Nov 10 – 13, 2009 – Venice (Venezia), Italy – The View from the Grand Canal

To visit Venice we stayed in suburb called Marghera which is about a 15 minute bus ride out the causeway to Venice.  The hotel was more economical than those in Venice and, more importantly, offered free parking.  So every morning we walked to the bus stop and joined other Venetians for the trip to the island.  If you do take a car, the closest you can get to Venice is the parking garage you see pictured behind the pedestrian bridge in the photo below.

On the advice of one of our guide books we bought a one-way ticket to Piazza San Marco on the Venice equivalent of a city bus (see the picture following the one below).  It departed from a quay that was on the other side of the pedestrian bridge you see in the background of the photo below.  This bridge is the most modern in Venice and links the bus station on the left with the train station located on its  right.

Our ‘tour’ was conducted on a water bus similar to the one below.   These pictures were taken through the windows of our water bus and it was showering on this day so you see water droplets on the windows.

All aboard!

We joined other traffic on the Grand Canal.  We read in our guidebook that these houses (mansions, castles, whatever you care to call them) along the Grand Canal were built during Venice’s heyday by the trading families that formed Venice’s aristocracy.  Apparently these buildings were built to a common pattern.  The business offices and warehouses were built on the ground (water)-level floor to house the storage of goods and provide offices to administer the family business transactions.  The second floor and additional floors were the family living quarters and the top floor was where the family’s servants lived. 

The picture below shows that the second and additional floors were often the grandest with the servant (top) floor very modest by comparison to the other floors.

Many of the houses were in disrepair and would need a large investment to be restored.  This one was maintained in all its glory and was an impressive sight.

 

These are some other sights from the Grand Canal.

A gondola parking lot.

This is a picture of Doges Palace which sits on the edge of Piazza San Marco at the mouth of the Grand Canal.

Nov 10 – 13, 2009 – Venice (Venezia), Italy – ‘Street’ Scenes

There are many must-see sights in Venice but its also one of the best places to just walk and take in the street life.  Charlotte was in heaven because it is practically wall-to-wall shopping.  Even Allister thought this was a neat place.  This post includes a sample of the images we found on our walks through Venice.

This isn’t really fair but I wanted to include an observation that much of Europe is covered by graffiti (“we’re not vandals, we’re artists”) and Venice was no exception.

Sidewalks are constructed of stones fitted together so when their is construction involving tearing up the sidewalks the stones are meticulously saved and labeled so they can be put back in place once construction is complete.

One of the souvenirs of Europe Charlotte wanted to bring home was a Venetian mask.  To find just the right masks, we looked in many stands like this one.

Venice is one of those places that attract tourists.  This street was typical of the volume of people on some of the main pedestrian streets.  However, it was easy to find streets with few people by turning off some of these main streets.

There were souvenir hawkers everywhere.  These guys probably weren’t licensed because every once in a while – maybe in response to sighting some Venice police – they’d pick up their wares and start heading in the opposite direction.

Allister and Charlotte took pleasure in stirring up the pigeons.  Later this shifted to watching cats do the same.  With about as much success.

A typical Venetian view.  This one was a little unique of the position of the building at the head of two streets.

There is only pedestrian or watercraft transport on the island so Venice has developed unique tools to increase efficiency.  The unique adaptation of this trolley was its front wheels that allowed its handler to lever his trolley up stairs like these.

 

Finally a couple of pictures of the famed bridge at Rialto from the outside and then the inside.

Nov 10 – 13, 2009 – Venice (Venezia), Italy – Piazza San Marco

It was rainy the day we spent the most time in Piazza San Marco so we tried to stay inside or undercover as much as we could. 

I’m disappointed that I don’t have a photo of the entire Piazza – but this may not have been possible anyway because of its size.  This picture is dominated by the Campanile (clock tower) and maybe is the reason I don’t have a picture of the Piazza – this place blocked the camera angle from the logical place to take such a picture – the balcony of St. Mark’s Basilica.

St. Mark’s Basilica and the San Marco museum were both worth a visit.  We thought we had seen some mosaics elsewhere on our trip but the mosaics in these places exceeded anything we had seen elsewhere.  Charlotte took some excellent pictures of the mosaics at these sights.  Here is an example.

 

San Marco Museum also included these four bronze horses.  These are the originals, stored inside for their protection from the elements.  Copies of these horses adorn the front of St. Mark’s Basilica (see following photo).  These horses date to 4th century B.C. were made during Alexander the Great’s day, taken to Rome by Nero, to Constantinople / Istanbul by Constantine, to Venice by crusaders, to Paris by Napoleon and back to Venice after Napoleon fell.

Copies of the much-traveled horses pictured along with some riff-raff in the following picture.

The clock tower on Piazza San Marco.  This clocks was cool – its main face told the time in one fashion and if you look closely, to the left and right of the little balcony, you see the time displayed digitally.  I think this photo was taken at 4:15 pm.

 

The front of St Mark’s Basilica.  If I recall correctly, all the art you see on its facade were mosaics.  I think I took this picture standing on what to me looked like ‘risers’ that would be used to make a stage or create a setting area – and there were lots of them lined up through the middle of the Piazza.  We wondered if these were left over from an event that had been staged but learned later that a couple of times  year the tide is high and floods the Piazza and these risers are used as raised pathways to allow pedestrians to traverse the square.  I can’t image what would happen if this occurred during high season – there would either be gridlock or people forced to take to the water to get around.

Piazza San Marco from the mouth of the Grand Canal.

Nov 10 – 13, 2009 – Venice (Venezia), Italy – Venetian watercraft

Allister observing some of the traffic on the Grand Canal.  This is not as busy as it gets at any point in the canal and time.

Gondolas – one of Venice’s most famous tourist symbols.  There are gondolas for different purposes.  This one is for taking tourists for a ride.   Others, less fancy gondola, called traghetti, are used to shuttle passengers across bodies of water where there is no bridge.

I liked this picture because it showed a unique tiller extension that allowed the skipper to direct his boat while still looking forward just by moving from side-to-side.

Everything moves by boat.  This delivery boat is dropping off drinks at a restaurant or corner store.

This boat was playing the role of floating dumpster at a construction site.  People walked out of the building with their load of old building material and dumped it into this boat to be taken away.

 

These were wooden water taxis.  Very beautiful and maintained to a high standard.

At the other end of the scale was this Minoan Lines ferry that travels from Venice to Greece.  Yes, it was foggy the day this picture was taken.

A gondola parking lot.  Another indicator that it was low season – idle gondolas.

These are the Venetian equivalent to city buses.  They take people up the Grand Canal and to a variety of marine destinations around Venice.

Finally, we grabbed a traghetti (shuttle gondola) for a 2 Euro ride across a canal where there was no bridge.

 

This is what a gondola, fully turned out for tourists looked like up close.