R&R Day 2 – Venice

Wenonah arrived this morning, so I checked out of the hotel by the airport and met her at baggage claim. We took a bus to Piazzale Roma, which is the bus hub in Venice. We dragged our bags the couple of blocks to our hotel. We were too early to check in, so we grabbed a backpack and the camera and walked hand and hand towards Venice University.

Our first exposure to the network of canals, which was just unreal to us at first, but we soon got used to it.

The bridges and dead ends made navigation around difficult, it probably would have been easier if we had a map also.

The colors of the stucco and potted flowers were amazing around every turn.

I loved all the marble bridges, hundred of years old and hand carved. Many had no mortar or supporting bracing.

The narrow canals were amazing, especially when two boats from different directions had to negotiate, in heated Italian, who was going to pull over and out of the way.

We finally circled back to the hotel and found it after only alittle extra walking. We moved our bags from their storage area to our room, and took a short nap before heading back out into the city, camera in hand. This time we were on a mission to cross the Rialto and get to St Mark’s square.

Played around with the fisheye lens on the way to the Rialto.

The canals that had buildings on both sides (no pier area) were crazy. We saw people pull up to their door, tie off, and take bags of groceries in just like you would drive your car at home.

This is the Rialto bridge, an absolutely impressive structure. There are shops and 3 wide walking paths across the bridge. This area was really packed with people and the cost of everything was at least 2-3 times anywhere else we found.

At St Mark’s square, the line for the Basilica was really long, so we paid to go up into the Campanile. From there we took shots of all around the city, noticing there were so many bell towers. In his shot, the onion shaped domes of St Mark’s Basilica are to the left, to the right is the Doge’s Palace.

This is the new office building to the lower left and the clock tower with the life-sized bronze statues that would ring the bell.

My wife really wanted a picture of the underside of one of the bells in the Campanile. I am whipped and do anything she asks.

The front side of Doge’s Palace.

This is the Campanile, and no, we did not climb stairs, there was a high speed elevator that took us to the top.

A canal so narrow only gondolas could use. We never did the gondolas, as we really had no interest. They are very expensive and a real tourist trap. We were more than happy to pay nothing and watch/listen as they went by.

Wen finally grabbed a picture of me, a rare occurrence as I usually have the camera.

The grand canal on the north side of the Rialto.

This canal was so narrow, I was impressed by the boat driver as he made his way along, often with only 6 inches on either side as the tied out boats were pulled to him by his bow wake.

Just a nice scene with the arches, colors, flowers. Every turn was a great shot in this city.

A crazy church we passed on our evening hike back to the hotel. It was just a series of vertical cylinders.

A video of the church bells tolling in the evening. It seemed to never end. I finally got too tired to hold up my heavy camera to record it.

Since there are no roads, police, fire, and ambulance services in Venice are completely waterborne. This is an ambulance passing our ferry boat, which tossed up a huge wake and I had to yank the camera back inside the vessel before the wave of muddy Venice water hit my camera.