Venice: St. Mark’s Square

Gold mosaic tiles and red roofs. And pigeons. And seagulls. 

Because the city of Venice it technically floating on water, there’s not point of having a fancy car or even a nice Vespa. The best bet would be vaporettos, or water buses, which are beautiful, fast and convenient. But to be honest, terrifying. They are super fast, full of people, kids locals, tourists and I witnessed two incidents of “hey! take your hands off my bag! Wait, where’s my wallet? You took my wallet!” right before my eyes. The buses take you everywhere and so you don’t really have a choice but to ride them as your main source of transportation, unless you want to be extra fancy and take the gondola.

There are always a lady or gentleman who has to open the small gates and toss, tie the ropes for the vaporetto to dock and this process is amazing. They swoop the rope, tug it in, swoop it again and make a knot and then re-swoop, re-tug and re-knot it again. Without even looking at the ropes, it’s like their hands are automatic. Magic.

베니스에서 바포레토라는 수상버스는 좋아도 싫어도 탈 수 밖에 없는 교통 수단. 대신 주변 구경하기 좋고 빠르고 가격도 제법 저렴한 편. 단점이 있다면 이탈리아인들의 운전 솜씨가 그렇듯, 너무 빨라서 무서워질 수 있다는 것과 사람이 너무 많아서 소매치기가 그만큼 쉬워질 수 있다는 점. 이탈리아를 여행하다보면 소매치기를 조심하라는 이야기들이 당연히 많이 나오는데 다행히 당한적도 없었고 본 적도 드물었는데 수상버스에서만 두번이나 눈앞에서 목격. 사람들이 너무 많고 다들 붙어있어서 소매치기 당하기엔 안성맞춤. 특별히 조심해야할 곳! 햇살이 따뜻한 날, 바포레토를 타고 산 마르코 광장으로 고고.

The Bridge of Sighs is right next to the St. Marc’s Square, you can’t miss it because there are a lot of people taking photos. It’s made of white limestone and has little windows. The reason for the name is because it connects the prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. The view from the tiny windows on the bridge was the last view the convicts saw before their imprisonment, thus the Bridge of Sighs. (In reality, though, the stone grills covering the windows make it quite difficult to see anything.)

산마르코 바로 근처에 “한숨의 다리”라고 불리는 다리가 있다. 베니스에서 죄인들이 법정에서 감옥으로 끌려가는 길에 건너던 다리로 수감되기 전 마지막으로 아름다운 베니스를 보면서 한숨을 쉬었다고 해서 지어진 이름. 실제로는 창문에 붙어 있는 철창이 너무 두꺼워서 잘 보이진 않는다고.

The winged lion is the mascot of the city and you can find them (almost) everywhere. Legend says that when Venetian merchants were stealing and transferring the body of St. Mark from his tomb in Egypt to Venice by boat, St. Mark himself appeared to the captain and warned him about a storm that would kill them, forcing them to lose the body once and for all. The merchants owed their lives to this miracle and the city decided to vote St. Mark as their patron saint. And it turns out the winged lion represents St. Mark.

There used to be a lot of winged lions carved on many ancient buildings around the city during the prime time of the Venetian Republic, but once it went down, many lions went down with them. It’s quite a hunt to find them now within the city, but it’s interesting for people like me, and not for G, who had to hold me from falling into the water a couple of times because I was searching for the lions hidden somewhere up in the buildings. So have someone with you if you’re willing to hunt them down.

베니스를 대표하는 마스코트는 바로 날개 달린 사자다. 어딜가나 찾을 수 있는데 기원은 좀 독특하다. 그때 그 시절에는 늘 그랬듯이, 귀중한 물건이나 신성시되는 모든 것을 서로 뺏고 빼앗기던 시절. 베니스 상인들은 무려 성인인 마르코의 시신을 훔치게 되는데, 이집트에서 베니스로 가는 험난한 길에 상인들은 태풍을 만나게 되고 갑자기 성인이 나타나 상인들을 모두 살렸다는 나름 아름다운 이야기. 목숨을 건지고 집으로 돌아온 상인들은 이 소식을 도시에 알리게 되고 결국 베니스의 수호 성인은 산 마르코가 되는데, 산 마크로를 상징하는 마스코트가 바로 날개 달린 사자님.

There are two ways to see the view of the entire city: the St. Mark’s Basilica and the St. Mark’s Campanile, or bell tower. Both are quite doable, elevators, not so much stairs, so I would recommend both. Some major RR (Red Roof) attacks, which you can find here, here and here.

The bell tower is 98.6 meters tall and it was where Galileo Galilei demonstrated his telescope to the Doge of Venice in 1609.

도시 전체를 보는 방법은 두가지다: 산마르코 대성당 꼭대기 그리고 산마르코 캄파닐레라고 불리는 종탑으로 올라가는 방법. 엘레베이터도 있고 (종탑) 계단도 많지는 않아서 (대성당) 꽤 갈만하다. 특히 종탑은 조금 기다려야하는 단점이 있지만 경치가 훨씬 좋기도 하고 갈릴레오 갈릴레이가 최초의 망원경을 시범해보인 곳이 바로 여기.

The St. Mark’s Square is beautiful. It’s the place you see in photos with the water coming up to your knees and Italians and tourists drinking espresso nonetheless, but it’s beautiful, huge and full of pigeons. It’s also the place where you can get the most expensive cup of espresso in the world. I believe it was something like 10-15 euros for one, single, tiny cup of espresso.

산 마르코 광장은 그림처럼 아름답다. 홍수때문에 허벅지까지 올라온 물에서도 여유롭게 에스프레소를 마시는 사람들의 모습, 그 모습을 바로 여기서 볼 수 있다. 놀라운 점은 세상에서 가장 비싼 에스프레소라는 것. 쪼그만 에스프레소 한잔에 15 유로 정도. 일반적으로 이탈리아에서 에스프레소 한잔은 1 유로 정도.

G is terrified of any type of animal, including dogs, cats but pigeons not so much. He really wanted to feed the pigeons but he was still a bit terrified so he didn’t really get to do it officially, but at least he tried. And I got a lot of goofy photos of him attempting to.

I, on the other hand, am an expert on dogs. I used to be obsessed with dogs, but my mom would never allow me to have one. So one day, on my 10th birthday I think, she bought me a dog encyclopedia. Which turned out to be a genius idea. I can basically name almost any dog walking down the street in Europe and I’m pretty sure in the US.  But when it comes to birds, I’m terrified of pigeons and seagulls. Especially seagulls. Terrifying creatures.

나와 G의 다른 점이 있다면 나는 동물을 꽤 좋아하는 편이고 G는 거의 모든 동물을 무서워한다는 것. 나는 특히 비둘기나 갈매기 등의 새들을 무서워하고 G는 고양이나 개들을 좀 무서워하는 편. 사실 무서워하기보다는 볼때마다 깜짝 깜짝 놀라워한다는 것. 하지만 신기하게도 비둘기나 갈매기는 꽤 좋아한다는 것. 바닷가에서 나고 자라서 익숙해서 그런거라고 결론을 내림.

The St. Mark Basilica is the dessert of the whole experience. The interior is covered with gold tiles and along with the very elaborate designs, it’s one of the main reasons why the church was nicknamed the “Church of Gold.”

The mosaics cover the entire upper levels, about 8,000 square meters. And the mosaics are gold, so a lot of shimmery, shiny ceilings, backdrops and everywhere. Everyone is looking up and taking photos so careful on your steps there.

금빛향연의 산 마르코 대성당. 이런 성당은 본 적이 없었다. 천장과 벽이 모두 금 타일 모자이크로 장식되어 있는데 고개를 돌릴때마다 반짝여서 어지러울 정도. 이런 예술혼과 정성이라니.

The Horses of Saint Mark.

All photos by rachelsanghee.

• St. Mark’s Basilica