The Sinking City

Right before the 4th of July, That Guy and I headed to Venice for two nights. For me, it was a working trip but for him, it was his first trip to the city of canals. We had Tuesday evening to walk around together, grab some vino and pizza, and take in the city. We were lucky to have gorgeous weather. It was sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze that cooled things off and made it bearable to walk around.

We started off in Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Square, to see the pigeons and the church. In my opinion, it was really disgusting the way everyone was trying to get the pigeons to land on them. However, we saw a couple really cute kids who just kept running around...well, it was cute until we saw one of them try to kick a pigeon. Hm. Not a great start. St Mark's Basilica was straight ahead. Obviously named after Saint Mark, legend has it that the saint's remains are entombed inside the basilica, following several miracle rescues. Saint Mark was responsible for writing the book of Mark and his evangelist symbol was the lion - the animal "adopted" by the city of Venice. After being killed in Alexandria, his remains were smuggled nearly 800 years later to Venice by Venetian merchants who hid the remains under a layer of pork. This was done in order to prevent Alexandrian Muslims from searching the boat and finding the remains.

In the Piazza we were lucky enough to see St Mark's Clock actually change time. This clock dates from 1499 and still tells accurate time in Roman numerals (hours) and Hindu-Arabic (minutes in increments of five). The inner dials of the clocks indicate the phases of the moon and sun.


Unlike many other Italian cities, you shouldn't come to Venice with any kind of sight-seeing "to-do" list. Venice is a city best seen by wandering around. So, wander we did. Over the canals, through tunnels, and even inside abandoned buildings (oops). While the city wasn't quite flooded (that generally happens in the late fall and winter), we did catch the high tide coming through the ground at Piazza San Marco on our way back to the hotel in the evening. San Marco is the lowest point of the city. There are holes drilled through the ground in order to allow rain water to drain down and into the Grand Canal. This has the consequence of spillage during high tide. Nothing too crazy but you will catch puddles in the evening.

While I spent all day (and night) working on Wednesday, That Guy went out with a co-worker's spouse to explore the city. We caught the same market at different times, but That Guy spent a bit more time exploring the fish market and taking photos. Full of shopping locals and photo-taking tourists, the fruits and fish were all amazingly fresh and colorful. Though we had to separate for dinner, we both enjoyed the seafood at our meals. The clams in the spaghetti al vongole tasted salty and fresh. We're already looking forward to our next, non-working trip to Venezia.