Italy: Part 3 Venice
From Florence we took the train to Venice. This has been our favorite place in Italy. There are so many things to see and so many beautiful places. I took a huge number of photos. We arrived at the train station then took a ferry through the Grand Canal to our hotel. Although from the outside our hotel doesn’t look like much (just an awning to mark the doorway) we overlook a small side street with a ristorante across the street.
There are a lot of churches here and every time I saw one I took a photo. We went inside a few but you aren’t supposed to take photos. The interiors are very dark but beautiful with walls and ceilings painted as you might guess with the artwork going back 8 centuries in some cases.
Church
San Marcos Basilica close up of exterior paintings and stonework
San Marcos Basilica another side
The square around San Marcos
A close up of the government building in San Marcos square
Church along a canal
Everything in Venice is centered around it canals. The constant activity from small ferries, to gondolas, to water taxis and commercial barges bringing supplies to the vendors makes for a fascinating sight. Picking a few photos from so many is sometime a hard choice.
View from the Rialto bridge
Venice traffic jam
There were lots of beautiful buildings along the canals. I took some photos from the ferry on our way to our hotel.
Old building under repair but look at the decoration!
There were also beautiful gardens. These photos from the Royal Gardens.
The Florian Cafe is the oldest coffee house in Italy and one of the oldest in the world still in use. It was build in 1720 and the interior is still the same (with a few modern conveniences). We had to have a coffee and a treat!
Florian Cafe
Florian Cafe artwork on walls and ceiling. This was only one room in the cafe.
A few other things to see…
The famous Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge along promenade between the courthouse on the left and the prison on the right. The next photo will show the actual Bridge of Sighs and why it is called that.
The Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed bridge whose name is derived from the prisoners leaving the courtroom, walking across the bridge to the prison and they sighed as they had their last look out on the Grand Canal of Venice.
At one time, Venice had the biggest and strongest Navy in the world (ok, it was centuries ago) and the Arsenale still stands today. Unfortunately when Napolean conquered Italy, he destroyed most of the piers and other original features but it is still home to the naval police today so it is restricted entry. You can walk around the walls though.
