Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Venetian Vacation

Our long venetian weekend, to celebrate our anniversary, started with a 6 hour drive down to Italy. Despite having a car we haven't taken enough road trips and with Italy so close it was definitely the best choice.

It also meant we could stop at the grocery to load up on wine, cheese, olive oil, and balsamic to bring back on the way home.

The drive is wonderful... through the mountains, vineyards, and past ancient towering churches, castles, and fortresses.

In Venice we stayed at the Al Ponte Mocenigo, and let me tell you it lived up to its reputation. It's really an incredible place with beautiful rooms and a great location in Santa Croce.

Here are some of the things we saw and did:

beautiful animal masks

carnival masks

intricate door handles

decorated walls

quiet scenes near the canal

Catholic saints

ancient narrow walkways

gondolas

gondoliers + their stripes

green glowing canals

rush hour at Riva Degli

Pont della Pagila

bridge of sighs

Saint Mark's Church

Saint Mark's Lion

Torre d. Orologio antique + now

pigeons of the past + present

piazza san marco

san polo + the markets

pretty windows

lots of immigrant workers

ca'd'orio

campo san stae

Doge's Palace

Oksana Mas art work

Grand Canal palaces

local cuisine at the water front

vaparetto rides and gelato

It's sort of strange to visit a city after having already been before. I think back to the first time we went and how mesmerized I was. I'm certain I even said something along the lines of "If I ever win the lottery I definitely want a place here."

Being a more seasoned traveler I notice similarities of places we've been and want to compare places even though they are all unique. All of those experiences make me view the city a little differently.

If you like Venice, you'd probably also like Marrakech or Essaouira, Dubronvik, and Palma, Mallorca. They all share those narrow ancient walkways that make it easy to get lost.

Having waterways as streets sets Venice apart. It also takes a while to get around and is oftentimes quicker to simply walk.

1 comment:

cliff1976 said...

Great idea with the grocery run! We plan on doing that over a week or so of driving around Umbria this fall.

I hope we rent a "combi" with enough hauling capacity to keep us well stocked in non-perishables (and a few perishables) alike.