Venice

Venice was one of the cities that I've always wanted to see.  My family grew up around a lake in Arkansas where, many years ago, a man named Harvey Coin tried to create a city with water roads and boat transportation.  He created streams, brought in gondolas, and built a hotel for tourists to have a Venice-like experience. It never caught on and by the time I came around, the lake covered all the evidence of this "crazy" endeavor except for the skeleton of a hotel that we could see from our lakeside window.  But it was intriguing to me that something like this was in existence.

Venice itself is a wonder to behold.  You go to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  You go Florence to see the Duomo.  But the entire city of Venice is what you go to see.  The sheer audacity of building a city on the water to escape the barbarian invasion is inspiring.  The idea of using water for transportation instead of roads is novel.  Venice draws people because of its uniqueness.

There are a few sites you want to see while in Venice: St. Mark's Square holds a beautiful palace and tower, the Rialto Bridge is a centerpiece of the city, there are a few islands, like Murano, where glass making is the thing.  But

mainly you want to just go down the Grand Canal and see the buildings, people, and sights.  Its the city itself that holds intrigue.

Venice, at one time, was one of the richest cities in the world, and cruising down the canal you can see how these magnificent houses were designed to impress.  Boats fill the canal, as well as yachts (we saw the Victoria's Secret chief's yacht while we were there) and people hurry on and off of boats to go to shopping points across the city.

While it is intriguing and beautiful, in ways it is also disintegrating around you.  (Not to philosophize, but this is analogous to life in many ways!) You are aware of what salt water does to things.  The city is sort of coming apart at the seams because of its watery foundation.  Nevertheless, it is so interesting to see how life functions here.  Everything has to be brought in by boat and then hand-carted to its location.  To get things off the island, like trash, is a major undertaking.  When people die, they have to be shipped to another island to be buried.  Seems like it wouldn't be worth all of the trouble.

Nevertheless, Venice was one of our family's favorite places, just because the food is good, the city is small and manageable, and there are so many unusual things to see.  It seemed like people go to Venice to celebrate.  After dark, the streets are filled with people who are enjoying themselves.  I guess they feel safer when there are no cars around to cause harm.  While we didn't party like that, it feels like a fun place to be.

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I think its just interesting to watch the city work.  This systems of boats and canals makes the city negotiable.  You have to plan your route by finding the right bridge.  With the right map and a little common sense, it was easy to figure out within a matter of hours.  We loved going to the little bread shops, the small trattorias, and gelaterias to take advantage of the local cuisine.  We found homemade pastas that were tremendous.  They had to be eaten quickly or they would turn into a ball of dough!

We felt we were obligated to take a gondola ride while we were here.  They typically go through back
alleys and smoother waters than the main canal.  Our ride took us past the home of Marco Polo, under the Rialto Bridge, and back out onto the Grand Canal.  Our boat driver had been poling these boats for 34 years and could make the boat go with surprisingly little effort.  This is the kind of thing that, because of the cost, we would probably never do, but the grant has provided the resources to do things that we would not ordinarily do.

I can see why Harvey Coin  tried to recreate this world in Monte Ne, Arkansas.  There is a beauty about Venice despite

the corrosion of the buildings there.  It has a certain charm about it. You can tell that Venetians are proud of their city and their way of life.  There is an old-world feel about it that seems untainted by modernity.