Home » Italy » Italy

I have so far only seen the North of Italy, but that which I saw I liked.

Italy

Raphaelk
2004-02-02 20:38:29

Displayed times (last time: )

I have so far only seen the North of Italy, but that which I saw I liked. The people were very friendly, and certainly enthusiastic. The driving in Milan though has to rate as some of the worst in Europe and Venice is nice.

One thing I don't quite understand though is why it is that whilst everyone else's military bands are either stationary or marching the Italian one is either stationary or sprinting, quite bizarre.

The Italians I met were almost all very nice, sometimes a little emotional though. An example of this was when I gave the manager of a hotel (who had been complaining of headaches) a couple of paracetamol and he almost cried with gratitude. No headache justifies that.

Our first proper stop in Italy was to Milan, where we parked the car in the Sansiro stadium for a good nights sleep. The following morning we had quite a surreal awakening as the place was being used as a driving school. The Milanese are bad enough drivers when they are qualified, to see them as learners is indescribable. The instructors paid no attention to their own pupils, all leaning out their windows making obscene gestures to other drivers and shouting Vaffanculo as they are cut up and cut up others. It is unsurprising the drivers are so bad considering the level of instruction. From this bizarre spectacle we went to the town centre and had a look around. I liked Milan and the Duomo, the cathedral is lovely.

From Milan we headed to Venice, which had been the reason for the trip in the first place. The argument my friend had used to persuade me to drive us there was quite subtle, but also faultless in it's simplicity. He suggested that we go there because it's not the Venice of the east or of the west, it's not the Venice of the north or south, this is the Venice of the Venice. He was right. Venice however did not impress us half as much as we wanted it to. We both appreciated the lovely architecture etc. but somehow it lacked the magic we were looking for.

The St. Marks cathedral was well worth visiting as it is very ostentatious both outside (photo 1) and in. The views from the top balcony are also very nice.

In St. Marks square there was some kind of carnival procession going on. This was started by a military band who started playing and then just as we expected them to begin a slow march, started sprinting round the block, still playing and feathers bouncing, very odd. There was also some kind of military pageant going on with folk dressed up as medieval nobles, soldiers, a more sedate marching band, and a bunch of flag throwers who would all throw their big flags very high into the air and then catch them again, it was more impressive than it sounds.

It is for the canals that Venice is famous though and the only way to properly see them is to get in a Gondolier to take you around in a Gondola. The most famous bridge in Venice is probably the bridge of sighs, so called as it was the way that those condemned in the court would have to walk to the gaol, so there was probably a fair amount of sighing. Most likely there was a lot more cursing and swearing, but that doesn't sound quite so poetic. There are a number of attractive buildings along the canals that can be best viewed from the water.

All the images on this website are the copyright sole property of Raphael Kessler and cannot be copied or reproduced without his express permission.

Copyright Raphael Kessler.

All rights reserved.

http://www.raphaelk.co.uk