Italy Part 1: Milan, Venice, Bologna

Heather and I just got back from a 3-week trip to Italy! We spent both Christmas and New Year's there, and joined up with Heather's family for about 2 of those weeks. I'm going to blog about the whole trip, but there's so much to share that I'll have to do installments.

Here's the first 5-6 days, when Heather and I traveled on our own to Milan, Venice, and Bologna.


Before leaving home, there were a few items of business. First, we had to harvest the rest of our remaining tomatoes, which were mostly unripe (ripe = yellow) but would still ripen up for the lucky friend to whom we gave this bounty.

The last tomato harvest

The most important task was relocating Duna to another friend's home where she would stay for the three weeks. As you can tell from the picture, she was quite nervous about all the change but tried her best to pretend she was comfortable.

Duna's vacation home

Then, it was off to Charlotte airport, and after a layover in JFK, we were on an overnight flight to Milan.

Sunrise over Italy

Hilltop towns from the plane

We stumbled off the plane after a couple hours of poor sleep and took a bus into central Milan. An nap attempt at our hotel wasn't too successful and we decided to head out to enjoy our one day in this big, tourism-light city.

Milan's main attractions cluster around its impressive gothic cathedral (Duomo). We listened to a few (free) podcasts that gave us a quick historic overview of the Duomo and the surrounding buildings.

Podcasting outside Milan's Duomo

Next to the Duomo is the giant open arcade known as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, considered one of earliest "shopping malls" in the world.

Christmas season at the Galleria in Milan

We were able to climb up to the Duomo's terrace, though the highest terrace was closed because of the cold weather.

The Duomo's gothic glory

Sentinal statues in the sky

Heather on the Duomo terrace

We got extremely cold (it was about 20 degrees F), especially up on the windy terrace, and decided a hot chocolate from a local trendy bar was in order. Good move, as it proved to be our best hot chocolate in Italy: thick as pudding, piping hot, and oh so delicious!

Cioccolado calde

We then took to Milan's busy streets and caught a tram to the otherwise unremarkable church that is home of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Last Supper. The fresco is painted directly on the wall of a small room connected to the church where the church elders would each their meals. The painting has suffered much degradation over the years, was recently restored, and visitors must go through a number of "air lock" rooms before and after in order to maintain appropriate humidity and temperature conditions in the room.

We really enjoyed seeing the Last Supper—though it is a bit deteriorated, it is in situ (in the location where it was painted; fresco painting requires painting directly on wet plaster before it dries, hence "fresco" = fresh) and it's stunning to see the huge painting in person, in precisely the spot where the master painted it.

Shopping street in Milan

That evening we had tickets for La Scala, probably the most famous opera house in the world! December is the start of La Scala's season, and amazingly, for the two dress rehearsals of the two opening productions of the season, they sell very cheap tickets exclusively to people under 30 years of age. (They're both in December, but this is the only time all year that this happens.) One of these nights happened to coincide with our one night in Milan! I had somehow found out about this a couple months ago, and though tickets sold out within minutes of them going on sale, I had managed to snag a couple. So we were going to see a ballet (Swan Lake) in La Scala!

Teatro alla Scala

We arrived early, so to stay warm we took a short jaunt down the well-lit Galleria.

Inside the Galleria

Styling

Then it was time for the ballet!

La Scala

The performance was amazing—with spectacular costumes and choreography, on top of well-played music. Images that stick out include seeing maybe around 80-100 identically tutu-clad dancers frolicking onto stage in a line, performing the same dazzling, athletic moves in perfect synchronization.

Unfortunately, as the show started, the jet lag finally caught up to us in a big way and hit hard. We struggled so much staying awake in the first half that (without discussion) we left at intermission, and missed the second half. But it was really cool!

The next morning, we hopped on a train to Venice.

Headed to Venice

Did I mention that it was cold? All the area we traveled through was covered in ice.

Icy landscape

After a few hours, we found ourselves crossing the causeway over the lagoon into Venice. Stepping out of the train station, we were greeted by the Grand Canal.

Arrival in Venice

Venice proper is a pedestrian-only city (besides the corner of town where the causeway deposits trains, buses, and cars into stations/parking lots), so it was a convoluted walk with our rolling bags over bridges and beside canals to our B&B.

Above the Grand Canal

Ambulance

Typical Venice "street"

Lunch place

As you can see, all business and service vehicles in Venice are boats!

Goods delivery

Our B&B room had a view out the windows to a canal and bridge below.

Our B&B room with a view

First order of business: some running-tourism! We first ran from our B&B in San Polo district to the main tourist hub, San Marco square. There we admired the amazing structures of San Marco basilica and the Doge's Palace, historical home of Venice's duke or doge.

The Doge's Palace

San Marco square

We continued our run along the lagoon and ended up in a quiet, shady, residential corner of Venice. This is interesting, because many people consider Venice's tourist center a "dying city"—few locals actually live there because it's so inconvenient (to carry everything by foot/boat) and expensive (makes more sense to sell/rent to tourists or wealthy part-time residents). Thus, doomsayers think that Venice will end up as a kind of Disneyland filled with tourists and not much else (which is not necessarily a bad thing, as it'll still be an enthralling city)—but certainly this pocket of Venice is nowhere close to that stage.

Near Sant'Elena

We even found a "leaning tower" in Venice—seems that Pisa isn't the only place with marshy land and impatiently-built foundations! (Also see Bologna: later in this post)

Leaning tower in Venice

Venice's lagoon is covered by many islands besides those one which the main city resides, including this close-by island with a picturesque church.

San Giorgio Maggiore

View down the Grand Canal from Accademia bridge

We ate that night at a cozy neighborhood restaurant down a quiet street.

Al Profeta restaurant

After dinner, we braved the cold for a bit longer, taking a walk to the famous Rialto bridge.

On Rialto bridge

Palazzos on the Grand Canal near Rialto bridge

Passageway

And of course, the cold necessitated some more hot chocolate!

Cioccolada calde in Venice

The next morning, we took our landlady's advice on some photo opportunities before heading out.

View from bridge down "our" canal (can you see Heather?)

View our our room's window to the bridge

Public fountain on a cold morning

Morning in Venice

It's very easy—and fun—to get lost in Venice. Head down a random street and you'll likely find yourself at a dead-end into a canal (or several canals!)

Dead end

All canal crossings involve stepping over an arched bridge—high enough that boats can pass underneath. This is not a handicapped-friendly city!

Some passageways are quite narrow, which we always enjoy.

Our walk took us to the train station, where got some train tickets for later in the trip, and purchased some 36-hour passes for Venice's public transportation. We would use these to ride Venice's vaporetti or water-buses.

A strong recommendation: if you travel to Italy, download Rick Steves' free podcast audioguides! As our first experience with these fine products, we plugged into our iPods and listened to Rick while riding a vaporetto down the S-shaped Grand Canal through the heart of Venice, a ~40-minute jaunt. The podcast directed us to start and stop as we reached various vaporetto stops, and provided a real-time commentary on buildings that we passed. Quite fascinating and fun.

The differently-colored striped poles were like coats-of-arms for the wealthy families that once lived in these palazzos

All buildings seem to have water-landings as their "front doors"

Present-day casino, once the residence of Richard Wagner and also where the composer died

The Ca' d'Oro (House of Gold), one of the prettiest palazzos on the canal

A traghetto (cheap pedestrian ferry—there are only 4 bridges across the Grand Canal) in front of a produce/fish market

In the middle of the journey, we passed under the iconic Rialto bridge, whose prettiness suffers from closed shops and graffiti.

Rialto bridge

Central stretch of the canal, from under the Rialto bridge

Riding with Rick Steves

Of course, we didn't even think about taking a gondola ride in Venice—they typically cost around $100 for a 45-minute ride. In fact, it was so cold that the only people giving business to the gondoliers seemed to be Asian tourists. I have to admire their tourism tenacity!

Here's a typical water bus stop. An enclosed platform that the boat sidles up to for 30 seconds as people get on and off.

San Toma' vaporetto stop

Cruising the canal with Rick

Here's an anomaly—the only traffic light in Venice. It's here because the fire station (of course, the fire "trucks" are actually boats) is just behind.

Fire station

We rode past the Peggy Guggenheim modern art museum, which we would later visit.

Peggy Guggenheim museum

Grand Canal opulence

Eventually, we spilled out of the Grand Canal and docked at San Marco square.

Approaching San Marco square

Saint Mark (the evangelist) is the patron saint of Venice, as his remains (stolen from Alexandria in the 11th century?) purportedly reside in the basilica. Mark's symbol is the lion, so you see lions all around the city.

St Mark's lion

The Basilica San Marco is a stunning building, certainly unique among Italian cathedrals for its onion-dome Byzantine style, use of elaborate multi-colored marble, and gold touches.

Part of Basilica San Marco facade—note the cool colored pillars

The basilica, interestingly, features numerous artworks depicting events at the basilica, and thus self-referencing.

Basilica mosaic depicting an event at the basilica itself

We found some quick sandwiches for lunch at an eclectic little bar.

Lunchtime—time to get warm

After starting the afternoon touring the Doge's Palace, we walked outside to see snow falling!

Snowfall in the Doge's Palace

Yes, it was cold, but it was also really fun to be part of a light, beautiful snowfall in Venice.

Why do I feel like I'm in St Petersburg?

San Marco snow frolic

Snowy gondolas

Riding the vaporetto back home

Dusk - Grand Canal

Dinner: gnoccheti with prawns, spaghetti with squid (inky!)

After dark, at least in winter, Venice can feel pretty empty!

Walking in Dorsoduro district

The next day dawned bright and sunny. We wanted to take a long run, which is tough to do in central Venice thanks to twisting walkways and many pedestrians, so we hopped a vaporetto over to another island, the Lido.

Vaporetto to Lido

Lido is Italian for beach, and this long, thin island is naturally home to Venice's beach community, quite dead on a snowy day in winter.

Empty beach cabanas (?) on Lido

Running on the beach

Shells

We ended up on a nice bike path that headed straight down the beach.

Lido bike path

Lido is open to regular vehicular traffic (bikes, cars, buses), which was somewhat strange to see after two days in pedestrian-and-boat-only Venice.

Bicycles on Lido

Back on the main islands

Running the lagoon-side promenade

Snowy boat

It was nice to see people enjoying the sunny day after the snow—we saw kayakers…

Kayakers

…and a snowball fight!

Snowball fight

Next up: the Peggy Guggenheim collection, a modern art museum located in the wealthy heiress and arts patron's palazzo on the Grand Canal.

Peggy Guggenheim museum garden

Peggy Guggenheim was not only a fervent patron of modern art, her social circle was made up of artists and her life was essentially devoted to her friends' careers. Well, and also I think she really loved her dogs, considering they are all buried right next to her in the museum's garden:

Peggy Guggenheim resting place

After the museum, which held countless fascinating artworks by very famous 20th century painters and sculptors, we headed back to San Marco square. There, we headed up the tall Campanile (bell tower) to admire a bird's-eye view of Venice.

View from the Campanile out to the lagoon

View north

View southwest

View east—with the moon

Sunset

As the sun set, we got back on a vaporetto to briefly visit the island of Murano, famously home to many glassmakers.

Buildings on Murano

It was after dark, and most demonstrations were closed for the day, so we just walked around a bit and enjoyed looking at glass products through shop windows.

Glass sculpture on Murano

Back on the main island, we walked through the old Jewish Ghetto of Venice. This is in fact the first ghetto in the world, and the namesake of the word. In 1516, the doge of Venice decided to allow Jews (up until that point, restricted from living in Venice) to live in this certain, less-desirable area of town. The area was near the old foundry (geto in Italian), hence the term. The Jewish population did pretty well for itself in the city (as you can gather from Merchant of Venice) and since the area was somewhat small, they built many residences upwards and thus some of the tallest buildings in Venice are in the Jewish quarter.

Jews were finally allowed to live elsewhere in the 18th century, but the area is still home to a small Jewish population and you can definitely see lingering signs of Jewish identity.

Menorah in Jewish Quarter

That evening, our last in Venice, we dined on delicious Italian pizza and a truly indulgent dessert.

Something torturous

In the morning, we headed to the train station, with a short detour to the top of the car park (where I'd read you could get a nice, free view of the city) to watch a bit of sunrise.

Sunrise from the car parking structure

Venice's newest bridge over the Grand Canal is modern and controversial—actually, mostly disliked by locals. It was built a few years ago but already has structural problems (see construction underneath).

Modern bridge

Then we were off—to Bologna!

Cool hill seen from the train

We arrived in Bologna with little information about the city—it was the one destination not covered by my Rick Steves book—so we followed our noses at first.

Map of Bologna

Bologna is not on the main tourist road through Italy, but it certainly offers a lot to the visitor. We soon realized, and later confirmed, that Bologna has a remarkable number of colonnades, apparently once built over sidewalks to pack more residential space into the crowded city.

Colonnaded street

We soon ran into a huge market filled with criminally-lowly-priced clothing.

Market

Colonnades

Bologna is home to the oldest existing university in Europe, founded in 1088. In the present day, the University of Bologna defines the city, with 100,000 students (1/5 of the city's population), explaining why this is considered the capital of political liberalism in Italy.

We had a stroke of luck, stumbling across the University's excellent (and free) museum, which houses countless relics from the university's centuries of scientific study. Fascinating for scientifically-minded people such as ourselves, it was one of the best museum stops of our trip. (They even allowed photography, to boot!)

The first room is filled with animal specimens, along with thousands of wood carvings (depicting plants, animals, etc) that were used to print books about nature or biology. Makes me feel fortunate to live in the age of photography…and now Wikipedia.

A narwhal tusk—once thought to be a unicorn's horn!

Wood carvings

Not only were the rooms filled with fascinating scientific objects, they were also beautifully painted with colorful frescos on every ceiling.

A room containing geometrical figures and patterns

Chemistry before the age of the periodic table

Calendar device showing Sun/Earth/Moon phases

Some of the later rooms housed an eclectic variety of objects, such as old maps,

Old map!

wood carvings (again, to print in books) displaying fortification designs,

Fort designs

a very strange space-age-furnished series of deserted rooms complete with vintage G3 iMacs,

Welcome to the space age…of 2001.

and a room full of large models of warships.

Galley

Also, not pictured (thankfully): a room full of at least a hundred wooden baby-in-womb models, showing various birth positions (many leading to injury or death of baby/mother) that were used to teach midwives and doctors.

Back outside, we followed colonnades towards the center of town…

…when lo, what should appear but, not one, but two leaning towers!

Yes, Bologna has two leaning towers, and they are a symbol of the city. In fact, Bologna used to be filled with towers constructed privately by families (each vying to have the tallest tower.) Both of these towers were constructed in the 12th century, and they are mentioned by Dante in The Divine Comedy. More on them later.

Bologna is also the gastronomic capital of Italy. It is the largest city in the region of Emiglia-Romagna, which is home to Parma ham (Parma), Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parma, Reggio), balsamic vinegar (Modena), and of course ragu/bolognese sauce (Bologna) and mortadella sausage (Bologna), among several typical pastas and other famous foods.

Gourmet food products of Emiglia-Romagna

We soon found ourselves in the main square of the city.

Piazza Maggiore

Looking back towards the Twin Towers

Fountain of Neptune by the artist Giambologna

Holiday street decorations

OK, now back to the towers. As you can see, the smaller tower is almost as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and actually leans more. However, it's less famous because, frankly, it's not at all pretty (and the LToP is gorgeous… see a later post.) The smaller tower is 158 ft high and leans 9 ft. The larger tower is 322 ft high and leans 7 ft, in the opposite direction.

Famous Italian tower comparison

The smaller tower is off-limits to visitors, but one can climb the taller, which we did! It was quite a climb, up wooden staircases that got further and further apart as we climbed, since the walls are 12 ft thick at the bottom and 3 ft thick at the top.

Climbing the Torre degli Asinelli

Looking out the window to the precariously leaning Torre Garisenda

Once again, we were rewarded with gorgeous views from on high.

Looking down at the other tower

Headed down

Still near the top—note the wider open space (thinner walls)

Of course, we had to get the classic posing shots.

We rounded out the day in Bologna with a stroll through shopping areas with enticing goodies, and a delicious (and relatively cheap) multi-course fixed meal at a hopping restaurant.

Parmigiano-Reggiano

That's it for the first segment of our trip. Tune in soon for the next chapter!