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Gondolas move tourists up and down the narrow canals in Venice.
1. Venice- a water-taxi
2. Venice - Gondola
3. Venice Academia bridge
on the
Grand Canal
from the Rialto Bridge
I remember crossing the bridge
in picture- 3. but I can't remember its name. I had to
cross it because I missed
my water taxi stop [That is a water-taxi in picture-1].
I ended up about 6 blocks
from where I wanted to get off and on the wrong side of the canal.
I met an American couple
who had also missed their stop. They had a great attitude.
"We are lost but it doesn't
really make any difference." They were not that lost since they
had an excellent map of
the city. I used it to figure out how to go to get back to my hotel.
4. Venice -
St. Marks
5. Venice - Doge's palace
Arial
view of piaza san marco
view from St. Marks Piazza
The
Doge's Palace is located to the right of St. Marks.
My little Pentax camera
had a telephoto feature but no wide angle.
This was a major problem
in composing pictures. I could not move
back far enough to get both
St. Marks and the palace in the same
picture. The famous
clock is to the left of St. Marks. It was covered
with netting and being refurbished,
so I didn't take a picture of it.
The title, Doge [leader]
/doa-zhey/ is from the same root as Duke.
The Doge was an elected
leader although the right to vote was limited.
The palace was designed to
impress foreign
dignitaries and is very
ornate. There are a couple of prisons
in the palace and in an
adjacent building separated by a canal.
Casanova claims to have
escape from one of the cells where he
was being detained.
St. Marks is supposed to
be the resting place of the bones of
St. Mark. These remains
were stolen from Alexandria.
6. Venice-street
7. Venice - flower boxes
Grand Canal, Venice
There is no auto traffic
in Venice but with all the motor boat traffic on the grand canal, it is
not
without pollution. Motorized
wheeled transport would be of limited use in the narrow streets.
I had anticipated more pollution
than I actually found. The canels were relatively clean and odor
free.
The buildings were not as
musty as I had anticipated. There was only one museum where I could
detect any musty smell.
The water taxi is in the shadows. It has yellow trim and is sitting at the dock.
One can drive across a causeway
to one end of the island and park.
We took the train.
Maria, Stephanie, and I left Geneva around midnight and tried
to sleep in an Italian pullman
car.
Stephanie and Maria in front
of St. Marks Cathedral - Doget's palace
Venice was built on several
islands to offer some protection against invaders.
After burning down part
of the city, the glassworks were moved to Murano, a nearby island.
The barrier spit that faces
the Adriadic Sea is called Lido and is just a short water taxi ride away.
I spent one morning on the
beach and toured much more of the island than I wanted because I had trouble
locating the water taxi
pier. I thought it was on in the middle of the island so I took the bus
to what I thought
was north of the middle
and started walking south. I should have been walking north. Fortunately,
Portugues
was close enough to Italian
to get some directions. The port was at the far north end of Lido.
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Verona
Verona - A Roman
Arena in the town square
Currently used as
a outdoor theater
Operas are staged
here all summer
In Verona we stayed at the
Casteloveccio a modern hotel next to the old brick castle of the same name.
which was built by Cangrande
[big dog] in the 10th Century. The room was on two floors
and could have slept 8 or
more. It included a full kitchen, 2 full bathrooms, 2 bedrooms,
lots of closet space, and
a living room with leather furniture. We paid the usual $125 per
night but this establishment
was much superior to the cramped hotels in the high tourist.
The breakfast they served
was also twice as good as any in Paris or Venice.
areas. This room was
normally $180 but Stephanie got a special rate because there were
no operas on Monday night.
Verona is supposed to have
the best Roman ruins outside of Rome.
What is interesting is that
where possible, the Roman areana and
theater are more than ruins,
they are still being used. The night before
we arrived, there was an
opera in the arean and a jazz group at the
outdoor theater. Behind
the ruins of the Roman theater is a monestary
which has been turned into
a museum.
Verona
Verona has some of the best
preserved Roman ruins in Italy.
The theater has been refurbished
and continues to be used.
The original facade is all
but gone so a new modern stage was constructed.
Chair backs were added to
the lower rows - this can be seen at the bottom of the photo.
We ate at an outdoor resturant
in downtown Verona. Stephanie ordered risoto for two, I ordered
a bottle of wine.
Maria didn't think that the risoto tasted like the dish her Italian grandmother
used
to make. Stephanie
insisted that this is the rice dish that Italians call risoto.
.
Verona: Castleveccio [old
castle] bridge from two views.
Train sleeper 18
Venice 19
Venice 20 Sunday
Verona 21 Monday
