Venice

To quote Simon and Garfunkel, I'm sitting in a railway station, got a ticket to my destination. But I'm not quite homeward bound yet. Instead the journey is going to Brescia. But that's for future stories. I cannot tell you about those, for they haven't happened yet. Or can I? Instead I'll be telling about Venice where I spent this last week. An interesting town. It has no cars on the islands. And yes plural, it consists of several larger islands. Which means that the primary mode of transportation is the boat. Luckily they have lots of those. Almost as much as they have tourists. 

I expected more tourists to be honest, all the stories tell about it being so busy etc, but in my experience that only holds for the couple main attractions. But in that regard it's not busier than some other touristy places I've seen such as the Acropolis in Athens or Pompeii in Napels. But here, if you walk just a little further the streets are empty, but the sights are just as beautiful. My own choices brought me to a couple of the less popular, but fascinating places nonetheless. 

I tend to dislike art. Much of it holds very little attractiin to me. Paintings and statues are some of my least favourite types of art at least. The vast majority of them doesn't move me and that's even more true for modern art. It tends to have the feeling that we live in an ugly world and the artwork should represent that by being ugly as well. Those of you who know me know that that idea does not resonate with me whatsoever. But for that reason I tend to avoid art museums, which leaves me in Venice with plenty of others options that are generally less popular. 

They have a museum for naval history. It has 5 floors. We're in Venice after all. They showcase among others things entire boats and large naval cannons. Hence the need for 5 floors I think. They do have one of the kinds of art that I like as well, large scale models of harbors, cities and ships too. I love the idea of having a maproom, I always build them in Minecraft as well. They also have a large collection of paintings made by sailors or captains who had their ship saved in a storm after seeing an appearance of one or more saints, usually Mary with babys Jesus. It's not very artistic, but certainly fascinating to see.

I also went to an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci, which was situated in one of the many churches. They showcased many models based on his drawings, ranging from basic levers to cannons and flightcraft.

And the main reason to visit Venice, the bones of Saint Nicholas. These are tucked away in a smaller church on the island of Lido, the only Venetian island that has cars. It is a meter higher than the other islands or so it seems at least. In Bari these bones take the most prominent place in the city with a huge basilica, so there's quite a difference. The church is open for visitors on Tuesday and Thursday between 3 and 5 and holds service in the weekends. Being well prepared like I am I arrived around 11 on Tuesday. Standing outside the church in the mild rain for less than a minute, two men walk up and ask I wanted to see the inside of the church. The older one pulls out a set of keys and the younger one opens the door for me and allows me in while he prepares a couple things for later. Lucky me. The church is quite beautiful and cosy, it has flowers on every altar and most definitely several dedications to Saint Nicholas. I loved it. 

And now it is on to the next town again. I remain curious.