Venice

We arrived in Venice late in the afternoon to a rainy day, but our excitement overtook the weather and we navigated our way through the alleys to our Japanese inspired fantastic bed and breakfast, Fujiyama. This city truly is like no other place we have ever been to, and I know I have said this before on this blog, but WOW this is a great city. With its countless canals, over 400 foot bridges and over 150 churches (we visited only one tenth) Venice truly is a wonder to discover.

View of Venice

Our five days here flew by so fast, and we now have another city we are committed to visit again or even come live for a period of time. Laurence broke an all time record and took 1500 pictures in one day and he wasn’t even allowed to photograph in the museums or churches. But around every corner and over every bridge is another great shot, and this city is much larger than we expected. Every day we started our day with a great cappuccino at the B and B and then aimlessly discovered this most remarkable city.

Rialto Bridge

Maphew on the Famous Landmark

                                     

San Marco square is truly a remarkable site to see, with the most impressive Basilica San Marco with its gold mosaics and ornate facade. It is also home to the most remarkable palace of the Doge, which rivals the great palaces of Paris for sheer opulence. The Piazza san Marco truly is a romantic site a night with if’s outdoor concerts and beautiful light displays. The only down fall of this area was the large number of tourists who only visit this site and the Rialto Bridge. But we soon discovered a very different Venice away from the main tourist sites and spent the days wondering these quiet streets.

Madonna better Watch out

Finally some nice sun rays

We put in countless miles of walking as we strolled down every lane that drew our attention and discovered the countless museums and churches in the city. The amazing art in this city is a sight to see and Laurence could not get enough of the classical art some over 1000 years old. But the highlight for us was seeing the amazing work of Bellini and Laurence was lucky enough to see a whole room dedicated to his favourite sculptor Wildt.

Maphew and Luca

We did give in to the draw of the gondolier and took a very long tour of the canals with our wonderful gondolier Luca who we found in the Jewish Ghetto area of the city. It gave us a whole new impression of the city from the water level and he taught us so much in those two hours about the city. Such as if it wasn’t for marble Venice would not exist as every house sits on a marble base as marble is not affected by salt water and brick is. And that the city is sinking at a rate of one millimetre a year which is causing a raft of problems for what he called the largest museum in the world.

Henry and Laurence

This city reminded us about how blessed we are to be on this most remarkable adventure to see and experience this wonderful and amazing world, plus the pizza and gelato are BUONO.