Venice - Our Landlady

Today, we are on a train from Venice to Milan. Early this morning we were packing up when our Landlady called around to say goodbye. We had already learned some of her history... she was born in the house in which we stayed... she was a cooking teacher... who knew all the good restaurants in Venice... and took 30 minutes to map them all onto our map... she teaches music... she has heart problems and has been told to slow her activity rate. We had met her husband, daughter, and brother-in-law... she was generous in sharing her personal details. We liked her a lot.

Today, she had promised to show us the renovation she was undertaking to the second floor of the building. We had spare time and Joye is interested in building renovations... so we were happy to accept her invitation. We had little understanding of the dimensions of the building. At street level, a bank branch operates... some 20 metres of frontage. The stairwell had us intrigued... wide marble steps... not in keeping with the modest apartments we had seen on the third floor. Anna (our Landlady) opened the second floor door to reveal a building site. It took us a few moments to see the large size of the site because it seemed out of proportion with the size of the other floors. The first thing to catch the eye was the floor... the same tile work we had seen on the floor of the Dorge Palace... Anna pointed to the ceiling... where there was faint markings of frescos. She said that her family did not know of the frescoes until workmen were doing preparatory work for the current renovations... she was born under the ceiling... her mother had been born under the ceiling... and no one knew. They paid the cost of a restorer to painstakingly chip away the ceiling plaster to reveal the original work. It cost her a fortune! She doesn't know the early history of the house... after the renovation is complete, she will hirer a researcher to document its history. Like all restorations, each new step revealed more unexpected problems. Work has stopped because water started leaking in from a party wall. The feature room (with the frescoe) was 100 square metres. an enormous size for Venice.

For our room, we had paid a daily tarrif a little over $100... an amount that had the Chancellor of the Trip Exchequer redoing her spreadsheets... but we were pleased that our payments were funding in part a restoration effort that holds out such promise.

VENICE Venice venice

Many of you have already visited Venice and formed your own opinion regarding its merits as a tourist destination. I suspect that some of you will agree with my assessment... Venice offers the best and the most mundane of experiences for us tourists.

Let's start with the negatives. Some 50,000 people tour Venice each day... add another 270,000 for the locals and spread the total over only 400 square kilometres... you are sure to bump into a couple of people in a day's wanderings. If you don't like crowds, Venice will be something of a challenge. My guess is that Venice can boast at least 1,500 shops that are prepared to serve you up a cup of coffee... 500 shops that can fit you out with a nice handbag... and that is not counting the illegal traders who vanish into thin air each time a policeman walks his beat... 250 shops that can dress you in a Venician mask... ready for the big night out. There are 12 major tourist sites... the 'must' sees. Now you put the dynamics of these circumstances together. Each tourist to Venice joins a perpetual queue down the narrow alleys... up and over the arched bridges... going from one site to the next. The speed of the queue is determined by the slowest walker... there is no use rushing... I have tried that tactic a number of times... the geriatrics win in the end. So you amuse yourself by looking in the shop windows... at the coffee shops and the handbags. The merchants exploit your lack of options. You may not need a handbag... but after a couple of hours without mental stimulation... your brain starts to believe it really does need another handbag. Now for the conspiracy... all the merchants conspire by displaying outrageous prices... coffee at $8.50 for what I assess to be 1/3rd of a cup... handbags at thousands of dollars. Repetition makes your brain accept the outrageous as the normal. Suddenly you see a price that is at the lower end of the outrageous spectrum... what a bargain... you ponder how much money you have saved by not paying the high end of the outrageous spectrum... you fall into the tourists trap.

When planning your trip to Venice factor in the fact that half of your time on the island will be spent playing mind-games with the merchants... and also factor in the fact that you are going to lose .

Enough of being a kill-joy. Venice also offers the best. This morning we toured the Dorge Palace... the centre of power when the Venician empire ruled Europe. Like other ancient empires, Venicians were not shy of pulling in the profits... however, the Venicians shared the spoils amongst so few citizens. Evidence of such wealth can be seen in the number of ancient churches decorated with statues and mosaics where cost was not an issue. The Dorge Palace is the pinnacle of such opulence. Like most ancient buildings, fires and other calamities have caused parts of it to be renovated continuously over the ages. But Venice was wealthy for so long, that each renovation resulted in a more lavish palace. As it exists today, the private living quarters of the Dorge family were not the most impressive rooms of the palace... it was the rooms used for government... the general assembly... the council of 100 (numbers varied over the years)... and the room for the council of ten... where the real power was exercised. In their day, these were the largest rooms in the world... 50 meters of span without supporting columns. Engineering aside, the decoration of all rooms is superb... the best artists of the day concentrated on Venice and experimented and competed with each other to make Venician art much more advanced than any other nation.

Venice has the Dorge Palace... but many would argue it is not the jewel in the crown. St. Mark's Cathedral started as the private church of the Dorge... but grew to be so dominant in Italy that it claimed leadership over the church of Rome (a claim that was not recognised).

In conclusion, of course you must have Venice on your international travel itinerary... but be prepared to invest some of your time coping with the thousands of other tourists with the same itinerary.

Venice - the Survivor

At the time of Jesus, Venice was just getting going... people had started to settle the marshy... swampy... ground to avoid the harassment of the Franks and Huns (and other German tribes). Pretty well, right from the start, Venicians have been winners. Over the years, they have changed their tactics and found the competitive advantage that would bring them wealth.

Being an island state, surrounded by states with many more people, Venicians could not afford the luxury of fighting amongst themselves... they constructed a form of government that spread power amongst a large number of wealthy island families... with enough executive power to cope with crises that arose from time to time. Venician government was not as democratic as the Roman Republic model... but it lasted much longer... and it was more democratic than Rome's Monarchy model. Throughout their history, Venicians have kept out of trouble... avoided invasions... compromised with the strongest nations... just kept being good at politics.

After the Roman empire split into east and west.. Venicians threw their sea faring skills behind the Byzantine empire and virtually became its naval force. The Byzantine rulers were occupied with religion and keeping the early Ottoman armies in check... they didn't seem to mind the Venetians building a very wealthy shipping network. In fact, Venice established valuable trade links with the Turks while serving the Byzantine empire. Venice built its infrastructure during this period... without pillaging enormous wealth. Eventually, Byzantine and Ottoman empires fought themselves to a standstill... leaving a power vacuum that the Venicians were only too happy to fill.

Venice decided it would have its own empire! All throughout the Adriatic, Venicians sailed into each port and said, "Look here chaps... we realise you are tired of all this fighting between Byzantine and Ottomans... we want to build you a fort. Now, it's going to cost... Forts don't come cheap. You let us be the rulers and we'll look after you. Promise! OK?" They didn't face too much resistance. The empire they built lasted for over 600 years in many places.

The first fortune for the Venicians came from exercising power. They perfected the art of war conducted with boats propelled by teams of rowers. This proved profitable until those dastardly Portuguese invented ships that could tack into the wind. This allowed war ships propelled by sail to be much more manoeuvrable... and much bigger than boats propelled by rowers. The Venicians had to find a new gig.

Venicians changed tactics and figured out how to generate wealth from trading. China and India offered goods new to the markets of Europe... and Venice held a strategic spot on the trade routes between east and west. It fortified the Red Sea region and built closer relationships with the Islam world. Venicians supplied the transport and controlled strategic waters. Europe was crazy about silk and porcelain... couldn't get enough of them. Venicians accumulated another fortune... this time built on trade.

The bad news was that the Portuguese once more upset the apple cart... they rounded Cape Horn and established an alternative sea route to India and China. The trading advantages of the Venicians were again disappearing. They needed to find another competitive advantage.

It took Venice to figure out its next move. The strategy finally to emerge was to generate their new fortune based on charm. When the English made moves to establish the Grand Tour, Venice made sure it was the highlight! They had the illegitimate children (all of them) of the Dogue learn to play musical instruments. They had registration systems for ladies of the night to ensure the client received what was agreed. They opened up their wonderful churches to visitors... and filled them with marvelous works of art. The "Charm Offensive" has worked well for the next 150 years. It remains working to this very day.

The time may be fast approaching when Venicians will need another change of course. There are too many tourists. It is hard work charming the tourist of today. We see the Venicians showing signs of exasperation. The peak tourist areas of Venice have been sold to foreign interests (primarily Chinese). The true Venicians now live on the mainland... or on the peripheral areas of the island. Soon, the island will be run and owned by foreigners. Will they be able to maintain the supply of charm?

Interesting place!

Only 6 Days To Go

Do you know any old gentlemen who made themselves look foolish by becoming infatuated with a girl young enough to be their daughter? I don't... but I'm told they exist. I'm talking of behaviours where the gentleman starts to take extra care with his grooming... starts doing a bit more exercise in the hope of trimming his body into shape... starts buying hair product so he can comb his remaining hair over bald spots... all his conversations curve around to end up talking about the attractiveness of the girl in question... he keeps watching other girls so that he can compare their features with the object of his infatuation.

I have to confess that my behaviour is showing some of those characteristics... where the object of infatuation is NOT a girl... but a new car. The car I just can't get out of my head is no other than the Peugeot 208. Just writing the name gives me cold shivers down my spine. Every car we pass on the street gives an involuntary response of turning to discover its make and model... behaviour that has caused me to be bump into oncoming pedestrians. I see a white Peugeot 208 and fantasise what a red one would look like. I know a man of my years should not be thinking these thoughts. A man of my years should be drawing up spreadsheets comparing the lifetime cost of a Volvo versus a Toyota... not imagining the quietness of the Peugeot ride... the economy of engine turning off when the car comes to a stop... or the smooth handling on rough mountain roads. This car is too young for me... I feel foolish getting so excited at its imminent purchase.

The purchase arrangement is one where the French government waives sales tax on purchases made to foreign tourists. The car-maker (in my case, Peugeot) offers to repurchase the vehicle at a guaranteed price at the end of an agreed period. For the tourist, he/she gets a new car on terms that are competitive with normal car rental arrangements. Friends have recommended this arrangement, so it is a tried formula... and only 6 days to go... I wonder what GPS system is installed... I wonder if fuel economy is better than 5 ltrs/1,000 klms... I wonder if it has electric handbrakes... I wonder, how I wonder...

We are now in Venice... still trying to figure out what the place has to offer. We'll take a guided tour tomorrow morning to locate the points of interest... then spend the next couple of days examining them in detail.