The walking tour was actually not a tour at all, but a 'gathering of members' of a non-profit organization (which we all joined), and thus did not compete with the paid tours of the city. (Because they don't like competition here or something.) The tour focused on the construction of Venice, an ordeal that took 900 years and finished around the 1500s. Fleeing to the real islands to escape barbarian invasions, the people eventually decided to make their home permanently on the lagoon, but when they filled up the real islands they had no choice but to make more, and thus Venice was born.
The way each of the 118 islands was constructed is summed up thus: a wall of brick around the perimeter to keep the mud (and water) in, lots of trees to force the mud to the surface and compact it, layers of wood on top gave a stable enough foundation they could lay floors of 'waterproof' rock and top that with houses or large stone churches or whatever.
It seems like a lot of work, but the varying depth of the lagoon meant that unless they had the knowledge or the charts, invaders couldn't get to the islands of Venice.
During the tour the guide pointed out common markers in the city and what they mean. The city is speckled with old 'wells' which were never really wells at all, since they brought water in not from a natural underground source but were basically rain barrels and collected water from other pipes and gutters. Road names hold hidden (for a tourist) meanings. Rio Tera are 'buried canals'; the city had many more canals until Napoleon took charge and didn't like the city much. Campo San xxx is the field of saint xxx, since there used to be farmers and fields and each little island had its own church. (That's why there are so many churches.) And so on.
There are 3 locations we visited that I will attempt to briefly explain: the church of good health, the customs point, and the church without the facade.
San Maris Della Salute - the church of good health - was named so because the entire purpose of this huge stone church was to appease the gods so they would stop sending the plague that kept killing off 1/3 of the population. They'd tried several smaller churches, but finally, with this church, that required extra effort to build because it is in the deepest canal, as they began construction, the plague left and hasn't been back (this was the 1600s).
Venice can be described to visitors as being shaped like a fish, the train station being the eye, S Mark's Square being in the belly, and the bottom protrusion being a fin. At the tip of the fin is the customs point, where ships from across the sea would pass through on their way to the rest of the city (or the mainland, maybe). Although it does not have many natural resources, besides maybe clay to make bricks, Venice is a prime location for trade, and that's really where it got most of its money.
But Venice degrades quickly. The high tides of the canals deposit salt that creeps up the buildings and slowly destroys them. It is expensive to maintain, especially because no one can update the materials / look of the buildings since the entire city is protected by UNESCO.
Obviously they get a lot of income from tourism, but this doesn't always help. The guide explained how when cruise ships come into Venice (during high season up to 5 a day) they go through one of the canals, and when they do because of their size they displace the mud of the foundations.
Non sequitor: in Venice there are street-performing cellists.
Il Martirio di San Pantalon (aka Panta Leone) -- At first glance, this church appears plain.
The holes in the front are where they would hang the front facade... if they hadn't run out of money commissioning the largest canvas (over 400 meters long) painting ever to cover the ceiling of this church.
The canvas portrays the saint Panta Leone (shortened to Pantalon in the Venetian dialect), with Heaven at the top, and parts of the canvas stick out to point at the altar. It was impressive and quite pretty. No pictures allowed. Oops.
The next adventure for the day took Mia, Myra, and Terra onto the canals for a rowing lesson. What we learned on was not actually a gondola but enough like it that, having taken this lesson, we could row a gondola.
Well not really (it supposedly takes gondoliers about 3 years) but it's an experience.
Each of us learned the front oar and the back oar. The back oar does the navigating as well as rowing, so when you have just one, it's the back one. It was challenging to row correctly, and even more to row in sync, but it was nice to be out on the water and to see a couple of the streets from the canals (the way Venice is meant to be seen).
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On the way home we ate gelato :D
Dinner was pasta again. The first night we did a red sauce, the second night a white sauce, the third night a rose sauce. Superb.
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