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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Venice; pity about the weather...

Souvenir of Venice

The first night in Bologna we took a cab to our friend Alberto's delightful villa where we enjoyed a typical Italian four-course meal prepared by him.  His wife, Federica and two children were in new York, where Federica was running in the New York City Marathon, so we didn't get to meet her until the Grand Gala Dinner in Sansepolcro.

The next morning the heavens opened up.  As we'd earmarked this day for Venice, we thought, 'so it's raining' and walked across to the station with high hopes that the day would clear; no such luck!


Well, Venezia's streets were awash and the water was creeping into the shops.  Paths of planks had been constructed in some of the streets for those who didn't wish to wade.  We bought umbrellas and ponchos and strolled along, oblivious to the water; we just couldn't believe we were in Venice.


We asked a shopkeeper the directions to St. Mark's Square and were told, 'an hour's walk that way'!  If it had been a fine day we would have walked but we headed back the way we came and thought about taking a water bus but changed our minds when we saw the sea of black umbrellas waiting to board.  So we walked over the first bridge and sloshed around the little streets, eventually taking refuge in a tiny little café for lunch.


After nearly 3 hours we decided to leave and I'm now very sorry that we didn't wait in line for that Vaporetto, as I know we'll probably never pass that way again!








Many shops like this


The mask is in pride of place
in my music room
along with Beethoven and Bach
I must get a bust of Verdi...

18 comments:

Mason Canyon said...

Oh, such lovely photos. Despite the bad weather, sounds like it was delightful.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

alaine@éclectique said...

Mason...thanks, it was special, despite the rain. The next day was beautiful weather for our train trip to Rimini on the coast.

Wanda..... said...

Venice is a unique and beautiful city, which I will never see in person, but have watched many documentaries on TV. I would love to roam any street in Europe at "dawn"...to watch the city wake up!

Steven Cain said...

What an amazing city. Thanks for the pictures.

Karena said...

Alaine,

Beautiful images and keepsakes. I have seen many paintings of these views!

xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena

Renée Finberg said...

i love masks.
i did a post on masks and the impostor syndrome
all the images were taken at the festival in venice.
this is a great post.
xx

alaine@éclectique said...

Wanda...when you're over there you do just that; rise really early, to see the city without the bustle. We've seen but a tiny morsel and love to watch the documentaries to see the rest!

alaine@éclectique said...

Steven C...and we didn't get to see the best of it!

alaine@éclectique said...

Karena...yes, they were familiar to me too, through art! Thanks for visiting!

alaine@éclectique said...

Renee...thank you...I love them too and would love to be there for a festival!

Ruthie Redden said...

Somewhere i too hope to visit, one day, sigh. Such a shame about the rain though, but wonderful images to remember your trip by. x

Lyn said...

Venice, under any circumstances..such lovely photos..memories forever!

alaine@éclectique said...

Ruthie...and what a wonderful trip you had to Marrakesh...something I'd love to do!!

alaine@éclectique said...

Lyn...yes, you're right, under any circumstances, a sweet memory!

T. said...

Ah....Venice. Nice to see images of it in rain, all things considered. My particular Venetian experience includes 95 (fahrenheit) degree weather, outrageous humidity, and two arguing teenage sons. Nonetheless, a most extraordinary city. Nothing quite like it anywhere else on the planet, I'd venture to say!

alaine@éclectique said...

T...I'm so glad I wasn't wandering around in 95F heat and humidity! Today's expected temp here is 40C = 104F!! I'll be sewing today and praying we don't have a power shortage!

Nice to see you...enjoy your weekend!

columnist said...

Shame about the weather. But now you have a very good excuse to go back. Thanks for stopping by on my blog. Will enjoy exploring yours.

LaPouyette said...

Beautiful post!
I must admit that I love Venice in gray! And - of course - without tourists.
If I would ever have the possibility for a visit I would definitely chose November or so......

Greetings to Australia
karin

And many thanks for your comments!