Friday 19 October 2018

Live is Life

Na naaaa na na na. This song had been weirdly following me all day yesterday! Rich said he'd also heard it on the bus to Syracuse as a ringtone of someone's phone.

Went for a lovely run in the morning. Left the apartment 7am running along the canal towards Rialto at first but then turning North towards the sea front. 
I was maybe half an hour too late for the best light and also had to navigate around all the groups of kids going to school. Other than that I really enjoyed it! Got a bit lost in the many turns and narrow alleys near the Arsenale, but thanks to Google Maps I quickly found the right route to get me out of the maze.
Ran along the Southern sea front on a very broad pavement towards St. Mark's Square, then past the Rialto Bridge and back home. Nearly 4 miles on total. Was good to be running again. The first exercise in nearly two weeks!

Having played Assassin's Creed excessively in the past I could certainly see the appeal of running, speed climbing up walls, jumping from roof top to roof top.
Ran past one of the guys collecting the rubbish bags and he was happily whistling "Live is Life". Didn't make much of it at that point.



Breakfast back home then out around 11am via the route I had run earlier. Rich agreed that it was nice to see something other than narrow alleys for once. 

Spotted a church whilst walking along the waterfront front and decided to have a peek inside. What a find!
Chiesa dei Gesuiti was absolutely spectacular inside. Where to look first? There was not a single plain wall anywhere. Everything was decorated in white marble inlaid with a pattern of green marble. Paintings, twisted columns, golden decorations, what a feast for the eyes!




Walked those narrow lanes again shortly after towards the Arsenale hunting for coffee. We finally found a small cafe that only charged 2.20 for a take away. Anything under 3.00 was cheap. Whilst waiting the telly on the wall played "Live is Life" showing the lyrics so you could sing along. One young lady actually did just that.

Sipping our hot brew we sat on the steps of the bridge next to the Arsenale entrance which is closed to the public but an impressive sight nevertheless. It was the largest industrial complex in Europe before the industrial revolution and the heart of Venice's naval power from as early as 1100 on and is still used by the Navy.



We walked on along the Southern waterfront now to St. Mark's Square which was busy but not as much as we had feared. Again we wondered what it must be like in high season.


Did some window shopping to kill the remaining half an hour before we walked over to the Basilica entrance for pre-booked tickets. You can find yourself waiting as long as 45 minutes in the normal queue, we waited 5 and only because there was a large group just going in in front of us.
This time it really was no photos and inside there were quite a few guards to enforce this.

The Basilica is very impressive from the outside and doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the Venetian architecture. It has a very obvious Byzantine or Persian touch and looks half mosque half church.
Inside you're almost ushered around the cordoned walkway counter clockwise. It's golden mosaics everywhere and quite dark. Impressive, yes, but we found the outside more interesting and the Jesuit church earlier was more stunning.
It feels a bit like a rip off, paying around 15 quid to get a 10min walk around inside and if you want to see the altar up close or the treasury or the little museum you pay extra. The Jesuit church had been 1 quid. Still we thought St. Mark's was worth seeing. Just don't expect it to be the absolute best and mind-blowing church in Venice.




We had an hour or so left before we were scheduled to go up the clock tower (Campanile). So we walked over to the fruit and cocktail stall we'd been to earlier in the week and had a cheeky cocktail each.


With our pre-booked tickets we had no queue at all at the side entrance. Boom. Views from the to were superb!!! Especially in afternoon sunshine and blue skies. Half the price of the Basilica, this was definitely value for money!





Back down it was time for late lunch and we found a nice busy place having a gorgeous foccacia each sharing a slice of pizza and sipping some white wine.
Once more we made our way through narrow lanes, over countless bridges turning this way and that.

Opted for drinks as the sun was dipping at Al Parlamento, a trendy bar near our apartment, sitting by the water chilling and watching the world go by.


We somehow ended up having a couple of mojitos before we walked the last 10 mins home. But not before a boat passing by had its stereo blaring "Live is Life". It was now that I realised that that song had been following me all day. Laughing I told Rich about it and we both wondered if the song had made a reappearance in Italian charts recently.

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