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Show 2T The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, May 5, 1965 Italy Venice is designed to please the senses by Louis A. Dilorio Boston Globe Writer VENICE, Italy Unfortunately, my first visit to the Queen of the r, Adriatic was not in but in early September when I was forced to share her with thousands of other tourists and an even greater number of pigeons. It didnt matter. We here here for just a few hours and an introductory day trip would have to suffice for now. The ride from neighboring Switzerland through Lombardy and Veneto seemed to take forever, four hours from Lugano to Venice. And even the northern Italian landwhich would have been welscape come any other time did little to appease a veteran travelers anxiety. Outskirts Of Milan Veering left on the outskirts of Milan, our Danzas bus sped down the autostrada. A guide pointing out the hillside town of Bergamo and tiny Sotto Montil, birthplace of Pope John; the great art center of Verona with its Roman arena and Romeo and Juliet balcony, the Soave vineyards; Ravenna, the city that provided refuge to Dante Alighieri after he was exiled from his native Florence; and Padua, the walled university city where Galileo once taught. At last, the sea. Tankers and cruise ships; buoys, barges and workboats. Its gondolas may be more famous, but Venice could not live without its workboats. Everything tiat is done by trucks and motor vehicles in other cities is done by boats here. Refrigerators, grand pianos and stage sets for the opera are delivered in boats. The hearses that carry the dead to the cemetery at San Michele are boats. And for taxis, there are the gondolas, but thats another story. Ponte Della Liberta Our bus made its way across Ponte della Liberta (built by Mussolini in 1935) to Piazza Tronchetto, where 1500 lire (75 cents) buys you a boat ride to Piazza San Marco. Venetians may have been the first to recognize the value of prohibiting urban vehicular traffic. There had been a railway causeway connecting Venice with the mainland, but a similar road for cars, trucks and buses triggered citizen protests even before it was completed in 1932. These resulted in a law requiring that all mo- mid-winte- ... Continued from T-- l tor vehicles be garaged on the side of the island facing the industrial town of Mestre. To this day, there are only two ways to get around the old city: by boat or on foot. Little launches called vaporetti run on schedule up and down the major canals, stopping at quays convenient to shops and public monuments. And as our vaporetto plied iis way from the car park up Giudecca Canal, we got our first glimpse of these landless islands with their villas, palaces, churches and hotels. The colors, the architecture, the history. It was too much to absorb at one time. If first impressions mean anything, I was impressed. Like millions of others, I knew then and there that I was now a member of one of the world's largest fan clubs. The best place to start seeing Venice and its more than 120 islands is from the vast Piazza San Marco, described by Napoleon as the most beautiful drawing room in the world. In the heart of the city, the piazza is famed for its flocks of pigeons, its sidewalk cafes and its shops and is dominated by the stunning Basilica of San Marco, one of the most colorful and unusual buildings in the world, combining Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic styles in architectural splendor. With little more than an afternoon to ourselves we managed to squeeze in a lunch of salad, risi e bisi (a risotto made with peas and ham) and a northern Italian wine at Da Colpo, a trattoria on Riva degli Schiavoni not far from the main square. Our whirlwind visit then took us on a tour of a few hotels, mainly Hotel Luna, built in 1474 and reportedly the citys oldest; to antique, jewelry, lace and leather good shops; and to the tiny studio of Georgio Mion and Marie who design and make masks, costumes, puppets and marionettes, used in theater across Europe and by the Venetians during carnevale those three incredible, noisy and colorful weeks before Lent. We talked to gondoliers, listening to their tales of ihe old days, when gondolas didnt cost 20 million lire; toured the Basilica and Doges Palace; and walked across the Bridge of Sighs. (Sorry, but nothing romantic here. This was where prisoners sighed at their last look of Venice before being imprisoned.) We topped off the afternoon with a capuccino and a glass of Aurum, a popular Venetian orange-flavore- d liqueur, at the Florian Cafe, the onetime hangout of Casanova, Byron, Stendhal, Goethe, Wagner and Proust. Venice Is Different Venice is so different from any other city, so designed to please the senses, that at every turn, every sally into a church, small shop or cafe, I felt I was reliving moments of centuries past And at the Florian, listening to violin music and watching the late-- ! afternoon sun reflect off the golden; cupolas of the Basilica, I thought of! the many sights we missed and those! that we would visit in the future. ; For we never did get to see any of the countless number of museums;! the Gritti, Danieli and Cipriani, rated ; ! among the finest hotels of Europe; the legendary Harrys Bar or the fish! market at the Rialto; La Fenice, the; opera house rebuilt after the original! burned down in 1836; the Lido, that; shoestring of an island with its fine beaches, hotels, etc.; and the nearby, islands of Burano, where exquisite; lace is made, the quaint village of! Murano, built on five islands and famed for its glass, and at the south-enof the lagoon (reached by a high-!- ! way from Padua) is the picturesque fishing village of Chioggia. And, we! never did ride in a gondola. Shame! d San Marco Square in Venice is a popular spot for both tourists and pigeons. ' The Italian city is designed to please the senses. Kayaking the rivers and falls of Chile with the kayaks in the hotels locked parking lot and flew to Punta Arenas on the Chilean Airlines, Ladeco. There they took a bus to Puerto a small town close to the southern tip of Chile. Their destination was the national park with the towers of Paine" mountains, called Torres del ). Paine (say Na-tale- s, pie-nay- Arriving late in the day they asked the concierge of their pension, the Magellanes, (about 82 a night) to recommend a restaurant for dinner. At the consequent eight-tabl- e cafe, they met Eduardo, last name unknown, an immigrant from the Falklands who served in the British Army. He was both owner and bartender of the restaurant and also owned a bakery. They ate a local specialty, a soup with fresh oysters, clams, and a pastry shell baked on top, with a loaf of fresh bread. In talking to Eduardo, they discovered he also acted as a tour guide. After haggling briefly over the fee, he agreed to take them through the park the next day. (Although some bargaining is expected in Chile, it is not as extreme as in countries like The following day, Eduardo, accompanied by his young daughter, took them to see the Torres del Paine, dramatic peaks of granite capped with black slate. That night, he surprised them by camping with them. They had brought bread and cheese but Eduardo had fresh lamb chops, steaks, and chicken which he grilled over the camp fire and they ate with wild berries they had collected during the day. After Eduardo left them the next morning, they hiked in the park and spent the night in a refugio, one of the small shelters provided for hik- -' ers. The next morning, they hiked to the huge Grey Glacier and rendezvoused with Eduardo who drove them back to Puerto Natales. Returning to Punta Arenas the following day, they flew back to Puerto Montt and shopped for two days. The most outstanding shopping expedition was the fish market where they spent the morning. There were all these different fish, and seafood such as barnacles which tasted like crab," Seeholzer said. All the merchants would give us samples to tempt us to stay for lunch. We were stuffed when we left. The fishermen sold the fish five minutes after catching them. They were cutting up fish and sing- ing. worst one and limped back into o- Surfeited with two days of city life, they left for Rosales National Park and the Rio Petrohue (say petro-wato go waterfall jumping. Expert kayakers do not limit themselves to shooting rapids but seek fun wain hurling themselvs off terfalls. Enormous leaves grew along the banks of the Petrohue which intrigued Seeholzer. After the Petrohue, they drove north to the Bio Bio. A Chilean man volunteered to shuttle them to the top of the run and leave the car at a rendezvous. Seeholzer said the six days they boated on the Bio Bio were the high point of the trip. It s delightful to live on a river. I really enjoy boating like that, he said. Contrary to what one might think, a kayak holds a substantial amount and the two kayaks were stuffed with all their supplies sleeping bags, tent, freeze-drie- d camping victuals, and fresh bread and cheese all stuffed into water-tigh- t bags. We ate like kings, Seeholzer said. Upon reaching the Suzuki, they discovered three flat tires from the rocky terrain. They changed the y) Santi- - . Then we went to the beach, he a large freshwater lake at Because many Chileans were celebrating their summer vacation, it was crowded, especially with the Chilean women. Sitting on the beach they ran into the Californian kayakers who were traveling south. said Pu-co- Although Chile has continuing political unrest, Seeholzer said the; country appeared peaceful during his stay. After two days at Pucon, Seeholzer and Dunn drove north past Santiago to the Rio Aconcaqua. After a days boating, they drove to another beach on the ocean, at Vina del Mar near Valparaiso, also crowded with vacationers. He is anxious to return to Chile and is organizing a trip for interested kayakers next year. It will be offered through Slick Rock Kayak Adven tures, 751 Garfield, Carbondale, Colo, They returned to Santiago after several days to fly back to Los Ange- les Feb. 81623. 17. 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