Italian New Year

Edit: I have no idea how that emoticon got there. Could some admin remove it?


Salve Confedrati!

I've already posted stuff from the Milan cemetery, but didn't have the chance to do a whole bunch of processing other than that.

Below are a few photos from the recent over the New Year Trip of Myself, my better half, and our Italian Chemist friend, who graciously toted us all over Northern Italy and made room for us in her apartment. She's a native of Bergamo, honestly a city I would never have visited did our friend not live there. Which would be unfortunate. A local guide is a wonderful thing.

Bergamo

Bergamo is a lovely city which began as a settlement of Cenomani celts, who kicked out the local Etruscans and built, presumably, some thatch huts on a nice hill. in 49 BC it was acquired by the Romans as part of the general neighborhood gentrification and renamed Bergomum, having around 10,000 inhabitants.


Bergamo still boasts massive walls built by the Venetians


For a while it was a seat of a Lombard Duchy after the fall of the empire, but it was quickly swallowed up by Milan, and then bounced back and forth between them and Venice. All the while, the two major families of the city (the Colleoni and the Suardi) skullduggeried, bribed, and assassinated their way into wresting power from the other family. They even built towers in their sections of the city to keep a watch over the towers in the other family's section of the city. Sort of like the Sopranos, but with no FBI around to keep things civilized.


the pretty towers are churches, the square ones from the medieval mafiae


Main Gate with the Lion of Venice


Citta Alta (High City) seen from an adjoining hill


Il Justiccero a Discutare


Interior of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore


Creepy Baby Jesus that looks disturbingly like the Italian Chemist


City Library

The weather, though cold, was quite beautiful. Also, the food was fantastic. Seriously, nothing like the Italian food in Jersey. We ate lunch at a hole in the wall with 4 tables- casei di Nonna that made me want to cry. To weep for joy. For real.

After a deep sleep, we decided to pass New Years eve in Venice, a mere two hours by train.

Venice was something out of this world. I had always sort of assumed that venice was something like Jersey City, but if someone had installed more medieval buildings, dug a crapload of canals, and (of course) raised standards of public administration. I sort of saw Venice as an Island city in the same way New York is. But it isn't like that at all. The venetian Lagoon is so big that the city truly is an Island. Terra Firma is a long way away- two miles, in fact.

Venice is a collection of Islands almost out of sight of land. No vehicle traffic is allowed, not even bikes. If you want something delivered to your store, it has to come by freight boat, as below.



Virtually all the houses have a "canal door" if they touch a canal, which most of them do. The Canals aren't few and far between, they are everywhere, and the best facade of the building is oriented towards the canal, not the "street."



Many of the canals are snaky, narrow, and often one way (they use the same traffic signs as regular European streets) but the main Island is split by the massive Grand Canal, which is where the poshest Pallazos all stand. Or rather, slowly sink, as the whole city has been settling into the lagoon for some time.


The Grand Canal at the Rialto Bridge


The old school Gondolas are strictly for the tourists. A 45 minute tour costs around 80 Euros. Not that I deny being a tourist. I am the gawkiest, nosiest, and photo-takingest of all tourists ever. But I'm also part Dutch, part Scotch-Irish, and married to a Portuguese. That's like cheap cubed. That's how cheap I am- and 80 euros is a lot of cash. Locals use the buses, and you can get a 48 hour bus pass for $25- this is a deal to warm my appalachian heart. Buses are just like any other major city, except for that the buses are boats, as the one pictured below.




Gondola on the Grand Canal near Rialto

Even the Ambulances are boats.



I promise you that you have never seen anything like this. When they say that St. Petersburg or Amsterdam is the "Venice of the North" they are full of crap. There is absolutely nothing like Venice anywhere. At least, no where that I've been to. And I've been to Amsterdam. BTW, if you really want to irritate Venetians, refer to their city as "the Amsterdam of Italy."

A little historical note for those that are interested. Venice is one of the few major towns on the Mediterranean that didn't really exist during Roman times. It was established after the fall of the empire when the local Italics were fleeing the rampaging barbarian Lombards. The Lombards were burning, killing, and raping everything (livestock included) that they could lay their hands on, and then setting up house. This is why the Italian Chemist has blond hair and blue eyes, although if you knew her you would likely find it hard to picture her as a rampaging Lombard warrior queen. I can do it, but I have lots of practice.

So, these poor oppressed ex-Romans fled to a bunch of mud flats in the Lagoon and started fishing and trading- over time the islands formed into a city state recognized by Byzantium, and developed the longest lasting republic in the History of the world. The Venetian republic lasted from 697 AD until 1796, when Napoleon overthrew it. It was then attached to Austria, and ended up in the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

But for a while, it was the richest city in the world, controlling virtually all of the east-west spice trade. Defying popes, sacking constantinople, conquering territory as far away as Crete and Cyprus, it got very very wealthy indeed. And from that flowed some amazing public buildings.


St. Mark's Square

It looks just like that big casino in Las Vegas, its uncanny.





Venice's power rested on her boats, and the Galleys of Venice were powered by her oarsmen. This is one of the reasons such a rich city remained republican. Her citizens remained those that fought. Venice could produce huge amounts of Galleys in her famous Arsenale. It is from the title of this shipyard, where such volume of weapons were produced, that English takes its word "Arsenal."


The Gate of the Arsenale

Venice is also home to Europe's oldest Ghetto, and it is from here that we get that word as well.










Sunset over the Lagoon





Murano at Night







The weather was great for the first day, but as we waited for midnight in St. Mark's Square, bottles in hand, it began to snow. If you ever have a chance to drink drink champagne and watch fireworks between the water and the Doge's Palace, I reccomend that you do it.

The next day was rather foggy and snowy, so I don't have a lot of photos.








outside our hotel

All in all, quite a place. And I was suprised at the relatively low level of tourists- I imagine that the place is likely choked, really uncomfortably choked, during summer. New Years was a wonderful time to visit.