Travel – Page 22 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Venice – The Good And The Bad

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Venice was a mixed bag.

The downsides:

It was crowded with tourists. There were two gigantic cruise ships in port that disgorged their loads each morning.

It was VERY expensive. We knew this going in, but it still sucked paying so much for every little thing.

It was was hotter than expected. The weather reports put the temps at 75 degrees, give or take. It felt more like it was in the upper 80’s or lower 90’s during the full on heat of the day and it was humid.

The upsides:

Venice is magnificently beautiful and provided for some great photo opportunities.

We had some fantastic food

We had some fantastic wine

I think the highlight of Venice was walking around and exploring and remembering our first visit. As we were doing this we came across the gondola repair shop we spotted on our visit 8 years ago. The Squero di San Trovaso is the official name. It’s a small square used as a boatyard to build and repair gondolas.

When we found this spot I knew we must be near the restaurant that we found on our previous visit. Neither of us could remember the name, but we we hoped against hope we might find it again and have a meal there while we were in Venice because it was so good. We knew it was down an ally and off the beaten path so we hunted around a bit to see if we could find it. And we did!

It’s called Ristorante San Trovaso and it was every bit as good as we remembered it to be. It was our best meal in Venice. Not that any of the other meals weren’t great, but this one was special.

Sadly, though, I think we’re done with Venice. We enjoyed our visit for the most part but there is no compelling reason for us to return. It’s a big world out there and there’s a lot to see. I am glad to have seen Venice before it sinks in to the sea or is converted into a Euro Disney park or whatever it is that has to happen to save it from it’s ultimate demise due to the ravages of time, tourist and the tides.

Next stop, Florence!

Venice – Full Circle

I have always treasured this photograph of my grandfather. It shows him standing in front of St. Mark’s Square in 1919 at the end of WWI. When we went to Venice in 2005 I tried to take have my own picture taken in the same spot he was standing. I got close, but there is now a railing around the pole so you can’t quite get there.

It was was the early days of my photography. I tried to line it up and got a pretty good shot of me standing in roughly the same spot. But it didn’t come out so well. Over the years I thought it would be good to go back with the photo in hand and take another picture of me in the same basic spot and holding a copy of the original photo.

This trip to Venice afforded me that opportunity so I printed out a copy to bring with me and below is the result.

Day Trip – Painted Houses Of Burano

We decided we needed to get out of the crush of humanity that is Venice during the day so we took a boat over to see the painted houses of Burano.

We sorted out how to get tickets and board the boat and even get off the boat to catch the second boat that would take us to the island. It all went very smoothly and even though Cynthia is not a fan of boats, even she enjoyed the trip over as the boat was pretty big and not overly crowded.

The island is really something to see. The houses are each painted a different, bright color and when the sun shines on them they simply glow. There’s a few canals and some bridges which makes it a bit like a miniature version of Venice.

All in all, very cool. We hung out for most of the day wandering the streets. It’s very residential so you would see kids playing or women doing their ironing in an open doorway or cleaning old shoes out of a window. We laughed a bit as we speculated what it must be like for them to look out their window and see picture taking camera gawkers plodding around snapping photos of everything. We laughed as we tried to imagine the same thing back home.

After we were done we caught the boat back and the ride was fine till we found ourselves dropped on the far end of Venice. We had to catch the Vaporetto back to St. Mark’s Square. This ended up being a grueling adventure as probably twice as many passengers crowded on to the boat than it was designed to carry. At the end of the ride Cynthia mustered a joke about how pleasant it was for a claustrophobic woman who hates being on the water to be in this situation.

More photos can be found in my Flickr set Painted Houses Of Burano, Italy

Venice At Night

Ever since visiting Venice in 2005 I regretted not getting out and doing some night photography. I was going to go out and take some photos on our last night, but sadly it was raining. I swore if we ever made it back I would make up for it. This time around the weather cooperated and I was able to get some good photos.

Venice – The Crowds

To say Venice is crowded would be an understatement. Honestly, I don’t recall it being so jammed packed with tourists like this back in 2005 when we visited the first time. St. Mark’s Square is the worst with lines of tourist queuing up to gain entry to the cathedral and to the Doge’s Palace. Then comes Rialto Bridge lined up with booths selling the worst touristy crap you can imagine and throngs of eager buyers justifying their presence. After that it is the lines of shoppers stopping to look in every window to admire things from tennis shoes to designer handbags. Ugh!

Plus, it was hotter than we expected. The weather sites said 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. When the sun was out it felt much hotter. The evenings were cool, though. And far less crowded.

While we were there, there were at least two gigantic cruise ships that disgorged their load of tourists each morning and collected them each evening.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome city and we are glad to have visited. Once you got away from the main sites it was very pleasant and picturesque.

The photos below don’t quite capture the magnitude of the crowds, but they give you an idea.

Arrival Venice

We caught our flight from Houston to Frankfort late in the afternoon on Thursday and then caught our connecting flight to Venice the following Friday without much incident. Our short hop to Venice had no gate assigned when we arrived so there was a little frustration there, but not a big deal.

After arriving in Venice and collecting our luggage we found our way to the water taxi stand and caught a ride to San Marco which was a short walking distance from our hotel.

We were happy to pay the fee for the taxi rather than catch the much less expensive water bus. Those things get very crowded and, as a I recall from our previous visit, are not very pleasant if you’re jet-lagged and shlepping a bunch of luggage. Plus the view coming in to Venice was spectacular.

By the time we checked in to the hotel we had been awake for going on 30 hours with only about 40 minutes of sleep on the plane.

Even though we had been awake for an insane amount of time we decided to push through. it was a little after 3:00 pm Venice time when we checked in to the hotel, but the weather was fantastic so we unloaded our gear and set out to explore.

Of course Cynthia immediately started hitting on the Italian men. Gondoliers are everywhere and will abscond with with your woman if you are not paying close attention

Venice is as beautiful as a I remember it from 2005. Simply fantastic. But very crowded. Especially around San Marco. But when the sun starts to set it dies down quite a bit. Plus, if you walk out in to the surrounding areas you can find some less populated scenes.

And you simply can’t turn a corner without seeing something that needs to be photographed.

We explored and ended the day with a nice dinner and then went for some much needed sleep.

Internet is spotty here at the hotel so updates are a little slow. Please bear with us.

Buon viaggio!

We’re off to Italy!

Stresscon 3

We’re in final preparations for the trip to Italy and I am at StressCon 3. Flight and hotels have been booked, rail passes secured, initial packing done as well as sorting out exactly which photo gear I will be taking on this trip.

To complicate things, I have a business trip to Orlando during the days leading up to the flight to Italy. That means I go to Orlando for work and fly back to Houston and turn around the next day to fly to Italy. It’s not all that tight of a schedule, but I have had to pack two separate suitcases so my Italy gear will be mostly ready when I get back from Orlando. This throws my planning and preparation out of kilter because I don’t have the week leading up to the big trip to verify everything on my checklist. I have to do it now and maybe a little the night before I leave.

And in keeping with the tradition of The Maiming of the Nose and Ojo Rojo, Cynthia has had a minor medical issue come up. One of her teeth has disintegrated. Old fillings just don’t hold up, I guess.

She has a temporary crown so we are good to go. Poor Cynthia. She’s being a real trooper, though.