I think mostly because there aren't any cars or motorcycles in Venice city. To get around, you either walk or take a water bus. I found Venice to be very relaxing and lots of fun to explore. You'd be wandering around (it's very easy to get lost!) and you turn a corner and you're in a large square with benches and a public water spigot. The spigots are always on and occasionally the pigeons will feel they need a shower and will hang out under the spigot. In one square I was about to take a photo of a pigeon taking a shower when a kid chased him off. Darn kids! Anyway, here's a photo of Ginny with a friend in San Marco's square:
They sell birdseed so you can feed the pigeons but anyone walking into the mass of begging birds will soon be festooned with hopeful birds. This pigeon sat on Ginny's shoulder for a good five minutes, cooing in her ear. It was very cute. Did I mention that a seagull pooped on my head while we were waiting for the boot to take us to the city? Our tour guide tried to tell me it was considered good luck but all I could think of was I had bird crap on my head. Ginny is a wonderful friend and, using a WetWipe, got it off my head in one neat, clean wipe. Despite all of that, I still walked to the center of San Marco's square and allowed pigeons to sit on my head and shoulders. It was rather cool.
This is San Marco's Basilica. Isn't it beautiful? Try and ignore the scafolding; it seems everywhere we went, they were doing some kind of repairs so you couldn't get a clean shot. I bought a number of postcards for that reason.
A close-up of the fresco above the front door. It was hard to get a good shot because the sun was shining on all the gold and I kept getting a lot of glare. You can see some of that on the lower left side.
The Basilica was one side of the square and the other three sides were made up of these buildings - or one huge U-shaped building, I don't recall which. The bottoms are stores and I assume people live on the upper two floors.
The Grand Canal. This is what I picture when I think of Venice. The water bus is on the lower, left side of the photo. It cost 12 Euro to ride one way - that's about $18. Ginny and I walked.
Of the three cities, I liked Rome the least and Venice the most. I found Rome to be dirty, packed with people and crazy with cars. I will admit, though that we were in all the high-tourist areas. The afternoon we spent in the Piazza Navona was my favorite part of the entire trip. Of the cities, I was most comfortable in Venice. The pace just seemed slower and more relaxing. Oh, BTW, Ginny and I tried to find the Venice public library to see if X marked the spot (a true geek, I'm referring to "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade") but we couldn't find one. Bummer!
Tomorrow I'll have some finished sock yarn to show you.
what i truly do not understand in Venice is how do you build buildings on Water? it really amazes me! you can tell im not an architect cant you *lol*
Posted by: abe-hap | October 10, 2007 at 08:50 AM