Venice

We had a week in Venice during the recent half-term holiday, staying in an apartment in a canal-side palazzo. There is a gothic theme running through my life at the moment: first Tyntesfield, then Venice. The water andlight there create a whole new dimension, however.
Although weather caused some difficulties with the travel out - contributing to a two and a half hour delay to our flight from Bristol, and causing my eldest daughter and my mother to be diverted to Trieste from Stansted, thereafter it was mainly sunny, dry and quite warm for the time of year, and we had a terrific time.



I've come home with over 700 photos taken on my camera, some by my son and some by my husband but mostly by me. Do not panic, I'm not going to inflict them all on you - I'm a bit overwhelmed myself - but here is the first installment.

We were staying in the area known as Dorsoduro, just off the Grand Canal and close to the Accademia art gallery, which we never once entered. There was some very good art on the walls of the appartment anyway, and the weather made us want to spend as much time as possible out of doors. On "our" canal, the Rio San Trovaso, lies (one of?) the last working squiero, or gondola boatyard, in Venice. At the other end of the canal from the Grand Canal was the Giudecca Canal and, on its banks, a wonderful ice cream parlour called Nico's, which naturally we visited more than once.




No cars or bikes in Venice that we saw. Public transport means boats, or vaporetti, which run an excellent service, and I found getting around very easy. Otherwise, Venetians walk. The only traffic lights we saw there were on a canal and I'm unsure whether they indicated a one-way bridge or a special crossing for wheelchairs.