Woke to a dank and foggy Venezia morning and decided that today was the day to ride the vaporetto. The vaporetto is a kind of bus line that tales people all around the lagoon at regular times and standard stops. The twist is that these are seagoing busses. Some of the craft operating on the vaporetto are modern and sleek and clean, some look like they were veterans of the Turkish wars. 30 Euros will buy you a 48 hour vaporetto pass And you can take it anywhere any time during that period. A good deal for a tourist when you consider that a single ride is 7 euro.

I went down,to the vaporetto stop by the train station and studied the map posted there. Looked like I needed to go to San Marcos square and transfer in order to get to the Lido of Venezia, which is this sort of barrier island and beach resort. My boat arrived and I hopped on.

Cruising up the Grand Canal, even on a well used vaporetto boat is a pretty heady ride. It takes very little effort to imagine sailing vessels from all over the known world and even beyond reaching and tacking into this place overflowing with goods and treasure. Today it is a exciting ride for sure. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the boat traffic moves, captains and pilots just dodge in and out of each other’s way as they plunge ahead to their respective destinations. What amazes me most is the Gondoliers, On their feet at the stern and moving those beautiful boats like black swans through the wakes of motor craft.
Got out to the Lido and walked down the off-season quiet shopping street to the public beach. There was a snack bar there, with distinctly modern architecture, sort of late sixties amusement park modern, a sign outside announced “self service pizza”. I wondered about that as I headed for the beach. Beach chairs like lonely soldiers and been set out on a smoothed section of sand close to the snack bar. There were no sun bathers, he’ll there was no sun. I approached the shore and when I got to the water I hung a right and on instance started strolling the empty beach looking for bits of beach glass. Didn’t find much, thought I did see many, many, disposable baby diapers, all wrapped up and swollen with sea water and whatever else. Oh well, every beauty has blemishes, even the Queen of the seas.

Not much else to see really, so I headed back to the VapStop and hopped the first boat out. Lucky me this one was taking me along a part of the Grand Canal I had not see yet. as we went along a big, big, white cruise ship punched through the fog and into view, towed by a brave little tug boat. Venezia is no longer a trade center, but it is still a major seaport. The tourist industry is huge and Venezia is a major stop. 1300 years of history and culture will sure get people in the door, and opening their wallets.

I think of the ultimate tourist, a Venetian, Marco Polo. He found his way to the court of Kublai Kahn. He might as well have found life on Mars. So many great men had been to this city. Michelangelo, Galileo, Napoleon. I think people come from all over the world not just for the Gelato and the museums. People come to Venezia because it is a place where Giants walked once. Yes it’s a tourist town but for the best possible reasons. Venezia ain’t Disney baby. And all the imagineers in the world can’t make Disney into Venezia. Venezia is a place that people want to see before they die. They want to tread the same ground as the great men who shaped the world, they want to see the same vistas, breathe the same air and in a tiny way, share in that greatness.

The vaporetto took us by the port where the big cruise ships dock. Enormous vessels carrying thousands of people and all lined up as though bowing to the Queen of the Seas. Venezia is here to stay because Venezia is a mainline connection to the greatness humans can achieve, the darkness they can delve and the beauty they can create.

The vaporetto dived into a canal past the cruise ship port a back into the top of the Grand Canal. I jumped off and headed back to the hotel to rest and consider what I had seen during this visit. I took one more wander before dinner,moping that something wonderful would find me. Then is remembered…it already had.