Holidays

Venice - Sept 2008

Venice  Sept 2008
In July 2009, Mike and I were booked to go to Venice for a weeks holiday. Unfortunately Mike was taken ill a few hours before our flight out, and the holiday had to be cancelled. Undaunted, we decided to re-book in Sept, albeit not at our original hotel - this time we opted for a lovely self catering apartment in a residential area of Venice a couple of minutes walk from the Fondamenta Nuove waterbus stops and five minutes from the Rialto. This gave us the opportunity to live as Venetians and experience more of Venice away from the tourist trails.

We arrived in brilliant sunshine and sweltering heat which lasted 2 days, we then had 3 days of rain, and experienced St Marks Cathedral in a thunderstorm and the ensuing "Acqua Alta" in St Marks Square. Our remaining days were much cooler and cloudier. None of this stopped us from exploring and enjoying this unique city that we had waited 27 years to return to.

As well as getting blisters walking miles through the backstreets of Venice itself, we visited loads of stunningly beautiful churches and museums, including St Marks Basilica, the Doges Palace, The Correr Museum and Naval Museum, not forgetting the Jewish Ghetto and the Synagogues. Other trips included the cemetery island of San Michele, Murano ( famous for glass making ), Burano ( known for it's brightly coloured houses and it's lace making ) and Torcello ( the first island to be inhabited in the lagoon, now home to only 30 people, a church and a cathedral )

The gardens at the southern end of the Venetian peninsula and the usually off limits Arsenale ( once the bustling shipyards, and now owned by the Italian Navy ) were hosting the Architecture Biennale, which gave us a chance to explore buildings and areas that can only usually be glimpsed from afar. The theme for the Biennale was "Out There - Architecture Beyond Building" and I must admit that the thought processes behind some of it just went completeley over our heads, but it was a very enjoyable counterpoint to the historic city. Even spending just over a week, there were still so many more places we wanted to visit but ran out of time.

With photography being one of our main hobbies, Venice was heaven - wherever you are, whichever way you turn, there is a photo opportunity. We returned home with around 3500 photos - there would have been more but the rain meant some days were less "camera friendly " than we had hoped.

I deliberated for some time as to how to select a limited number of pictures to put on my website. How do you choose from 3500 ?? I decided that most viewers will probably have seen numerous pictures of the city, and although mine are great, there is a limit to how many similar views of St Marks or the Grand Canal people will want to look at. I concluded that I would approach the subject slightly differently, and therefore I've selected predominantly the more unusual and quirky shots to show you. If you would like to see any of my more "standard" Venetian shots, please email me.

There are 4 galleries of photos here, including 2 just for photos of the Biennale.