Italy: Venice

We entered Venice at night on the water bus.  The buildings and bridges along the grand canal were lit beautifully.

Rialto Bridge

We stayed at the Hotel Colombina right on the canals.  When you entered the lobby it was like you were stepping back in time to the 18th century.

It was Carnival Season in Venice.  WOW!  With my husband's costume fetish I can't believe we didn't dress up, but nothing we have would have compared to the costumes we saw on St. Mark's Square.

Carnival was pretty tame compared to what I had imagined.  Surprisingly the square was quite by about 9PM.  It was very family friendly and a lot of fun to people watch.

They had a stage set up at the end of the square with big screens and a seating area where they had different kinds of performance groups scheduled throughout the day, but the highlight was walking around and interacting with the people in costume.

The first day we were in Venice we took our walking tour.  The guide was a little different that the ones we have had in the past.  I tried to loosen him up a bit and got labeled as "the joker" of the group.  Imagine!  I don't think I have ever had that label or anything like it before.

I actually took over the tour for a little bit to help out.  I think he just got tired of me asking questions and figured if I was talking to the group I couldn't ask him anything.

Bridge of Sighs

Venice - Trade Center of the World

Our group at the Venetian Shipping Trade Center

The tour was a marathon.  What was supposed to be one and a half hours turned into about four and because I had made friends with the guide, I didn't feel we could slip out.  I think he was just lonely.  After the marathon tour we even got an extra tour on the side and learned all we ever wanted to know about the Venetian water system.  Of course I did ask the question...I hope we made his day.

St Mark's basilica was beautiful.  The mosaics were astounding.  Since the written scriptures weren't available to all classes the scripture stories were told through these mosaics on the ceiling.  Do you know this bible story?

Each tile was about as big as a contact lens.  What dedication it must have taken to put these scenes together.  Each dome or section along the nave told a different story.

The gold represented enlightenment from heaven and the whole ceiling was covered in it surrounding these mosaics.  Most of the decoration for this chapel came from the booty of returning sea captains. We were also able to view the treasury with religious relics from all over the world and the golden altarpiece.  Due to all the gold in the ceiling and the daylight coming in through the windows, the inside of this basilica was actually glowing.

The highlight of my Venice trip (besides the cute shops, carnival, and being in a place like none other in the world) was attending the Interpreti Veneziani Concert in the San Vidal church.  This was a small chamber orchestra that performed mostly Vivaldi's works, in its true 18th century baroque fashion.  The audience was small, the music was grand and the setting was classic.  Vivaldi is one of my favorite composers so this was a real treat and these guys were really good!  Each piece was wonderfully played and all the performer's love of music was evident.  The excitement on stage was contagious and had me smiling through the whole concert.

Venice is most certainly a place I would want to visit again.  Next time I want to hit the nearby islands of Murano and Burano that time constrained us from doing this trip.