Well, I have to say, Venice caught my attention, and personally I loved it. Different, unusual, beautiful, quirky, well looked after and maintained, scenic, colourful, busy, aimed at tourists yet full of Italians, and most importantly, it is romantic. Sights, sounds, smell and colours are outstanding.
When the sun is out, the colours of buildings almost sparkle, the canals glow green and blue, the gondoliers’ chatter echoes around the alleyways and despite the amount of tourists buzzing around, the place is quiet, sometimes eerie, sometimes acceptably noisy with chatter or music coming from apartments overhanging the streets or canals; the smells are of garlic, pizza, grilled meat, wine and beer, fresh sea water, not stinky smells as there may have been years ago. The place is sparklingly clean, an army of cleaners empty dustbins and sweep streets every half an hour in peak season!
The buildings are ornate, aged, colourful, interesting and different, not two buildings are the same. The Lagoon is always an aqua green colour and the views coming from the Cavallino peninsular to Venice was always stunning, one of my favourite images is of the skyline of Venice with its two towers.
The Cavallino peninsular is quite unusual, about 35 miles long, with 30 camping “villages” and about 20 hotels on the left, all edging out onto the Adriatic sea; on the right are lush agricultural fields inbetween small shopping centres, caravan storage area and huge car parks, where tourists gather for a coach journey to the port at the bottom of the island (Porto Sabbioni) to cross over to Venice.
Our camp site was accommodating and comfortable, the restaurant served fabulously tasty meals and the barman met with David’s approval, introducing him to Japanese whiskey! They opened a side gate for us to exit rather than zig zagging around parked cars and tree trunks!
We moved onto Trieste after 4 weeks in the area, leaving with happy memories and feel we would happily return again.
Love is in the Air in Venice
Typical Venetian Scenes…..
Enjoying nibbles and drinks, typical for us!
My favourite, the Doge’s Palace.
Cavallino campsite
One of the birds that kept us amused, a friendly Jay. Dinner, exquisite. Our daily view of the Adriatic.BBQ Chef.
My favourite dessert, Tiramisu.
Traditional Spag bol!!
Cavallino beach getting ready for the summer rush….
We spent yet another day in this beautiful city with our friends Mike and Brenda, as well as visiting two of the Lagoon’s islands of Murano, and Burano with our 24 hour travel cards.
Drinks on Venice front.
Murano
Murano is famous for its glass factories which produce such fabulous creations as chandeliers, glass vases and bowls, and drinking glass and decanter sets, all hand blown. The colours and designs were outstanding, some traditional, some modern. The small island was heaving with tourists and we had a disappointing lunch of dry tasteless pizza, a first in the whole time we have been here in Italy.
A selection of chandeliers and glassworks.
My favourite chandelier, and colour!
Some beautiful buildings.
Modern chandeliers.
An island ruin with Burano in the back ground.
Murano glass tower.
Italian Ice creams were a must!!!
Burano
Burano can only be described as a rainbow of colours!!! It is a small fishing village, where each house is painted in a bright colour different to it’s neighbour and is the home of hand made lace products. The canal that flows through the middle of the island showcases the bars and restaurants that make the most of the green colour of the water and the different colours of the houses edging it. It’s also where you will find traditional British Pole dancers!!!
Approaching Burano.
Didn’t expect to find pole dancers here but we did!!!
Burano’s leaning Tower.
Burano square.
The village square and church
This man was painting the outside of his house, adding to the scene…
Visit to Venice Part 2 was with Charlotte and Robin, they came to Venice for the weekend, arriving on the Friday in the rain! Luckily Saturday was sunny and dry and warm, so we were able to do the full tourist thing….
Drinkies in St Mark’s Square (at an extortionate price) served by liveried waiters and with a band playing in the back ground, a visit to San Marco’s Cathedral, a tour of the canals on a Gondola, a visit to the Hard Rock café for a cocktail and then a tour of the Doge’s Palace, a magnificent Palace built in 1340, extended and reconstructed several times following fires up to the 18th century.
St Mark’s Square
Venice in the sun.
The Doge’s Palace
The title “doge” was the title of the senior-most elected official of Venice (and Genoa) and was the equivalent of a Duke without being a Duke. A Palace was built on the site of the current Palace in the 9th Century but was destroyed by fire in the 10th century. Over the centuries, it was home to the Great Council, the Council of Ten and the Senate who all served the Doge.
Before the 12th century there were holding cells within the Doge’s Palace but during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries layouts were changed to increase the number of cells. Due to the dark, damp and isolated qualities they were known as the Pozzi (the Wells) In 1591 more cells were built and due to their position, directly under the lead roof, they were known as Piombi. The cells were covered in lapped larch and basic, with little light or air.
The current building was linked to the prison on the other side of the Canal by The Bridge of Sighs, a two way tunnelled bridge, linking the magistrate’s courts in the Palace to the Prison.
The famous name of the bridge dates from the “Romantic period” and was supposed to refer to the sighs of prisoners who, passing from the courtroom to the cell in which they would serve their sentence, took a last look at freedom as they glimpsed the lagoon saying “I will never again see my beautiful Venice”.
The internal courtyard is surrounded by the palace and St. Mark’s Basilica, which used to be the Doge’s chapel, in the centre of the courtyard stand two well-heads from the mid-16th century.
In 1485, the Great Council decided that a ceremonial staircase should be built within the courtyard, called the Giants’ Staircase. The design included alternate bands of Istrian stone and red Verona marble to create one single monumental approach from the Piazza right into the heart of the building. Since 1567, the Giants’ Staircase is guarded by two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune, which represents Venice’s power by land and by sea, and therefore the reason for its name. Members of the Senate gathered before government meetings in the Senator’s Courtyard, to the right of the Giants’ Staircase.
Original pillars in the cellars.
The Golden Staircase.
One of the Council’s Chambers.
Part of the Armoury.
Original artwork of the Council’s Chambers in operation.
And as it is now…..
The courtyard and Chapel.
The Bridge of Sighs…..
Looking out as a prisoner…..
Looking at the tourists 🙂
Entrance gate opposite the Giant’s Staircase….
Looking out from the Palace down one of the entrances.A genuine prison cell in the Palace.
When we plot a new route, we do (99% of the time!!) check the sat nav and when our route from Lake Garda to Venice showed message “includes toll/ferry roads” we thought, yes, toll roads, that’s fine, and we ploughed on. The sat nav is set up to show us as a “Lorry, 15m long and 3.8m high”!
Our eventual arrival in Venice was delayed by a couple of hours when, as we approached the City, the sat nav decided to send us the shortest route – using a ferry from the main town across the lagoon onto the peninsular where our site was! We had not anticipated the ferry crossing and had no idea whether we could board it or not, so we continued past the ferry port into the town, however, the military police guarding the entrance to Venice realised, as we did, that we had made a mistake and turned us around, only to add another 70kms to our journey all around the edge of the lagoon!
We got there eventually, got to our pitch right beside the
Adriatic Sea, and were joined by Mum and Dad for a couple of days. We
established later that we could have got onto a vehicle ferry at a cost of €75,
which would have taken half an hour, instead of the 1.5 hours to took to drive
round the coast!
Having been on the site a few days, we were suddenly surrounded by Germans in their motorhomes. We selected a large pitch, away from the facilities, in a short road of 5 pitches on either side, all looking towards the sea, so when a small Eriba caravan parked right behind us, in our shade, without a view of the sea, we could not work it out. Maybe he was posing to capture a photo of little and large! Then another German in an old dirty rusty scrappy motorhome parked in front of us – we wondered what we had done to upset them!
Large and little!
The peninsular is a long sandy stretch of land, home to 31 camp sites ranging from 2* to 5*, small to huge in size, and several hotels, a few bars, several restaurants and small shopping areas. Nothing else! The beach is the attraction, 30kms of gentle sandy slopes into the Adriatic, with camp sites offering their facilities such as sun beds and umbrellas, cafes, dog only beaches and games areas.
Venice City
Venice City is an island, it is said it was built by fishermen, who sunk wooden posts into the soft sand in the Lagoon and built on top, creating a road free canal city, accessed only by over 417 bridges.
On a Friday, we took the passenger ferry from our peninsular
the other side of the Lagoon to the island of Venice, disembarking right by St
Mark’s Square, along with half the population of China and a boat load of
Germans off a Viking River cruise ship!
Busy river traffic.
We saw St Mark’s Square being prepared for a ceremony, what
a wonderful place to hold a university graduation. The Basilica was closed when we were there, so
we made the most of admiring the exterior, the covered old cafes and hotels
skirting the square and the beautiful buildings and narrow streets that fed off
it.
St Mark’s Square waiting for the Graduation ceremony.
One café advertised “hot tea at €9.50, Americano coffee
€11.00, Espresso €10.00 and Cappucino €12.00”.
However, you would have had silver service waiters and a brass 3 piece
ensemble playing softly in the background. We didn’t stop.
Venetian gondolas were full of Chinese/Japanese people or young students, they looked idyllic but were pricey, a 20 minute journey around the canals will set you back €80 for up to 6 people, €100 when it’s dark! It would seem that 20 minutes is ample time to see all the sights, as the drivers know all the short cuts to all the famous bridges and locations. So we made do with our feet and walked several miles through the city to the north part of the island and made our way back to the south by river taxi.
Considering the age of the city, it’s in fairly good shape,
some buildings could do with a scrub to remove water marks and mildew but that
would detract from the age and look, and would possibly harm the exteriors
which are often very decorative plaster or carved wood and full of stained
glass windows. Lots of buildings are
baroque style, full of ornate carved wood, most are water front, tall and
narrow, creating busy narrow water ways and alleys.
General Pictures of Venice
The Bridge of Sighs…..
Clock tower in St Mark’s Square.
Venice Basilica.
Mooching in the Arcades.
Full view of St Mark’s Square.
Gondolas by the Rialto Bridge.
The Grand Canal.
Easter Eggs!
More of the Grand Canal.
Mum and Dad playing silly buggars 🙂
St Marc’s Church.
Venetian glassware from Murano.
One of the old cafe’s in the square.
If only I had the space, and the bank account, to have these!!!
We arrived at Camping Bella Italia in Peschiera, Lake Garda and was greeted by the friendly security guard who remembered us from last year, calling Samson an “elephant carrier” as he couldn’t describe it as a motorhome or caravan!!
Last year we spent several weeks here exploring the small lake side villages, this time around, we were with my Mum and Dad, Heather & Mike, so were able to share the views with them.
We took them to Bardolino and Lazise, where last year David and I spent our anniversary, we showed them the beautiful ports and walled towns. Bardolino was in full bloom with amazing flower displays.
We spent a day out at the Museum Nicols, a private collector’s display of over 100 vintage and classic cars, over 100 motorbikes and bicycles as well as old sewing machines, typewriters, cameras, vanity cases, gramaphones, radios and other memorabilia.
We also took the local ferry from Peschiera to the top of the lake and back again, a whole day out, stopping at most of the villages. We disembarked at a town near the top of the lake called Malcesine, where last year in October David & I took the cable car to the top of Monte Baldo and watched paragliders launching from the ridges, but this year in April, the cable car was full of skiiers, taking advantage of the snow on the top! It was colder than last year so we decided to skip the cable car and visited the castle instead, catching a bride and groom being photographed in the grounds following their ceremony in one of the rooms within the castle.
We did climb to the top of the bell tower, just as the bells chimed! Fabulous views, despite it being a little foggy which also gave us a lovely sunset.
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