Saturday, May 2nd, 2009: Venice at night.

Bob:

That evening we set out to find some dinner and see Venice by night. We found a reasonably priced buffet across the Grand Canal about one block down from the railroad station on the main shopping street. A 5 Euro serving of lasagna was enough to keep us going for the evening, and right next door I finally found a small denim purse that exactly fit my Olympus E-Volt 510. My new purse even had a side pocket that perfectly fit the spare camera battery and two loops that were probably made to hold pens but turned out to be perfect for holding my miniature tripod. And it was on sale--score!! I was very happy because the purse was so small and light that I could now plan on carrying the SLR with me to Australia (which I did: Wanderung 20 has the pictures!). That was important because of all our digital cameras the SLR has by far the best optics and CCD sensor and really takes the best pictures.

Happy as a clam, I continued wandering down the main shopping street through intermittent rain showers until we reached the Rialto bridge. But when the sun went down, we were cold enough in our rain-soaked clothes that we hopped a vaporetto for a quick trip back to the train station. From there we hurried over to our hotel to put on some dry things before venturing out to see Venice by night.

Hopping a vaporetto back to the Rialto, we were rewarded by seeing it lit up at night, a graceful and romantic sight.

The Grand Canal was far more deserted at night than during the day. The gondolas that languidly glide along the Grand Canal during the day were all safely moored for the night. Other mooring spaces were, however, filled with the motorboats that seem to subsitute for cars in Venice, at least for the wealthier inhabitants.

Many of the palaces along the Grand Canal were also gently illuminated and looked almost eerily beautiful at night. We could see into the interiors of some of those palaces as we chugged by in our vaporetto and the furnishings, ceiling paintings, and chandeliers that we got a glimpse of were simply gorgeous.

Disembarking once again at Saint Mark's square, we enjoyed the absence of the daytime crowds and the night time vista of lights in the arches of the colonnade along the sides of the square. St. Mark's cathedral was also illuminated, of course, but it looked quite different than during the day as the lights were much dimmer than sunlight and the color balance was more of a warm, yellow hue. Very pretty.

I was also surprised at how different things looked at night. Some things, like the white colors of the colonnade's arches, kind of disappeared in the gloom of the evening. They were replaced, however, with a light at the apex of each archway that dimly outlined the parade of arches. The overall effect was that the colonnade looked similarly graceful, but much more subdued, at night. It seemed just the place for a romantic assignation, and I suspect there had been plenty of those in St. Mark's square in the old days.

In general, I had expected that things would look more subdued or muted at night, but I did not realize how other things would look much more vivid or stand out more clearly at night. The archway between St. Mark's cathedral and the Doge's palace, for instance, was gently illuminated in such a way as to stand out much better at night than during the day. That helped us focus on the intricacies of the stonework, and it looked stunningly beautiful.

Some things were not illuminated but stood out in sharp relief when I tried using my camera flash. I was very surprised how vividly the cast-iron sculptures on the gate by the bell tower stood out when I took a flash picture. During the day, those very same gates looked like just another set of cast iron gates, but using the flash at night really brought out the amazing complexity of the bas relief. I also found I could take flash pictures of the magnificent mosaics in the archways of St. Mark's cathedral. The golden ceramics reflected the light so brilliantly that the mosaics stood out more from the dark gray stone background than they did during the day. So if you go to Venice, please try to stay overnight and visit at least some of the beautiful things there at night time to get a very different view.

But by this time we were really getting tired, so we eschewed exploring many of the intriguing shops around St. Mark's Plaza in favor of clambering back aboard a vaporetto for a ride back to our hotel. We took a different route back to the train station, one that went around the island rather than following the giant backward "S" of the Grand Canal that bisects the island. Some parts of that route were pretty, but other sections such as the cruise ship terminal were plain utilitarian work areas. And so to bed.