Venezia

A Venice canal.

Tom and I have embarked on our 2013 adventure to Italy! We left home on November 8th, and flew through the night to arrive in Venice via Frankfurt at approximately 12:15pm. One can't help but be awed by the dream-like waterworld that is Venice. No cars, no scooters, no bicycles. Just pedestrians strolling through narrow maze-like passages, crosscut by canals crowded with boats and gondolas. 

November is the off-season for tourism in Italy, and I can hardly fathom what the full-fledged peak tourism season must be like. Even now, the main waterfront is packed with people, and Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) is overflowing with sightseers, panhandlers and semi-suspicious looking sellers who I suspect will try to pick my pockets.

The weather has been cool, hovering between 13-15 degrees, with light rain, but I actually prefer it that way. Tom and I can walk around all day without feeling overheated, and can alternate between wearing a light jacket or not.

On our first morning, we took a stroll to a park that we had viewed from our water taxi on the way in from the airport the previous evening.

Public dog park.

Up close, we realized that the park was an off-leash area for locals with dogs. There were dozens of dogs of all shapes, breeds and sizes frolicking in the grass. We have noted that Italy is a very dog-friendly place. There are dogs everywhere! On the waterfront, in parks, travelling on water buses with their owners, in stores... My favourite dog so far was a little lap dog-- maybe a Shih Tzu or Maltese mix, who was running around in circles in Piazza San Marco chasing pigeons. It didn't catch any, but it looked like it was having a marvelous good time.

View from the Rialto Bridge.

As we wound our way through the city, we found our way to the Rialto Bridge. We didn't capture a good picture of this bridge, but if you've been to Vegas, there is a replica of the Rialto Bridge in front of the Venetian Hotel. The bridge crosses the Grand Canal, and was a major tourist traps-- there were shops and snack bars built into the bridge.

Tom and I on the Rialto Bridge.

Our next mission was to find that church that was used as a library in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That did not prove to be too difficult. We located Biblioteca di San Barnaba with little-to-no-difficulty. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by the now-converted church. For some reason, I thought it looked a lot older and ancient in the movie. It looked surprisingly clean and well taken care of in person. Not that that's a bad thing!

Biblioteca di San Barnaba.

We finished off our day back in Piazza San Marco, and paid the fee to ride an elevator to the top of Campanile di San Marco, aka the St. Mark's bell tower. This is a tall (if not the tallest) structure in Venice, and gave us an excellent view of the city.  

View from St. Mark's Bell Tower.

Below the bell tower is San Marco Basilica-- which we were not able to get a good picture of from the ground due to extensive scaffolding for repairs and restoration work. Interesting fact-- it had rained a bit on Sunday, and we had to enter the Basilica on raised platforms that were put in place so tourists didn't have to walk through the water that had pooled at the cathedral entrance!

I thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Venice, but thanks to friends' advice, we only stayed for two days. This was the perfect amount of time to enjoy the unique surroundings, without getting bored.

We are moving on to La Spezia, for a hike through the famously scenic fishing villages of Cinque Terre!