Day: September 7, 2015

Missing photos

Some of the missing photos from Florence. The so-called captioning feature is a bit hit and miss, so if it hasn’t got a caption then forget it, it’s not getting one. Every time I try and correct the caption, something else screws up.
 

It’s hard to stand back far enough to fit it all in
 
 
You can fit it all in, I’m standing back a couple of kilometres
 
 
Impressive entry hall, can’t wait to see the media room
 
 
Fair dinkum! God would get a nose bleed!
 
 
Even the housepainters take their work very seriously
 
 
One of the original gatetowers, the walls have been mislaid somwhere
 
 
Interesting streetscape
  
And another
 
 
The piece de resistance – Ponto Vecchio and friends
 

Venetian tales

We left Florence this morning on the train (another drama for another time) and wound our way up country to Venice. We were met at the train station by the host of the apartment we are staying in – which was damned decent of him. The apartment is on the mainland, rather than in the lagoon – sort of in the suburbs. A bus stop is located just around the corner and takes you straight into Venice proper in about 15 minutes. This one is a very modern apartment, rather than the pieces of history we have been in up until now.

Milly is still not well, so she spent the afternoon in bed while Michelle and I wandered through Venice. I think she has past the peak, she is at least trying to eat. Hopefully she will be sightseeing in earnest on the morrow.

 

Michelle eyeing off a gondola to take for a quick spin
 
We did out usual trick, starting at the bus terminal in Venice we more or less wandered in no particular direction for a couple of hours, photographing interesting things and looking in the shops. If I wanted a mask to go to a ball, this would be the place. But I don’t, so it isn’t. Lots of nice stuff though. Lots of large numbers on the price tags. No hawkers in Venice?! Maybe there just isn’t room for them, as the so called streets (not the canals) are so narrow that you can’t really fall over, you would just fall against a wall.

 

Typical canal in back streets of Venice
 
We managed to find all the usual tourist haunts: the Rialto Bridge, Piazza San Marco and the Doges’ Palace. The Rialto Bridge was under restoration, so no photos. An interesting thing about building restorations over here is that the facades are covered in scaffolding and hessian (as you might expect), however the hessian is printed with a facsimile of the building underneath. At a glance you don’t even realise that it has been hoarded over. It doesn’t even show up in photographs unless you look carefully. What a great initiative, maintaining the sense of history and culture even when under renovation.

 

Michelle at Piazza San Marco
 
By the time we got to Piazza San Marco we’d had enough of walking. Even with out map we weren’t sure if we could find our way back before dawn, so we jumped on a water bus and cruised down the Grand Canal back to the bus terminal. This is a very good way to see a large part of Venice, not exactly in comfort though as they don’t seem to have any limit on the number they are prepared to jam onto the boat.

Fortunately Milly was still alive when we got home, so all good. Tomorrow we might take a boat trip to Murano and Burano. 

All for now, it’s late.

Cheers, Steve J.

Q. How do you make a Venetian blind? A. Throw sand in his eyes.

Just for the sake of it, more photos.

 

That’s one pretty snazzy tinny
  
Might be an issue with rising damp, especially if its not high tide yet
   

Michelle lurking around another gondola