Italy #8: Pisa e Venezia

Our trip to Pisa was to see the Leaning Tower. It took almost 200 years to build due to various wars (contrast that with the Colosseum which got built in a decade). At 55+ meters tall, and with 251 steps, it started to tilt during its construction itself. By the 1990’s, the tilt was almost 10 degrees. Subsequent restoration work has reduced the tilt a bit. When we climbed the tower, we could see several bells on it – hence its other, less famous name as the bell tower.


Right next to the tower is a cathedral with a massive dome, named the Duomo di Pisa. We couldn’t go into that, but the cathedral next to it (see pic above) was open. Impressive artwork inside cathedrals was almost expected by now in Italy, and this one didn’t disappoint.

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And then it was a quick train tide back to Florence, pick up the bags and onto Venice. My wife had seen a lot of another water-y city, Amsterdam, so she wasn’t sure how different Venice would be. Until she saw it – very different.

 

Venice, we learnt, is a drowning city, both literally (rising sea level) and figuratively (the city only exists because of tourism. A population of 50,000 caters to 20 million annual tourists).

 

The famous San Marco Basilica is, our guide told us, is one of the greatest exhibits of Byzantine architecture. Unsurprisingly, one of the major tourist attractions of the city. 


 

Inside, it has intricate mosaics that blow you away. Venice, remember, was very powerful and very rich, and the basilica reflects that wealth. The domes, the vaults and the upper walls are literally coated with gold (see my earlier blog on how Venice became a superpower and all the loot from Constantinopole).


 

The basilica is attached to the Doge’s Palace. Like Rome and Florence, Venice too was a republic, with the Doge being the elected boss (not from the general public, but from amongst the nobility). The Doge would want to glorify himself, but the balancing force against that were the other nobles who didn’t want the city to feel they owed their power and greatness to any one man. Thus, the Doge could sanction great art and praises to his greatness, but he could not put those symbols in public places. The Doge’s Palace became the place to house those works of art instead, which is today a museum. A lot of the artwork was good, though I don’t think any of it is world famous.

 

After that, we went on the famous Rialto bridge (pic below, top) which has a lot of shops on it. We walked over the Bridge of Sighs (pic below, middle) as part of our tour of the Doge’s Palace (it is so named since it was the path for prisoners being taken to the dungeons). And we took the customary gondola ride – being on one really brings out how many canals the city has (if you keep walking, it is easy to miss the water all around you). 


Since we were in Venice, we took a boat trip to a couple of tourist’y islands near Venice, Murano and Burano. Burano is famous for its lace dresses and very colorful (pastel colored) buildings (pic below, top). And Murano? It is famous for glass work, very colorful, very artistic (pic below, bottom).


 

And with that, our Italian holiday had come to an end. Ciao, Italia!

 

Footnote: The trip back home was from the Venice airport ended up involving every-form-of transportation: (1) A taxi-boat ride to Venice airport, (2) flights to first Dubai and then Bangalore, (3) bus ride in Dubai from the flight to the terminal, (4) then a subway (train) ride across terminals at Dubai, and (5) finally a car (taxi) ride from Bangalore airport to home.

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