Advertisement
Published: February 18th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Venice
Mardi Gras, boy or girl? Thursday 11th. Milan.
Having checked on the internet the details for viewing Da Vinci's “The Last Supper”, we discovered that it is by appointment only and the earliest slot available is 3 days hence. As we will not wait around for three days (it’s probably a forgery anyway!) and we have woken to a bleak day with sleet/snow, a decision is made to cut our losses and head for Venice which is about 3 hours drive away. We arrived at a really good campsite and managed to get a fantastic pitch right on the coast looking across the bay to the old city. What was most unusual was that we grabbed this pitch right under the nose of a German tourer who was being indecisive about where to put his camper, not often that happens in Campervan land. Later that evening whilst having a glass of vino and gazing at the view we were surprised to see a large container ship darken the sky and trundle past no more than 30 metres away, whilst impressive, hopefully the next high tide won’t be until at least 8am or it could be something to add to the ever expanding list of things that
Venice
Campsite in Venice, notice the large ship in the background? keep us awake. (Subsequently it has been added)
(Talking of things that keep us awake, I can add a new one from last week when we were camped up high in the Alps. About 6am we heard some big explosions from the ski slopes which was safety blasting to induce avalanches and keep the Pistes safe.) You don’t here that in Dunning very often!
Saturday 13th February
For the second day we have taken the ferry from outside the campsite across the water into Venice, which is truly spectacular. But to add to its allure it is also carnival (Mardi Gras), and the Venetians certainly enter into the spirit of it. Using masks and costumes relating to the 16th, 17th and 18th century both male and female Venetians dress up elaborately and strut their stuff around Venice. Hopefully you’ll get the idea from the photos. Even John Smith in full New Years illuminated regalia would look a dull boy next to these dandy’s. Venice was packed but it was still was a stunning place with its maze of narrow streets and striking vistas. St. Marks Square floods at high tide but the locals seem quite unaffected as they
Venice
Now we can see the ship! simply push the water back out the shops as the tide recedes, but it seems pretty odd to us. We managed to get back to the van in time to watch Scotland snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against the Welsh, several strong Bombay Sapphires were required to ease the pain.
Monday 15th Feb.
We travelled from Venice to a campsite in Florence and enjoyed the scenic drive which took us from snowy hills as we entered Tuscany into more benign conditions in Florence itself. The campsite has a great situation in that the centre of the city is only 15 minutes walk from our pitch and we have some great views from the site. We have been sightseeing for the last couple of days and are footsore and completely saturated with religious renaissance artwork, I have seen enough Michelangelo’s, Da Vinci’s, Botticelli’s , Goya’s, Titian’s, Cannaletto,s etc. etc. to keep me going for quite some time. One of the highlights was Michelangelo’s statue of David which Liz managed a considered critical comment of “he has a pert bum”. Florence has an almost overwhelming abundance of wonderful old buildings that leave you with a sore neck from
Venice
Typical Venetian view constantly gazing upwards. Not to be outdone by the hyper inflated prices of the coffee stalls in the Alps, the Florentine ice-cream merchants managed to sting us for 10 euros for a Banana/Chocolate delight for Liz, but to be fair it was rather good. Inside the church of Santa Croce where many of the great and good over the last 500 years are interned was the tomb of Rossini (not Bach Jacky, this time I am even more sure!), also there was Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, Botticelli, Machiavelli, Marconi and a host of other famous names.
We now plan to head further south to visit Napoli and Pompei and having had a look at our best route we have decided to spend a night or two in Rome,so watch this space for pictures of the Sistine chapel.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.283s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0688s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
abz
non-member comment
hey the photos of venice are amazing! I bet mardis gras is the best time to go so consider yourselves lucky. im jealous. xx