A Weekend in Venice

So, my self-titled adventure backlog is growing at a slow but steady rate, as I keep procrastinating and doing pretty much anything else other than sit my ass down and continue writing. With the Nepal trip still barely halfway through, the mid-December Norwegian Aurora hunt as well as a couple of domestic mountain trips left completely undocumented and an exciting adventure across South America (hopefully) in the works, I really need to start coming up with new content at a more reliable rate if I want this whole blogging thing to keep working.

So, to keep the ball rolling, rather than fill out another five pages’ worth of endless text, I’ll just limit my latest trip to Venice to a few short conclusions and, perhaps equally annoyingly, an excessive amount of photos:

1.       Having heard about it, read about it, seen photos with it and seen movies filmed in it, it still feels uniquely remarkable to see Venice first hand: a city with no cars and no roads to speak of, entirely dependent on the canals for transportation: it makes truly is a sight to behold

2.       While a well planned route through the city,  ticking major tourist attractions off the list, might be the smarter way to go about visiting, I found that simply picking a direction and walking that way, getting lost between arched bridges and narrow alleys, made for an equally fun and educational experience

3.       A building that looks old, feels old and greets you with a broken window and a large, empty, half-deserted looking entrance hall, isn’t necessarily abandoned; that’s all just part of its atemporal charm

4.       More to the point, Corte Loredana proved, despite a slightly uninviting exterior, to be clean, cozy and quaint; my one complaint concerns the heating system which seems ill suited for an abnormally cold March; room temperature was 16-18 degrees Celsius

5.       Cold, mist and nearly non-stop rain might not be the ideal weather to visit Venice, but it certainly made things look a bit different to what you see in most postcards, in addition to making me want to go there again under clearer skies, hesitant as I might be to swim through throngs of tourists

 
That’s it, I promised I’d keep it short, in text at least, so enough with the chatter and on with the photos: 

Not 30 minutes in Venice, taking refuge from the rain near the Santa Lucia train station; the seagulls seemed unphased

First view of the Grand Canal and the San Simeone Piccolo Church

I was quickly charmed by the narrow alleys, regardless of the weather

Predictably, romance lacked not.

A misty morning through one of the wider walkways

And a slightly less crowded courtyard

The tourist density naturally grew when getting closer to the main attractions

Such as the Rialto Bridge (from where this is taken)

I would imagine that navigating the canals with a gondola requires considerable skill and training

Santa Maria della Salute, from across the Grand Canal; more on it later

First time entering Piazza Santo Marco - an impressive sight

You're prohibited from feeding the pigeons, because apparently they're assholes

But they do know how to pose (yes, I know that's not a pigeon; made a better model)

The sky finally gives a faint hope of clearing!

St. Mark's Basilica

The Doge's Palace

View of the San Giorgio Maggiore island

This is closer to what I'd imagine Venice to be

A glass blower's demonstration on the island of Murano

Simone Cenedesse's "Comet Glass Star"

That he was able to play in the cold was pretty amazing!

Especially since the sun had once more started fading behind clouds and fog

A bunch of pigeons resented the seagulls stealing the show and kept jumping into the spotlight

Back from Murano - an afternoon stroll between reflective canals

Back to the Santa Lucia train station, looking across the Grand Canal

Nighttime brings its own charm

A large, wooden door

And the building it leads into

Make note of the fingers on the building to the right

Because those hands seem to be holding everything from falling apart!

Back through Piazza Santo Marco

It has charm of a different kind during the rain

Finally got to that church I mentioned earlier, the one seen from across the canal!

A cold, quiet and soothing place

And impressive to look at from both within and outside

Finally, a random shot of a random alley, not long before returning to the train station and departing Venice