Europe 2010 Day 12 - Venice - Murano Island & Piazzetta di San Marco to the Ventian Arsenal

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7 Oct 2010

Due to the flooding at high tide at Plaza San Marco in the morning, we headed to the island of Murano famous for its glassware. Little did we know that Murano is quite the tourist trap. Don't plan to eat there!

Off on the Vaporetto. The tickets are about €2.50 each.


The Cimitero, an island that is entirely a cemetery with a church.


Nearing Murano


Looking back at Venice


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The small section of Murano that we explored


The first glass factory that we went.


The buildings here looked more modern, we walked to another glass factory along the banks


Two glassmakers at work. They are making the green-colourful flask on the small table. It was said that the glassmaking skill is passed down from father to sons.


Coating a piece of glassware with colourful beads


Shaping


Working with another layer of hot glass, we visited the shop after this and bought some glass earings


Some housing on Murano.


Canal along Fondamenta dei Vetrai. The restaurants on the island cost more than Venice! A real tourist trap!


Along the canal with Chiesa di San Michele on Cimitero in the background


We tried having our lunch here, but we couldn't get any service, so we walked off. As we did the other patrons told us it was a good decision to leave. This place charges cover at €3.50 per pax and 12% service! The most expensive place we've come across in Italy.


Leaving Murano, a lighthouse


Back in Venice, looks like they are draining flood water to somewhere


Hungry and tired, we settled for lunch at this restaurant, Trattoria da Gianni, at around 3pm, along Strada Nouva


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The approximate location of our lunch venue.


This lunch (sharing) costs €20, inclusive of cover charge, one of the cheapest meal in Italy.


Chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa


Panorama of Piazza San Marco in the Evening


Basilica Cattedrale Patriachale di San Marco under restoration.


The Doge's Palace in the evening


The lion of Saint Mark in Piazzetta di San Marco


St. Theodore with a dragon in Piazzetta di San Marco


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Our walk from Piazzetta di San Marco to the Venetian Arsenal, featured in the movie The Tourist


Down the Riva degli Schiavoni in the evening


Statue along the docks


Looks interesting but couldn't be found


Government Funded.


San Martino at Campo San Martino


Panorama of the Venetian Arsenal from the wooden bridge in front of it, featured in The Tourist. It is out of bounds. This is where the bulk of Venice's naval power was produced. Construction began in 1104 CE. It had a precursor to assembly lines to mass produce galleys at a rate that no one else could match.


Military zone!


Walking back along the docks, Sunset behind the Dogana di Mare


Azura, a large cruise liner passing by


We were listening to a singing gondolier as the dark creeps in


An Irish pub


What looked like masks made from naan


The markets near Rialto Bridge


Spices from everywhere


Gelato, melone and caramel


Back to Campo San Margherita for cheap food at Al Sportivi Pizzeria, more rowdy today with more youths


Pizzaaaa... boring...


Next we made the long walk back to our B&B near the train station. San Nicolo at Campo dei Torlentini


Chiesa degli Scalzi (Church of the Barefoot Ones) near the train station.

That ended our last night in Venice, easily the most beautiful city in Italy. Tomorrow we will be walking around in the morning for the last time before heading by train to the beach resort town of Rimini to relax. From there we will be visiting the Most Serene Republic of San Marino.

Check back for the next post soon.

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Perl: Initializing 2-dimensional arrays using the repeat operator 'x'

I was trying to initialize a two dimensional Perl array with the repeat operator 'x', i.e.:

my @array = ([]) x 2;

Then I did something to the effect of,

for (my $i=0; $i<6; ++$i) { push(@{$array[$i % 2]}, 1); }

Thinking that I will create the equivalent of the following structure:

@array = ( [ 1, 1, 1 ], [ 1, 1, 1 ] );

However, doing:

print "@{$array[0]}\n";
print "@{$array[1]}\n";

gave,

1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1


How did that happen?


It seems that the left argument to the repeat operator, in this case, ( [] ) is evaluated before the repetition. Hence the initialization of @array achieved an effect similar to the following:


my $aRef = [];
my @array = ( $aRef, $aRef );


That is, the same reference to an empty array is repeated instead of a fresh reference. Hence the same array was pushed 6 times. 


As it turns out, it is better not to initialize the array at all and let the dynamic type system figure out the element type from a push,

my @array = ();
for (my $i=0; $i<6; ++$i) { push(@{$array[$i % 2]}, 1); }


Which resulted in the correct outcome, ( [ 1, 1, 1 ], [ 1, 1, 1 ] ), i.e., an array with two distinct array references.

Europe 2010 Day 12 - Venice - The Walk to Rialto Bridge & Piazza San Marco

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7 Oct 2010

Our first proper full day in Venice takes us from our B&B to Rialto bridge and Piazza San Marco via a route north of the grand canal.

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The first part of today's walking route takes us down Strada Nova to Rialto bridge.


Goods delivery, all via boat and by manpower


Garbage collection


Along Rio Terra Maddalena / Strada Nova street


Chilli


Fondamenta de la Maddalena near Calle Scuola


Transporting goods on land in Venezia is the only way to resupply the cafes inland


Fixing some building, again by boat


The only McDonald's in Venice, it gets rather crowded during lunch


Traghetto, essentially an undecorated Gondola to get across the canal for €0.50.


Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli


We were told that the average price for a 40 mins gondola ride is €80 per gondola.


The Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto) completed in 1591 CE.


Shops on the Rialto Bridge.


View of the Grand Canal / Canal Grande / Canalasso


Ponte di Rialto, leading on to the main market street of Venice


Carnival masks


Campo San Bartolomeo near the Rialto bridge


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For the second part of the walking route from Rialto, we backtracked a little and looped through the north to see some churches.


The back of Chiesa Di Santa Maria Dei Miracoli where the dome is visible. Built in 1489 CE, of early Venetian Renaissance style with marble.


Full view of Campo Santissimi Giovanni e Paolo where the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo is. The church is built in 1430 CE mainly of brick.


The doorway arch of the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo


Inside Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo


Back on course to St Mark's square


Piazza San Marco, flooded in the morning at high tide


The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco) where we were the night before. The main cathedral of Venice, first built as the Doge's chapel in 828 CE.


Archway of the Basilica


We decided to come back later in the day as it was too crowded to walk around without getting our shoes wet


Campanile di San Marco (bell tower of St Mark's Basilica)


St Mark's Clocktower completed in 1500 CE with modifications to the clock since


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As Piazza San Marco was crowded and flooded, we decided to head to the northern bank of Venice to get the island of Murano in the north, famous for it's glassware.


Ambulances parked outside a public hospital near Campo S. Giovanni e Paolo, along Fondamenta dei Mendicanti. We were heading to Venezia Fondamenta Nuove to take a Vaporetto (waterbus)


Inside of the Hospital (Ospedale Civile Strada Statale Giovanni e Paolo)


Transport for funeral service to Isola di San Michele.


Isola di San Michele, the main cemetery of Venice. Chiesa di San Michele lies on the island.

We stood in the shade watching the ships while waiting for the vaporetto to arrive. Having covered a rather long route through the northern part of Venice in just a morning, it seems that the island is rather small after all. Next we will visit Murano to watch the glass blowers in action.

Check back for the next post soon.

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