Venezia (day two)

well, i'm home (meaning london) after another successful trip to michigan, which i saw through tourist eyes, explicitly for blogging purposes.

i'm feeling happy. the sun is shining, a cloud of ash and volcanic dust has grounded all flights in and out of the UK only a day after i've arrived, and i've got two days left of my easter holidays. so it's time to blog the end of Venice/the end of my Easter holidays so I can blog Michigan.

and then blog marathon pictures in six short weeks followed by my impending trip to Portugal a week after that.

So Venice...We broke up our last day into three parts: 1. espresso 2. Piazza de San Marco and 3. pursuit of a Gondola

Part One


if you look closely this tower leans


up the skirt of some gondolas


more Venetian architecture


our beautiful cafe with beautiful espresso in a beautiful square with beautiful music on a beautiful canal

Part Two

When writing these entries, it is often important to consult concise, factual sources such as Wikipedia. Its take on Piazza San Marco: 'As the central landmark and gathering place for Venice, Piazza San Marco is extremely popular with tourists, photographers, and pigeons'. Indeed.

after my brief foray with spanish wildlife i hold scavenging fowllike beasts in high contempt. So imagine my disgust when my second glimpse of Venice's central square happened to be this:


just why?

but i suppose there were some redeeming qualities


St. Mark's sqaure with 80 million tourists and a decidedly leaning tower





The Basilica...which also charges an exorbident fee of 2 euros if you happen to have bare shoulders and therefore need a large piece of cloth which suspiciously resembles a piece of cheesecloth to hide your lustiness


close up


inside, with covered shoulders


Doge's Palace close up (Palazzo Ducale de Venezia)


and a bit farther away

Part Three

Throughout our stay in Venice we were greeted by dashing Venetian men in Stripy tops trying to sell us rides up and down the canal. Until, of course, we actually wanted to get into a gondola and then they were scarce. So with four hours left in Venice we practically sprinted to the first gondolier we found.


view from a very expensive gondola ride


our beautiful, beautiful gondolier (who did sing to us)


gondolier marco: 'can you swim?'
us: 'um. why?'
marco: 'well, i'm not so good with this thing'.
us: 'um'.
marco: 'i just joke'.


we cleared this bridge by about a foot, only after tilting the boat roughly horizontally to the water


on the grand canal, again


the end. worth every penny


last stop: Bellinis near one bridge or another



and that's all she wrote. unless you'd like to hear me wax lyrical about ryanair and all its faults including queueing, queueing and non-european passport discrimination. These final photos may sum it up:


queueing to get on the plane


queueing to queue

we're ready for summer 2010!