A small, empty backstreet in Venice.

Even after a short amount of time in Venice, you learn that it’s not just the water, the boats that make Venice what it is.

It’s the distinct architecture that makes shots like this still exude Venice even though there’s no trace of water or water-going vessels. Plus the old-style washing just pushes it over the top for me. I really enjoy seeing washing hung in this manner since it feels so “old world charm”.

Venice’s Grand Canal, looking out from the Rialto Bridge. Taken just after a massive downpour, though it was still raining slightly as I took these shots.

As we walked down the bridge (to the right-hand side of frame) we were surprised to see how quickly and how much the streets were flooded. People were eating meals in restaurants, while lifting their feet into the air. Waiters had donned galoshes and were continuing to go about their every day business.

The number of people you have to fight at the top of the Rialto bridge just to get a photo is insane. I had to lean quite far over the edge of the bridge just to make sure I didn’t get anyone else’s arms or other protruding objects into my photos.

It seems as though people were much taller in ancient Venice.

Obviously the large door — or what might have once been a door — has a far smaller door now nestled within. For scale, there is a person standing (and two other people nearby, who appear to be tourists).

Why the door and/or frame was this big in the first place? I have no idea. I also have absolutely no idea where this was, beside it being Venice, which makes it difficult to find out more about the location.

Shortly after we arrived in Venice, a massive downpour soaked us to the bone. This shot is the calm after the storm, where the water was amazingly still.

While we were in Venice, we learned about it’s history and architecture. Since I knew little of Venice, other than it being famous for it’s water, and sinking to due being built on sand, I learned a lot.

Something I didn’t know — and something that is evident in this photo — is that Venice (as a port) originally serviced the Middle East and not Italy. Because of this, a lot of Venetian design is Middle Eastern. Look at the windows right in the centre of the photo, you’ll see rounded outlines reminiscent of Turkish and even Russian design.

Much later, Venice began servicing Italy, which they saw as a lucrative market, which is why it now looks more Italian. Examples such as this are everywhere in Venice and it’s fun to try and spot them (since you’re lost all the time, may as well try and have fun with it!).

Taken shortly after our arrival in Venice. We’d arrived on the train and made our way to the apartment rental agent in order to pick up our keys, but he wasn’t open yet!

Since the streets were mostly empty, Justine waited around while I took a few photos in the early morning sun. Justine is only just out of shot (in fact, she’s in the original uncropped shot) while I took this shot from a bridge.

The man in frame apparently stared Justine down as he walked past. Dirty old Italian geezer!

Day Twenty-Four
Venice
31 August 2007 - 21:54

With our shoes mostly dried from the day before, we headed out in the direction of the San Marco church, considered the “must see” in Venice, besides the water.

The line was incredibly long for San Marco and when a lady approached us and offered for 10€ to give us (and others) a tour and to skip the line, we agreed. The lady gave us an interesting history of Venice and decent tour of the church. Even though we have seen plenty this one is very different. The entire roof is lined with mosaic glass and gold leaf, and took 300 years to decorate. The sight is extremely impressive, but they ban photos (I took a couple anyway; another lady beside me whose flash fired was asked to stop).

While we were inside the church the rain began to fall again. The church actually floods and today was no exception. They are well prepared though, and have wooden boards for people to walk on.

Outside of the church, the whole plaza was flooded. People were weaving along the thin dry parts, and when we saw the line for the tower we decided just to get lost again.

With our map once again proving useless, we walked around looking at the masquerade masks, glass shops, and other Venetian things. As we looked in one glass shop, we saw the man inside making a blue glass cat. When he was finished we entered and bought the very same cat. It was still quite warm!

Later, Justine bought a papier mache mask and I bought a small (fake) bronze winged lion, which is a Venetian symbol.

We bought some packet pasta at a market along with a bag of mixed dry herbs and porcini mushrooms which seem to be the Italian equivalent of a jar of sauce. You fry the herbs and mix with the cooked pasta. Again Justine cooked; we mixed a jar of chunky tomatoes with it all too. Not bad.

Day Twenty-Three
Venice
30 August 2007 - 21:03

I had a reasonable night’s sleep on the train again — I highly recommend it unless you are scrimping and saving and can sleep in loud environments. Breakfast on this train was a tad better than the previous overnight train’s meat spread, though it was just yoghurt and juice for me.

As we had booked our tickets in Prague the tickets actually terminated the station before you cross over to Venice itself but the stewardess was kind enough to let us stay on until Venice.

The directions I had written to get us to the office to get our apartment’s keys were good, though we had to wait 20 minutes for the owner to show up (9:20am). Since our apartment was in another place, we still had to get there. They say that getting lost is all part of the experience in Venice, and it’s easy to see why you get lost. Numerous dead ends only a long jumper could cross, street names that change, street names that are all the same except for one small prefix and maps that are pathetically inaccurate. On every street people have large maps open. It’s fun wandering unless you want to go somewhere specific. The it’s maddening.

Still, we managed to find San Marco, even though it had closed before our arrival. In the large square there are literally thousands of pigeons being fed by people. They climb all over people, on their heads, arms, hands. We don’t get why people like it, pigeons are like flying rats!

Lunch was a single slice of pizza larger than our heads (seriously); Justine had margherita and I had salami and mushroom. Both were followed with gelati.

Dinner was bought from a supermarket — fresh gnocchi from a deli with a jar of sauce, which was much better than at home.

The best thing about Venice though, is the lack of cars. It’s so quiet here, even with all the tourists and boat motors rumbling.

Earlier in the morning, as we’d left our apartment, a massive thunderstorm quickly started. Lightning was so loud and so close, and sounded so crackly that we both jumped. The rain came down hard and even though we both had umbrellas our feet were both drenched.

It’s warm (and humid) here though, and I was wearing shorts. When the rain stopped, he waterways were so flooded shops closed, streets were flooding, people were in chairs outside restaurants holding their feet up out of the water. The rain was on and off for the rest of the day.

We approached a few guys about getting gondola rides. The most expensive wanted 200€, which is close the the cost of three nights accommodation in Rome!

There are heaps of mostly black people and Indian people selling knockoff bags, belts, sunglasses and more. Gucci, Armani, Fendi; you name it. In some areas there are so many it is actually difficult to walk.