Block #10 - Venice

Venice was simply incredible, definitely my favorite part of the trip. Maybe it's silly to be so amazed, but Venice was in some senses exactly what I wanted it to be, and no less. You know how sometiems you get ideas in your head about how things should be, and the reality turns out to be somewhat disappointing? Venice wasn't. Just imagine that all cars and streets are magically morphed into boat and canals, respectively, and you have Venice. It's as simple, and amazing and wonderful as that. Not to mention that nearly every door, window, balcony, window ledge and floor had something appealing to me as a quilter in it. I think Nick was about ready to hit me over the head by the end of our time in Venice every time I said "Oh, wait a second!"

In the interest of not boring you to death with picture after picture after picture of doors, windows and bridge railings, then with endless anecdotes that are fascinating to me but may or may not be to you, I've split this post into three parts: landscape pictures, design pictures and funny pictures. For this one post I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum.

Landscapes:


The view from the Ponte Rialto, one of the three bridge across the Grand Canal, about twilight.



One of the many many side canals that are networked throughout the city. They always seem so calm and peaceful away from the Grand Canal.



Where the gondolas live, along the Grand Canal. Or at least, one of the docks where the gondolas live.



Venetian traffic jam. We actually sat here for about 15-20 minutes watching the boat drivers trying to maneuver around each other. I think part of the problem was that a gondola just parked and started to solicit passengers even though there were people behind him.



Design pictures:

I'll summarize the captions for these pictures all at once: door, wall, door, door, floor, window. Not a single special building in the bunch. There's so much beauty in this city that the people just live with and don't even notice. I mean, I guess I can understand how if you live there you can't spend every moment of your life in awe, because then it wouldn't have any meaning, but I feel like if I lived there, I would spend nearly every minute of my life marveling at the city around me. At least every other minute.













Funny pictures:

Hmmm...might it be that some joker put a sign on the seawall? Does that count as something strange?



This was a sign at one of the stops for the vaparetto (water bus). Pay special attention to the backpack zippers, and see if you can see what Nick saw that he had to point out to me.



Does this count as texting and driving?



I know that this handful of pictures can't possibly do Venice justice, but I hope they give you some idea of why it was my favorite city. The novelty of not having to worry about getting run over by anything was fabulous. There were no motorized vehicles of any kind in the city, so the entire place was a pedestrian zone. The vehicles were simply in the canals, which God forbid you should swim in. For one thing, eww, and for another, it would be like playing in the street. I'll definitely be going back to Venice someday, hopefully someday soon.

Despite Venice being our favorite place so far, we did eventually need to pack our things and head on to the next place, that place being Florence. Stay tuned for the next chapter in the adventure!