A chance conversation yesterday prompted me to check that this last (or nearly last) post had been published. It was still in draft so here it is. I haven't really been in Venice until December 29th. This should have been sent out towards the end of October. The trip back in fact was very smooth - Venice to Munich via Salzburg, Munich to Spa in Belgium. Then the ferry and a night in Deal. Straightforward really, I'd recommend it to anyone who has the time. I'm glad I didn't leave it much longer though. As the picture shows there was snow on the motorway to Salzburg.
Parked up at a service area in the mountains - with snow on the road
I prefer the sun
Apologies to all my avid readers. I think I said somewhere earlier that Internet arrangements are variable on campsites. My last blog was from Salzburg where by comparison with Venice it was pretty straightforward. Here you have to go up to the hotspot at the pizzeria and after being out all day that’s a bit of a hassle.
Anyway Salzburg was great. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the main part of the old city is small and it’s possible wander around within a fairly tight area. It’s very colourful and has a lot to offer the tourist. The Getreidegasse, the street where Mozart was born, is particularly ‘old world’ with its shop wrought iron signs hanging outside each shop indicating the kind of establishment it is. The Hohensalzburg fortress was worth the visit. It dominates the city and provides excellent an excellent view of the city from the top. The Salzburg museum was one of the most interesting museums I think I have ever been in. It is not full of objects so much as full of ideas. It basically gives a history of Salzburg with a focus on its political and civic development. After spending time there you really fell as though you know the city and its past. It’s interesting how places like Salzburg have been subjected to rule by various foreign powers over the years.
Berchtesgaden is about 20 miles away and I called in there after visiting the Hohenwerfen fortress where much of ‘Where Eagles Dare’ was filmed. Oddly enough when you are inside the fortress it seems fairly small and compact but the view of it as you approach it on the motorway from Salzburg
The 'Where Eagles Dare' Castle - Hohenwerfen
is a real ‘wow’ moment. It’s like in ‘Colditz’ when the camera suddenly pans in on it with a big crash from the orchestra. Though I didn’t have time to go up to the Eagles Nest where Hitler had his mountain retreat I did visit the town and did some shopping. Berchtesgaden is a very attractive town and it’s not surprising that Himmler or whoever it was chose it as a spot to get away to. Berchtesgaden is in Germany now; but it has been part of the kingdom of Bavaria, like Salzburg, and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at other times. Napoleon also had claim on it.
So a definite ten out of ten for Salzburg and the surrounding area.
I decided not to bother with Innsbruck. The plan had been to spend some time there and then go over the Brenner pass into Italy and stay by Garda for a while. In the end I decided to do one fairly long trip from Salzburg to Venice on the basis that it’s less tiring than being constantly on the move. So I came here to the Veneto on Friday 15th October. The campsite is opposite the island of Venice.
Venice at sunrise across the lagoon
As I look out of the window I can see the towers and domes that make up Venice. There is transport – a boat that leaves every hour to take people across the lagoon. Arriving here and seeing Venice across the water in the distance provided the same buzz as seeing the Acropolis from the hotel bedroom in Athens a few years ago. Venice is an amazing place in so many ways. It’s amazing that it exists at all since the whole place is built on wooden piles that have been driven into the soft mud. Those engineers 1200 years ago knew a thing or two about land reclamation. It’s amazing that Venice became as powerful as it did. Over the years it took on the might of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope and of course sundry Italian cities who wanted a slice of the action. And it produced some of the greatest artists, composers and musicians, poets and................I could go on.
Today it’s a tourist’s paradise. Everything is designed for the benefit of and, if you’re not careful, to the detriment of the tourist. It has always been able to do that. Before the fourth Crusade Count Tibald of Champagne and his French knights wanted to get the help of the Venetians to take Jerusalem. They came to Venice 1199 to enlist the help of the Venetians in providing ships and transport. Unfortunately when it came to it they couldn’t afford to pay for all the ships and crew they ordered because they had spent all their money on the dazzling delights of what Venice had to offer –even then. In the end they let the French have the ships at much less than cost price, set sail and sacked a number of cities on the way. The Doge then decided not to go to Jerusalem after all and went instead to Constantinople where they completely obliterated the place and brought back everything they could. It seems that the booty collected was equivalent to 10 times the annual income of the King of France – which was a lot of ducats. The point of the story of course is that Venice is rich in treasures either home produced or acquired elsewhere.
I found St Marks a bit disappointing. I expected it to be bright and glittering and full of richness and beauty. Instead it is dark, dirty and damp. Depending on the time of the day it’s likely that you have to queue on raised platforms because of the water in the square.
Early morning - A damp St Mark's square
The museum on the other hand has some wonderful mosaics and the original bronze horses that came from Constantinople and the Doge’s palace next door was great. Amazing that the Venetians had such a sophisticated organisation and political system so early. The palace contains the private apartments occupied by the Doges and all the state rooms and different rooms used by the various councils and government departments that evolved over the years. Then by the sixteenth century it was already in decline as a force to be reckoned with. The prison was a formidable place and it’s hard to see how Cassanova managed to escape from it.
The city is a great place to walk around; at this time of the year there are fewer tourists and the weather is not unbearably hot. There are things to see and places to go that are less on the tourist trail. For instance a tour of the ghetto (the first ‘ghetto’ was in Venice) was a chance to see the area where the Jews were forced to live until Napoleon came and freed them. Unfortunately the Veneto is the wettest area of Italy and it can rain on any day of the year. There has been some heavy rain but some great days too.
Around Venice there are other great things to see and do. Padua and Vicenza have St Anthony and Palladio respectively.
Palladio's celebrated Villa Rotunda, Vicenza.
Both have people telling you not to take photographs in the churches and museums but both are a must to visit. Ravenna, further south, has the most magnificent mosaics that have to be seen.
Giles has been here for the last week and Jackie also joined us. We went south to Forli on Monday and it was good to see Claudio and Giovanna Drei Donna again. Claudio is a wine producer and his wines are exceptionally good. Last night we drank a bottle of ‘Magnificat’ – his 100% cabernet sauvignon. Nothing remarkable there except that it was from the part of the cellar that Claudio calls the ‘historical’ bottles. This one was 19 years old and was absolutely fantastic after it had been open for an hour.
All good things come to an end. This trip has been great. I’ve met some interesting people, seen a lot of great places. It has given me food for thought about things I didn’t know much about – the holocaust, the history of ‘la Serenissima,’ the most serene Republic of Venice; I’ve walked in the footsteps of some of the great geniuses of our past – Mozart, Beethoven, Monteverdi, Dante........................I have seeing some of the great cities and heritage of Europe. Most of all I have learned a lot of practical stuff that will be really helpful when it comes to an even bigger trip to Greece in April and May nexdt year. I have been really surprised at how many grey-haired people ‘of a certain age’ are doing the Greece trip. I thought I was being really adventurous and cutting new ground. However, the Dutch, Germans, English: they are all at it and all of them have offered great advice and in one case a really useful map published in Holland!
The only problem now is how to get home. The intention had been to head west through Verona, Milan and Turin and then burrow into France underground via the Frejus tunnel. But I gather there are problems in France. I have not really heard any news for two months but I gather that they are revolting again. So that may not be a good plan. Otherwise it’s over the Alps or Dolomites through Switzerland or Austria and Germany. However I noticed that the Dolomites seemed ominously snow capped as I drove back from Forli south of Bologna yesterday afternoon. I suppose it’s a bit early for the Brenner Pass to be closed because of snow and I don’t particularly fancy sliding about in the snow with a caravan in tow. The trip going north over the Brenner is supposed to be really stunning. So it may be even better if there is some snow as well.
