Our night train arrived this morning and we tired travelers made our way via Google maps to our rental. Venice is a labyrinth of canals and walkways that are not in a grid. Think densely packed villages in the middle ages. Some of the walkways are fairly large--maybe 15 feet across while others are very narrow--2-3 feet across. And they all intersect in campos--which are neighborhood squares. Each neighborhood square has an old well which is covered over and locked (probably due to the water quality). Many, though also have running water coming out of a spigot which is tap water and can be used to fill water bottles.
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| The sight that greeted us as we came out of the train station! |
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| Looking for our apartment rental |
Anyway, we arrived at our rental and were allowed to leave our bags even though the cleaning person hadn't been there yet. So we left our bags and took to the city. We mostly just wandered and took pictures, including St. Mark's square. We went up the Campanile (bell tower) which was cool (they have an elevator), then went back around 3:00.
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| a campo |
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| a picturesque canal |
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| More churches |
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| A traffic jam! |
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| Grape vines grown on lines over the street |
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| Detail |
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| Somehow they fit this building with it's hardware store into the crevice between the church transept and the bell tower! |
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| A candy store Joshua has his eye on |
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| The grand canal from the Rialto Bridge |
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| The Rialto bridge--one of the few over the Grand Canal |
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| Detail |
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| Campo San Marco |
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| St. Mark's Cathedral |
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| St. Mark's Campanile |
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| The entrance to the Campanile |
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| Detail of the cathedral and the Doge's Palace |
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| Venice from the Campanile |
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| Venice from the Campanile |
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| The Doge's Palace from the Campanile |
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| Campo San Marco (St. Mark's Square) from the Camponile |
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| The bells |
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| Another bell |
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| The Clock Tower from the Campanile |
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| Postcard from Venice |
The cleaning woman was just finishing up. We took showers and naps and woke up feeling so much better! The first order of business was to find a cafe for dinner, then we wandered some more.
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| Dinner at a sidewalk cafe |
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| Another postcard from Venice |
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| Another cathedral |
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| Yet another cathedral (most don't allow pictures indoors) |
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| Very detailed graffiti about saving the planet and being part of the 99% |
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| Looks like the public works follow the bridges! |
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| This is a church (cross on top of the door) with a skull detail |
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| Looks like part of the original city wall |
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| A doorway in the middle of the street--you can walk through it or around it |
It was nice to nap an sleep in a real bed in a quiet apartment. Our apartment has one bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom, and a living room with a fold-out couch which is where Joshua slept. It is a a very quiet building in a quiet neighborhood and the living room looks out over the canal. Pretty big for Venice and nicer than a hotel.
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| Along the water at sunset |
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