherries fill a bowl of bubbly blue. Necklaces, watches, earrings, and even chandeliers made of full bunches of grapes to hold the light bulbs- it’s amazing to see what glass can be transformed into.
Since there are no cars or motorcycles allowed in Venice, the vaporetto, or water bus, is one of the best and easiest ways to get around. It goes all up and down the Grand Canal where you can see the old houses that used to be occupied by the rich and ‘very rich’, which are now being turned into hotels for the still ‘very rich’. Even in these places, it is not what you would expect, for the second floor is actually their first floor, and the first floor is flooded with water, so it could be called the basement.
The water buses fit neatly under bridges, one of the most famous of them is the Rialto Bridge; it is much like the Ponte Vecchio in that it has shops along all the sides, expensive as well, but it has arches and curves upward instead of being parallel to the water.
If you think Venice during the day is a breath taking sight, you must see it at night, when all the lights are turned on and even the water seems to be alive with activity. You can sit and enjoy dinner by the water, watching the Gondolas and water buses go by, and just relax as the sounds of the lapping of the water lulls you into a state of mind that only in Venice you could reach.
Venice truly is like a wonderland, a whole experience you just have to come and see for yourself. I may tell you all these things in detail, but until you actually experience it yourself you can never truly get the full extent of its splendor and the hold it will have on you once you arrive to the city of adventure and mystery.
