graceandjoe-theadventures: venice!

To my surprise, I was giddy with excitement about Venice. Even on the train I was getting anxious as the train left the mainland, which was for me a really weird feeling. I guess it just has that quality to it.

My plan was pretty simple - walk around. I had one day and pretty I just wanted to see as much of the city as I could, and do so powered by pizza and cappuccino. Fortunately this is a very very feasible plan in this strange, watery city.

Yep, I took a lot of canal photos... I'm just going to leave this thing on.

Just so cool! OK, now that's out of my system. Eventually I weaved my way through to Piazza San Marco, home to the Doges Palace, St Mark's Basilica, and thousands of other tourists, most of whom had just arrived from the mothership parked nearby.

Totally best weather yet again! I didn't go for the gondolieres though - I felt being by myself would be a little weird.

Victor Emmanuel II again, first King of Italy.

Iconic walls of the Doges Palace, built in 1340

The Doge kneeling before the Lion of St Mark.

St Mark's Basilica, much less crowded in the morning.

A seamless addition!

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute! Very beautiful church built in 1680 as many people in Venice were suffering from the Black Death.

It was quite peaceful inside!

At the time I thought this was some kind of Austerity protest, but I think it's simply a theatre. Tutti means like "all together now"

Free refills! Pretty handy that these things are pretty much everywhere.

Interesting to see Venice changing at night, especially just at sunset when the sky is still a deep, vivid blue.

During that late evening however the city really lost most of its colour, and everything is stained by the yellow green street lights.

I started to think, I could get to the edge of the city and take a photo! And here I arrived. The view was very unsatisfying, but sort of eerie as well. Like the mainland was a highway, constantly whizzing by as the city followed, at a slower pace.

I leaned out trying to get another unsatisfying photo and almost ended up in the dip. The edge is angled downwards, and very slippery! Both my feet were sliding when I fell back on my butt and somehow found traction on the slime.

Would have been pretty screwed too! At least no one was around to see me make a fool of myself!

I woke up early the next day just to walk around some more! Again, I did think of catching the ferry, but really - it was expensive, and walking was so much fun!

Ponte Di Rialto! The oldest bridge across the canal, completed in 1591. It replaced the repeatedly collapsing timber bridge that had stood here previously since 1181.