Blogs from Venice, Veneto, Italy, Europe - page 11

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Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice October 23rd 2016

Tag 74 – Bella Venezia Anna hatte mir erzählt, dass sie sich am Sonntag mit Freunden in Venedig treffen würde, und mich eingeladen, mitzukommen. Das wollte ich natürlich gerne, hatte schließlich schon überlegt, wie ich irgendjemanden finden könnte, der mit mir zusammen dorthin fuhr. So hatten wir uns für kurz nach zehn am Bahnhof verabredet. Da eine ziemlich lange Schlange am Schalter war, entschieden wir uns, das Ticket am Automaten zu kaufen. Als es dann ans Bezahlen ging, stand ich vor einem Problem: Das Gerät nahm zwar auch Scheine und Karten an, aber mein 10€-Schein ließ sich irgendwie nicht reinschieben und ich hatte vorsichtshalber sowohl meine EC- als auch meine Kreditkarte zuhause gelassen, damit sie mir nicht geklaut wurden. Genug Münzen hatte ich auch nicht. Netterweise half jedoch eine nette Frau in der Schlange hinter und ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice October 18th 2016

Day 24 - Sat. Oct. 15 - Port of call: Venice, Italy. Weather: Threat of rain in the morning and partly sunny in the afternoon - temperatures of 70°F/21°C Today’s stop is in Venice a city that was founded by Roman refugees, became a leading participant in the Renaissance and now is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1987). The city was once a major center for trade and commerce during the Middle Ages and now has transformed itself into one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, making tourism Venice’s major industry. This morning we entered the Canale Della Giudecca during the early morning through a light rain and encountered a darkened city. The Canale lies less than a half mile from the famous landmarks of the city center and when I went on ... read more
Elevated walkway
Playing in the puddle
Gondola traffic jam

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice October 15th 2016

Day 259 Monday 3rd October 2016 – Piran to Trieste Plink, plink, plink, “Whats that noise?” must be the fridge, but it keeps going and then I think there was a flash of light in the room so I get up and look out the window just as a huge fork of lightening streaks across the sky and I see that it is pouring rain outside and the sound had been rain against the window. Look at the clock and see that it is 5am and that the alarm was set for 5.15 and we need to walk 15 minutes to the bus station – damn. Laid back in bed for that last 15 minutes watching the lightening and then got up and started to pack. By some miracle by the time we had ... read more
Trieste
Venice
Venice

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 28th 2016

Today is the day we transfer to our cruise ship. Breakfast at the hotel (where we say good-bye to our British friends), pack and check out. We have been extremely happy with the Olimpia. Of course, we have to drag all our bags back over the bridges to the Piazalle Roma. On the far side is an electric tram called the People Mover that connects directly to the cruise port. (Did I mention how well this trip was planned?) In fairly short order, we are on the tram and within minutes at the port. About 10 minutes' walk required before we reach the pre-boarding processing area and commit ourselves to the care of Holland America. Our ship, the Oosterdam, has a similar layout to other HAL boats we've been on, but it is larger, certainly the ... read more

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 27th 2016

Once again, breakfast at the hotel. There is a delightful British couple travelling with their daughter and staying at our hotel whom we have bumped into on several occasions already, and we chat with them again at breakfast. It is another fantastic day weather-wise, slightly cooler with a high of 22°. We have pre-booked a tour of the Piazza San Marco, the most famous area of Venice, at 2 pm. Our plan today is to take the #1 water bus the entire length of the Grand Canal, getting on and off as the mood strikes us, and then finally arrive at the far end of Venice, where San Marco is located, in time for the tour. I've previously described the water bus experience. The boarding process involves figuring up which quay your bus stops at and ... read more
Gondoliers plying his trade
Rialto Bridge
Pasta for every occasion

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 25th 2016

We're off on a 12-day cruise around Italy, Greece and Albania. We will embark in Venice and disembark in Rome. We have added three days' of padding in both Venice and Rome so we can tour these cities solo. After a short hop to Montreal, we fly directly to Venice. Our plane is a venerable Boeing 767. The touch screens embedded in the seats have been taken out, and the plane is instead equipped with a local wi-fi entertainment system that you connect to through a web browser using any mobile device. Ear buds are for rent but we have own our Bose noise-cancelling headphone. The flaw is that your device inevitably goes to sleep, making it difficult to, say, listen to baroque music in order to relax and fall asleep. The trick is to prop ... read more
View from our room
Grand Canal
Pont Scalzi

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 24th 2016

My summer ‘job’ was working as a tutor at English-learning summer camps in Italy with an organization called ACLE. They coordinate camps all over Italy, but mostly in the north. Most are 1 or 2 weeks long, and tutors usually stay with a host family at each camp. ACLE’s style is to teach English through games, songs, and drama. They create all of their own material, so they want tutors to be adept at working with it. That’s why they have a week-long orientation before tutors can start working in camps. The orientation I went to took place on a golf course, near a town called Castellaro, near San Remo on Italy’s northwest coast. Orientation week was a difficult time for an introvert like me, where almost every moment consisted of small talk, games, singing songs, ... read more
Center of Mestre
Obligatory Venice Canal Picture
On Murano, Venice

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 18th 2016

Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384It's 9:45 am here in Venice, had my breakfast, ready to go and all packed up. Just took the garbage down to the courtyard and am now waiting to take off. Don't need to get to the train station toooo early as I'll just have to wait there. Will leave here at 10:30 that leaves me 2 hours to drag my stuff to the vaporetto stop, ride the vaporetto for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, find the correct area to catch my train and wait some more ;-)Feeling much better about the situation in Bologna, happy to have firm plans in place. I guess I really don't like to fly by the seat of my pants too much! I thought I was open to that but this really had me unsettled so I pretty ... read more
Beautiful Murano chandelier in the living area
Matching Murano glass sconce on the wall
This one is more colorful than other

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 17th 2016

Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384Update on Jim and the Scuola situation! Just confirmed everything with the school, I have an apartment, will either bus or walk, on Google maps its a 30-minute walk to the school so not too bad, last year it was a 20-minute walk, I guess I'll get my steps in! This seems to be the best situation, it's a sofa bed for 2 weeks so hopefully, it won't kill my back. Going in with a good attitude and hoping for the best! Will try to put in a link to the apartment, it looks nice. http://www.halldis.com/property/san-felice-4118#dateFrom=18092016&dateTo=01102016&adults=1 Update on Jim: We were going to leave the apt at 7 to get him to the Piazzale Roma bus station but decided to leave at 6:30, so of course got out of here at 6:40 walked to ... read more
Jim packed and ready to go in St. Marks Square
Just getting ready for the day
Interesting restaurant I saw on the way back...

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice September 16th 2016

Back to Venice for the day (our hotel is on the mainland). Unfortunately the heavens decided to open up today, but that didn't dampen our spirits, only our clothes. The entrepreneurs selling umbrellas and ponchos must have made a killing. We had a gondola ride - personally I didn't think much of this as we felt like they were just pushing us thru. They put 6 per gondola and if you weren't in the main seats, you were on the equivalent of a beer crate. The trip around the lagoon would have been nicer if the weather behaved but the demo of the lace making was good on the island of Burano. A bit disappointed with the glass blowing, what the guy did was amazing but very short. Once again it was do it quick and ... read more
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