Late in 2004 my Uncle Lynn, my father’s oldest brother, took me with him on a safari trip to five southern African nations. On our way we had a layover in London which gave us about four hours to tour the city. My uncle had been to London a number of times before, and so he was confident that we would be able to see some of what the British were known for. And in that four hour period of time we walked through Westminster Abby, were able to see the Royal Palace, 21 Downing Street, and various other fountains and lesser monuments. With an educated guide, the short trip was made full and memorable.
It was with this success in mind that I booked extended layovers in both Venice and Paris. My time in Paris seemed to be made uncomfortable by the design of some very intelligent people, and so I will not here go into the details of it. Most likely, if I had been with someone who knew the city, I would have experienced at least a marginal amount of enjoyment. If you have never known hunger, it is impossible to perceive the comfort of satiation. Venice has everything in place to give a person travelling alone the keys to that great city.
For a small fee, I purchased a ticket for the water bus from the airport to Rialto, one of Venice’s countless neighborhoods. Rialto had signs of an advanced culture from what I could only guess were ancient Roman times. In reality, Venice has only been a great city for about 1400 years, although it is named for a people group who lived therefrom as early as the 10th century B.C.
Before visiting Venice, all I knew of it was what I remembered from the third Indiana Jones film where Indiana and his quick mating German counterpart are hunted through the city’s canals and subterranean passageways by a fanatic group of Holy Grail protectors. I looked online, and the city is actually built atop 118 small islands. The roads are made of water, the conveyances float.
The buildings are mostly separated by narrow alley ways. In Rialto, which is the only area I was able to see, the buildings are typically between three and seven stories tall. If there is a full meter walk at the alley floor, the buildings at their peak are far closer together. Rough timbers and stone faced, concrete steps are everywhere. I am imagining the dissection of the city in a careful way, and all that might be known about the Mediterranean world over the centuries if we could simply catalog and study the materials used to turn spits, hooks, holms and strands into one of the most enduring treasures of humankind’s creation.
albaniacalling 