Venice

An easy train trip from Florence to Venice.  I love traveling through Europe by train- so comfortable and so easy.  It was very exciting seeing our first views of Venice and its canals.  I remember passing by on a train in 1978 on my very first trip abroad and wishing I could have stopped in this amazing city.  Now we were here, nearly 40 years later.

Our first views of Venice

Grand Canal looking towards St Marks

Unbeknownst to us we had arrived on a big festival day, Festa del Redentore (probably why our very ordinary hotel was so expensive).  The Festa del Redentore is the oldest continuously celebrated festival in Venice.  It celebrates the end of the plague epidemic in 1576 and is an affirmation of life and survival.  The city was buzzing.  Everyone was gathering around St Marks Square and along the Giudecca canal to await the big fireworks display at midnight.  Boats of every shape and size were gathering in the lagoon as well.  It very much reminded me of the New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations in Sydney Harbour.  We walked around until after dark taking it all in but we knew we would last past midnight to see the fireworks display and deal with the crowds so back to the hotel for a welcome sleep.

 

The crowds gathering for the fireworks

Festivities in every square

We bought a two day unlimited transport pass and hopped on and off the vaporettos (water buses) to explore the city.  There are no motor vehicles of any kind in Venice.  Everything comes and goes by boat and barge.  The canals are bustling with water traffic and just watching all this activity is full time entertainment.  When not on the water, we wandered around the narrow winding streets packed with tourists; sunlight never hitting the pavement. 

Bridge of Sighs and the crowds

St Marks from the water

The Basilica

  

 

Busy canal

Wakes everywhere

On day we decided to escape narrow crowded passageways of Venice and took a vaporetto to the Lido, the sand island on the Adriatic side of the Venetian lagoon.  This was a pretty spot catering for family holidays of sun and sea.  The long sandy beach (relatively rare in the Mediterranean) reminded me of the Jersey Shore of my childhood.  We had decided that if we return to Venice we would stay in the Lido where the hotels are cheaper and spaces more open and then ‘commute’ into the city.

Sandy beach of the Lido

On our last day in Venice we went to Murano, a small island northeast of Venice which is renowned for its glass factories.  We had a demonstration of some artisans making part of a quite ornate gold gilded chandelier and then visited the glass museum.  Glass making was moved from Venice to the island of Murano, about 1.5 km north of Venice, in the late 13^th Century due to the fire risk from the large furnaces in the foundries.

The artisans at work

Almost done

The quieter canals of Murano

 

 

Venice struck me as a grand old lady slowly decaying.  Magnificent houses and palaces were flaking away, their bottom floors closed up against the rising damp.  It was all quite fascinating but I found the streets a bit claustrophobic and a city surrounded by water but not really suitable for water sports.  The chop of the water from all the traffic made every boat mooring a nightmare of bounce and bang.  Still a very beautiful and fascinating place. 

Grand house with the bottom floor closed off

Moon rise over Dorsoduro

Sunset over St Marks