Venice Italy

Venice is a tourist city.  The ques were crowded and people were everywhere in the main attraction areas.  we chose to light out and walk to some attractions rather than ride a water taxi  and that gave us some  quiet streets and areas to explore.  We chose to stay in Mestre, a close city, instead of Venice proper. doing this again we would stay in Venice directly.  it would be a bit more costly but certainly more convenient for getting around and having the evening dinner by the canal without worry about catching the last bus back to Mestre.  This would be a dollar trade for experience.

teh following are some picts of our areas of our visit to Venice. 

Graffiti is everywhere! 

our train ride from Milan to Venice took us through some mid sized Italian villages. 

ONe of the many rivers we crossed on the train ride

In Venice there are bridges everywhere, except when you need to cross the canal to get to a particular site.  Then  they are scarce. 

Gondoliers are the best paid of the watermen. a gondola ride is expensive costing about $50/hour

a variety of boats are used. some are private and some for hire.

Architecture has a turkish or mid eastern flair.  this is the result of the early trade that existed with that area.  Venice was a central point of transit for goods to Italy and France. 

Being a Catholic country, churches abound. 

Thjis buiilding would have been a receiving point for goods. the sailors would have unloaded their ships on the water level  tehn gone upstairs to the third level for dinner and entertainment followed by a nights rest on the second level.  The next day they would leave to pick up goods from other ports for return to their homeland. 

Rialto Bridge the focal point of Venice

Gondolier

basilica 

another church

never enough churches

oh wait, another one

typical water ferry.   These run a tight schedule and seem to be fairly efficient means of travel around the city.

This cruise ship arrived from Rotterdam and as you can imagine it housed a lot of people.  The design si for river and close in coastal waters.  front looked like large dining and entertainment are while the rear, smaller windows,  was the stateroom area.

a huge ball of glass ball that was illuminated at night. 

Gondolas at rest

another cruise ship in the Venice harbor.  i would guess that t his housed a couple of thousand people. 

Murano is a small island in the Venice area that is known for its glass works.  Several shops have their works on display.

Corner patio of the Doge's palace.  the Doge was like the prince of the area and as a result  lived a lavish lifestyle.  

Captain of a water ferry at his helm

A modern tram connects the parking garage and the boat terminal. 

The Caroline II a private yacht in the Venice harbor.  Hey, if you got it flaunt it!

water garage for private dwelling on the island.  current estimates are that less than 30,000 people live on the island full time while over 200,000  people visit each year. 

Venice is known by some as the city of masks for hte lavish parties that were thrown here.  Masks are available in many souvenir  stores. prices vary from reasonable to outlandish

The mask on the right is one of the more expensive ones. 

jsut happened to catch a youthful team of rowers at a practice session. 

Nougat, a frothy mixture of sugar and flavors, could tempt me to change from a gelatto guy to a nougat guy.  This is like what my grandmother would have called divinity.  This has flavoring and nuts and fruits  mixed in.  REALLY yummy!

Murano Glass  ballons

murano glass

Side canal on island of Murano

Glass sculpture in the plaza on murano

this building worries me.  The window opening is braced to hold the top up and then the corner is braced to hold it up.  Something is just really wrong with this. 

Church interiors are filled with golden areas for worship.  extravagance is not a word in church  dictionaries. 

Mosaic is a rgualr item in Venice.  this example shows the small size of the pieces of stone, glass, and tile that were used in creating most of the pictures and icons in these churches. 

The main church in Venice opens ontot a very big plaza.  in its original design  these four horses were positioned on the balcony overlooking the court.  during a reconstruction they were moved inside and replaced with copies.  These are the original.


Venice is fun city to visit.  our trip allowed just a day and half which was not enough.