Waking up at 5.55 in the morning with a cold, combined with a lack of sleep, really isn’t the best of ideas, although I suppose in this case it could be allowed. I managed to drag myself (almost literally) to the shower in order to be woken up and even after I nearly fell asleep on my bed again. After a quick breakfast I managed to get my stuff together and walk towards piazza. Somehow the time had gone, it was already 6.40, 5 minutes before leaving time, and literally they don’t wait for anyone, for example about three or four people didn’t turn up, so secondi got to go instead. We were prevented from sleeping for a while by Henry, the voice in the speakers, who was informing us that we need to get our money (as the school gives you €5 a meal at mensa when you are on a trip, so we got €10, and overall made €5, as we had to pay €5 separately, rather than just be given €5 in total, for administrative reasons. It’s complicated) and sign for it, as well as receive our itineraries. After that I slept for the whole journey, waking ten minutes before the end when my Raza informed me that I had had my photo of a sleeping me taken. Apparently it’s a college tradition. After that (and I know that Raza had been giving this serious thought for several days beforehand) he then told me how his day was going to go. For today was the day of Manchester United vs Everton, and, sensing an opportunity to watch it on a pre-UWC visit to the area on a trip with his parents (much like I did, actually, staying in Trieste and then spending a day in Venice), he had already found a bar in which he could watch the game. Oh yeah, did I mention, he’s obsessed with Man U and football in general. Anyway, Raza worked out that he could leave us during the free time, locate the bar, and then meet us at around 4 at i frari (I’ll tell you about it in a bit), where Henry would be doing one of his talks. I refused to pretend to be Raza and say his name if called on a register (in reality, this never happened, they only counted, and badly at that – it was a secondo, not a teacher – as they twice thought we were everyone even though I knew of at least three missing people. Maybe they knew too, or that’s what they’d tell me know if I were to ask them…) but I said I wouldn’t give any information unprompted to a teacher. Emphasis on ‘to a teacher’. If you’re going to go to one of the world’s most beautiful cities, one which may even have disappeared by the end of our lifetimes, and combine that with going with one of the most knowledgeable people about Venice, then don’t expect to get away it. I don’t expect he’ll be able to forget it anytime soon.
So we got off the coach and arrived into a car park as actually (and I had only found this out at 6.50 this morning) we were indeed going to get the boat into Venice. I had previously thought we were going to drive and park in one of the multi-storey car parks that sit outside Venice, so it was pleasant surprise.
The weather outside was brilliant sunshine and clear blue sky so I decided to leave my hoodie on the bus, something which I would come to regret, as you will find out. We walked to the ferry station at Punta Sabbioni and then had the 15-minute boat ride which really was beautiful, even if I didn’t know where half the places we were passing were. I suppose it adds to the mystery. Oh yeah also, the whole coach journey (or what little of it I was awake) and the boat ride, we were accompanied by literally stunning mountains on the northern horizon. I presume these were some sort of Alps, although I’m not sure, all I know is it was amazing. Anyway, we arrived literally right in the ‘heart’ (although when I say heart, maybe the place where all the tourists are must surely cease to be the heart? As there is not much soul left? Hmm…). We got off at San Zaccaria di Pieta, a relatively new boat station, which was right outside a famous church, La Pieta, which was crumbling rather. We then went and stood outside the Chiese [Church] San Zaccaria where Henry gave us a talk on the Bellini Alterpiece. Firstly, I realised that I was really cold, even though in reality it was about 25-30 degrees. Which was when I started missing my hoodie. So then I had to bask in the sun (when most of the group were sitting in the shade) like a sick lizard. In fact I spent much of Venice just simply wanting to be at home (as in Newcastle). As I said yesterday being ill is when you miss home most. Secondly, and this was properly unfortunate, I really just wasn’t able to properly enjoy listening to Henry. Whilst it was interesting, I just couldn’t properly focus (because of feeling ill), which was a great shame. However, I listened the best I could. He explained how the painting was geometrically perfect to fit in with the dimensions of our eyes and the wall, so it looks like it’s an extension of the room (or rather, huge hall). It shows the Virgin Mary in the middle with the baby Jesus on her lap (although not quite, as he is standing on one leg to show that he is both a human and part of god). Surrounding here are various Saints and when you have someone to put it (as in art) into context for you it can make things a lot more interesting. This website gives a bit of info in case you are interested http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/annienc/2009/10/the_bellini_altarpiece_in_san.html Then we then went and had a look at it inside and it was on display with such an incredible range of different paintings it was almost hard to concentrate on it. It’s hard to describe how grand and huge the inside of the church is.
After this we walked to Piazza San Marco, probably one of the most famous tourist locations in the world, where Henry showed us the only surviving mosaic on the outside of the Palazzo Ducale, and told us the story of various stolen statues from the Byzantines and the famous horses from the hippodrome of Constantinople. It was really interesting learning how much the ancient Venetians were plunderers.
We then had free time for a good two hours, so a few of us wandered in the direction of the Rialto (there are signs everywhere, half of them I’m sure aren’t real, and I’m also really suspicious of asking people for directions, as I’m sure it must be a local joke to misdirect tourists. I know I would). Eventually, me, Josh and Raza split off as Josh wanted to get lost and simply wander around (I didn’t mind what we did, as it was Josh’s first time in Venice, being from South Africa). Then at about 12.15 Raza left, giving him 1 and three quarter hours before the football, so he could be sure not to miss it. So Josh and I just wandered, got a gelato, and eventually came up to the Rialto, where we saw the true ‘sinking’ Venice, where the water was lapping over the edge (by the time we passed about 4 hours later it had already risen a good few centimetres). Just after the rialto we bought strawberry juice from a stall that I went to just a few weeks ago (Mum, dad and Jake, you’ll remember it) but unfortunately I wasn’t able to taste it because of my cold. We then went for what we thought was going to be a relatively nice lunch, as I wasn’t expecting much for Venice, due to the fact that they can pretty much sell whatever they want and still turn over a profit. However it still managed to disappoint, with the water we were offered as we sat down actually costing us €4, the coperta €2.50 each and the service charge 12%. And the pizza was terrible. It basically cost me £10 for a worse than tescos’ average pizza and half a 75cl bottle of mineral water. We got done, well and proper. You learn from your mistakes, as they say. And Peter and Joe, I didn’t realise how much free time we were going to have (as I only got the itinerary on the day) and I thought the day was going to be a lot more guided, so sorry but I didn’t bring the details of the café you talked about otherwise I would have gone there! At least we managed to get lost.
Lost in fact to the point where we almost didn’t meet up in time at one of the grand canal’s only three bridges, Ponte d’Accademia, where Henry was going to lead us on to the next part of our trip. Henry took us through a beautiful part of Venice (well most parts are, as long as you can get over the fact that most things could certainly do with refurbishment) to the church Santa Maria della Salute, literally, Saint Mary (as in the virgin Mary) of Health, which was a church built by the Venetians to thank God for not killing some of their population in one of the two worst waves of plague that hit Venice. Interestingly enough, Venice had and interesting form of government, in the form of a Doge, who was elected and then had no choice whether to rule or not, and his family could not take any form of employment, so that none of them could be bribed. Probably the best sort of leader is one who doesn’t want to be one. Although actually the Doge was generally elected from a select list of the elite, the golden book (a real thing), which was closed after too many families joined, so for a long time the elite was limited. These people held most of the power. Anyway, they decided to build this church, and they commissioned it to be large, look nice, and look nice, financially. This church is part of Slav culture, as there is a famous poem about it, as the flats of Istria were deforested (something like three million oak trees cut down) and then hammered into the marsh base to create the island that the church stands on. Because of the salt water and some reaction with the oak, the tree-trunks are effectively frozen, so pretty solid, but even so they had to build the church dome out of wood.
We then walked in the loose direction of the famous arsenale, where Venice’s ships were built, and there is still a naval base today. Henry showed us the second major canal in Venice, the canal Judeccha, named after the Jewish people who used to be there. Venice, as it was a major trading place, allowed most countries to have an outpost and as long as they stayed where they were put and put there own church where directed it was normally fine. Also interesting is that the word ‘ghetto’ is a Venetian word. It derives from when the Jewish people were moved to a different part of the city. We passed an area that Henry told us was, just a few years ago, unavailable to go to as it had sunk too much, but they had managed to raise it again. He thinks that Venice could be saved as sea levels are now, but because of global warming, it will disappear, probably in our lifetimes. We then met a woman who used to be the British ambassador for Rome in the 1950s (or her husband was, or both) and she is the founder of the Venice in Peril campaign (pizza express regulars should know this from that pizza where they donate money to it) and she has also been heavily involved in UWCAd. She went round each of us introducing ourselves almost like to the queen (or how I imagine the queen would). Funnily enough she’d just been in Newcastle the day before, as she’d been there for two days (I’m not quite sure what for, but she did lots of official stuff, like meeting the council, having a reception for her with the Lord Mayor at the civic centre, went to Cragside, learnt about Armstrong and his bridges, and also that he has a pump that was used in Venice in the arsenale (although obviously later on, though), so I imagine she must be fairly important. I cant remember her name… We then went to one of the only three remaining gondola yards in Venice (a world heritage site), which was remarkable to imagine that this would have been doing the same thing a thousand years ago. In fact it’s incredible to think that the whole city is pretty much as it is if not a thousand years ago then 500-600. I think that’s possibly why it’s so beautiful.
Before we met the woman I had been talking to Sandy, Henry’s wife, who used to be deputy head at the college, but has been retired for quite a while now. I told her about being not well and then I remembered (after she said ‘don’t you have any paracetemol?’) that I had two paracetemol pills left from what my roomo Raza gave me the other day, so I took them, and almost immediately began feeling better. I also said how I didn’t feel like I was properly able to contribute in lessons because of not feeling well and she said that maybe I should email Lydia and ask her to tell my teachers that that isn’t how I normally am (in the end I didn’t bother, I figured that although first impressions are important, they’re not everything).
We then went to the Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, which was one of six scuole grande, which were sort of like members-only charitable organisations for the newly emerging wealthy middle class. This one focussed on helping the sick and providing company, and whilst there was some loose attraction to the religious aspect, it seemed that most of their work was just helping the poor and the needy. The members also looked after each other and their families when the men died. Basically, the ground floor was the simple one, even though there were splendid paintings on display. What was amazing is that everything is still as it was six hundred years ago, which is incredible, and also as Henry said, it’s only a recent concept that things have been created for art to simply be looked at. When you look at many of the old pictures in a gallery you have no idea of their true meaning as they have removed from their context. Most art was created for a purpose: in Venice’s case, to display power and to show religious imagery, to things that went hand in hand. Tintoretto was the painter of much of the paintings, and upstairs was really where it was amazing. The downstairs was public, for religious ceremonies, whereas upstairs was for members only. The whole walls and the whole ceiling are covered in enormous, gloriously painted scenes from the bible. And then is Tintoretto’s masterpiece, in the leader’s chamber, Christ on the cross. It’s the second time I’ve been to Scuola san Rocco, and especially this time I found it a really nice place to simply sit and relax, in the pleasant shade and coolness, looking at such amazing pieces of history.The old woman who had joined us also happened to be a conteressa of the society, as she has been so important to Venice.
We then had an extra half an hour or so of free time as the church next door, Chiesa di San Rocco, although I did see it last time when we came on the pre visit as a family, but this time we couldn’t as their was a wedding. After we were supposed to go to i frari to see the famous titian masterpiece, but this didn’t seem to materialise. So we did as you do when with two Italians, a Mauritian and a Hungarian. You find a kebab shop… (Although I actually got some rather good pizza from one of the many good shops that are everywhere) And then we got another ice cream…this time I was beaten.
After the boat ride back I was talking to Mike, who is the director of studies (so in charge of timetables) as well as my biology teacher, and he’d brought his whole family to Venice as he’s just come from the UWC in Singapore. I explained how on Friday he’d sent everyone in our English class an email about splitting English A1 standard and English A1 higher level, which I was fine about, but then he moved the standard class, the one I would be in, to the same block as biology... which really didn’t make sense to me. So I spoke to him and he hadn’t realised that I was meant to be doing standard so at the moment it looks like I’ll still just be doing standard level English with the higher class.
On the bus I remembered to get my hoodie, rethreaded the toggle pull in the hood and then went to sleep with it pulled as tightly as possible, due to the extreme cold. Raza was the opposite, finding the journey far too hot. I think it’s because we’re both ill. We got back into Duino at about 9.50, where I promptly woke up, walked past the café/bar, mickey’s, where people sometimes go for dancing on Saturdays, and went to bed. Actually, before sleeping I wrote reminders so I could write this blog, then went to sleep.
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