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Pam has been looking forward to visiting Venice for the whole trip and now the time is here, the ferry was right on time and we left at 10am arriving in Venice at 10.20. Embarking the ferry we were confronted with a choice, left or right, perusing the map I decided that the right was the way to go, wrong it was left, but I must say it was an easy mistake to make, not a good start to one of the hardest cities to navigate around in the world. There are no cars, buses. Trains in Venice, it is by walking, water taxi or the water buses, which are slow but get you there. We used the old fashioned method of walking and once we had the map figured we were off, getting lost in Venice is soooo easy, there are so many alleys that go nowhere or meet a canal with no bridge that it takes a bit of time to get the hang of it, we wandered firstly to Saint Marks piazza intending to go into the basilica but the queue was so long it almost reached Rome we decided to flag that and the Doges palace, just
seeing the piazza and church was enough and not being huge art lovers we figured we would not be missing to much, no much can top Saint Peters in the Vatican city anyway. Wandering along the grand canal awhile we saw the bridge of sighs which connects the palace to the old prison building, very evocative and typically Venetian. Venice was founded around 500ad most likely from folk running from the Hun invasion, it was after the fall of the main Roman empire and after some time through smart business decision Venice flourished, Doing deals with the east gained Venice many strongholds and at its peak matched Rome in power and wealth, however as with all good things it came to and end through pressure from Genoa, Rome and the rest of Europe, finally coming under the control of Rome again around the 1500. With allot of East and Turkish influence on much of its architecture it is really a hodge podge of sights which I suppose gives Venice much of its charm. I love the place, it is slow paced without the hustle of a typical European cities with enough zing to make it exciting. If you are an
art buff then this is the place for you with many old great masters works on display. Leaving the Saint Marks area we headed for the Rialto bridge, another landmark sight in Venice as it connected the older commercial area of Venice with the legal and political area around The Doges Palace. It is a very exciting place with the Grand Canal running under the bridge and all the boats and Gondolas’ meeting in the same place at the same time it seems. Wending our way back to where we started it was time for a beer as we waited for the ferry back home. Being quite late now at 8.30 it was into the restaurant for dinner then off to bed after a long day.
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