Venice, Italy

Venice was beautiful - sunny and spring-like every day.  We were so fortunate, because only a week before we arrived many areas of the city were flooded.

These raised walkways were still stacked and ready all over town.

We arrived when carnival was still happening.  We bought the girls masks as soon as we got there.  Here they are in one of the squares, playing on an old well.  For a city on the water, they had to have a lot of wells to collect fresh, drinkable water.

Rio may have the biggest carnival and New Orleans does a good job, but Venice is where it originated.  People come from all over the world to be part of it and plenty of them take the dressing up part to a whole new level.  So you saw a lot of this. . .

And this, as you can see very elaborate.  Entire families dress up, we even saw some with matching pets.  There were costume competitions and lots of festivities.

The girls walked around in their masks most of the time we were there.

Venice is a pedestrian and a boat city ONLY - there are no cars, buses, motorcycles, Vespas, bicycles or push chairs.  Instead there are police boats, taxi boats, public transport boats, boats that deliver your mail, collect your garbage, very odd and something I didn’t think about until after we were there.    The no bicycles and strollers surprised me the most but there were a few strange dolly type things that workmen and delivery guys used, but they had some extra modifications that made it easy to get up and down stairs.  Other than that there were no wheels at all.  On the map you can see that the only road into the city is the one in the upper left and you pretty much have to turn around or park your vehicle there until you leave.  Like I said it shouldn’t have surprised me, but it was just one of those things you don’t really think about until you see it yourself.

In addition to touring the city, mostly on foot, we took a boat to the small island of Murano, you know, where all of the pretty and expensive glass comes from. 

Here are the girls in front of a neat sculpture.

The museum and factory itself were sort of a let down.  I guess after being to Dale Chihulys "Garden and Glass" in Seattle, anything else glass-related would be. . .

We also went on a tour of the Doge's Palace.  Here are the girls jumping in the courtyard.

With a strange mouthed guy which was essentially a complaint box back in the day.

Like many of the other palaces we've seen, it was elaborate and over the top and there was gold everywhere.

This one did have a painting of heaven.  I know, you're probably thinking the same thing I was - heaven is very over crowded.

That's it for now, more Venice to come.

Comments

[Erin Collins]

Oh, tell me you have a picture of dogs dressed up for Carnival?

[Mom]

Lucky timing! Venice is so special, so unique. I'm glad you got to go. I'd love to see it sometime, too, maybe with Kent and Erin.