Touchdown in Venice
We landed at Marco Polo Airport about an hour due to the earlier rain delay. I had never known that Venice was actually an island separate from the mainland. The airport is on the mainland north of Venice. From there we could have taken a bus or a boat to reach Venice. We had arranged to stay at an apartment owned by a man named Stefano who also owned a printmaking shop. One of Amy’s friends had taught a class at this shop several years before and we were able to use this connection to secure our accommodations. This worked out really well because not only was it considerably cheaper than any of the hotels we had considered, it was a spacious room and had a kitchen. The added bonus was that several printmakers were also staying at the apartment, which made for some interesting conversations around the kitchen table with a bottle of wine and bowls of tortellini soup.
Stefano had suggested that we take the boat from the airport to Venice because the boat docked very close to the apartment. This probably would have been the more scenic and exotic option but the boat trip took over an hour and we were running late. The bus took only about 35 minutes to the far end of town. We figured if we took the bus and then walked fast, we could still be able to meet Stefano at 2pm as we had planned.
One misconception I always had about Venice was that since it had canals where most cities had streets you needed a boat to go anywhere. The reality is that most people get around by walking and traveling by boat is actually rather expensive. Most of the canals are crossed by foot bridges so it’s possible to get where you need to go on foot, provided you can navigate all the twisting, turning streets, many of which are comically narrow. Many of the streets are assembled with mismatched stones and stairways so it’s not really conducive to bike riding either. The canals do however handle most of the commercial traffic. Deliveries are made by long open boats – beer and wine and other necessities – we even saw a boat with a UPS logo on the rudder. So Venice was perfect for a leisurely stroll. If you had a specific destination it was a little more arduous – a map is indispensable.  Luckily, the major destinations are often marked by yellow signs at the frequently intersecting streets. Initially, we had to meet Stefano on a bridge near the Greek Orthodox Church on the far side of San Marco Piazza – he didn’t give us a street address.
The bus dropped us off at Piazza Roma at around 1:30pm and we were supposed to be on the far side of town by 2pm. Our biggest obstacle was the Grand Canal, which is a giant backwards ‘S’ that snakes around the entire island. There are only three bridges in the city that cross this canal. Looking at the map, I surmised that the Rialto Bridge would be the quickest route. Besides that, Venice was a chaotic jumble of jagged angular streets jutting off in every direction. Happily, when we arrived at our first crossroads, there was a big yellow sign that read Rialto, San Marco and a black arrow underneath.
Another 100 steps and this street halted and followed another sign guiding us sideways through a narrow corridor. We must have made a fifty turns along the way, following the trusty yellow signs. Suddenly the ancient yellow walls opened up and the wide steps of the Rialto bridge lay before us, swamped with picture-taking tourists, souvenir peddlers and purveyors of a variety of snacks. Down below was the Grand Canal and a steady stream of boat traffic – vaporettos – which are long passenger boats that function as the city buses, cargo-laden commercial boats, smaller water-taxis that look like converted speedboats, and those pricey gondolas (starting at 80 Euros = over $100!).
The bridge itself is mobbed with tourists and people selling things to tourists. It’s divided into three lanes – two outside lanes for canal gawkers and a wide center lane for shoppers. The bridge is divided by two rows of stalls selling everything from pricey gold and silver, crystal and fine china down to cheap souvenir key chains and bottle openers. Just getting from one side of the bridge in a hurry can be a complicated affair.
Once we were on the other side, the maze of narrow maze of streets continued. Now our destination was San Marco Piazza. Our serpentine adventure continued for close to ten minutes until the walls opened up into an immense open piazza. It was quite a sight but the postcard photos would have to wait – we had an appointment with our landlord and we were already ten minutes late. We crossed the square quickly and crossed several more small bridges to get to the bridge nearest the Greek Orthodox where we were supposed to meet Stefano. Once we got to a bridge next to the church we wondered if this was the only bridge adjacent to the church. Even if we were on the right bridge, we had no idea what Stefano looked like and he had no idea what we looked like. It occurred to me that this meeting might never take place. On the bright side, there was any multitude of worse places to be totally lost – it was comforting to surrounded by roving bands of foreign tourists who looked equally bewildered. We had a phone number for Stefano but our American cell phones were useless in Europe – one of us would have to wait on the bridge while the other tried to discover a payphone. Did payphones in Venice take coins or did we need to buy a phone card? All we had were large bills and it didn’t help that we both running on very little sleep.  Luckily, Stefano stepped up and introduced himself before our neuroses escalated into full-scale panic.

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