Venice

3/18/13

Oh. My. Word. We LOVED Venice. And that was even with it raining almost 100% of the time we were there. There is just nothing like it. We read on-line later that evening that no one really knows how Venice came to be. It is built in a lagoon with lots of small islands; however, many of the structures are built on top of wooden pylons that were driven into the ground. Can you imagine your house being on top of water that is supported by wood? Another interesting tidbit that we learned is that the city is sinking at the rate of about 1-2 millimeters a year. It was obvious to us that day that they are prepared for flooding, but there will come a day that planks and risers won't be enough. Nothing can be done to stop the sinking permanently.

Noah on one of the first bridges we came to in Venice.
We couldn't stop taking photographs as it was just so cool!

It rained much of our time in Venice. We were blessed to
find an extra large umbrella just sitting beside our car when
we parked in the parking garage! So between three umbrellas
and waterproof coats, we managed to stay a bit dry. Our
jeans were soaked from the knees down for much of the
day. In other words, our feet were freezing by the time
we reached San Marco. 

Evidence that the city is slowly sinking. With normal
rainfall comes flooding. We decided not to buy a map of
Venice and just follow the little yellow signs to St. Mark's...
as a result, we did a lot of meandering. 'Wandering around'
rates on some tourist sites as the #1 thing to do in Venice.
And we understood why. Everything is so unique. This street,
however, was avoided as our feet were still a bit dry at this point.

If we enjoyed the city as much as we did in cold temps
during winter, I can only imagine the city's charm and
beauty when all of the flowers are blooming! Maybe for
our 30th? I'll have to put that idea in Tracy's head now
though as he has stated that the only traveling he wants to
do after this year is to see our families in PA and KS!

Again, evidence that flooding is a normal occurrence!
The city and its businesses are well-equipped to handle
several inches of extra water.

We all wanted to take a gondola ride. The one in this photo
has on its cover - this is how we found all of them. That being
said, rain puts a damper on such activities. As a result, we
saved ourselves a lot of money, which is better spent
on ice-cream anyway.

At one point on our trek to San Marco, we stopped briefly to share a couple
slices of pizza. Not Cape verde but good nonetheless.

We enjoyed seeing garages for their "vehicles" and
entrances into homes right at the water's edge.

We watched this construction crew go under the bridge
on which we were standing. All of them had to lay out
flat to make it. And they all got a kick of us running
to the other side to watch them come through! 

~ Rialto Bridge ~

We finally made it to Piazza San Marco after several
hours of walking. Had we purchased a map, I'm sure it
wouldn't have taken that long. It was fun though to not
have an agenda as we walked all over Venice.

The planks were wider here than at other places. I was
thankful for this as we had to pass a number of people
and I really didn't feel like having soaked feet! Joking.
The planks were nice and I wouldn't have wanted to wade
through the water to the church, but we felt like drowned
rats at this point. There were a number of places that the
water was getting quite high. So high in fact that we didn't
bother with walking farther into the piazza than St. Mark's.

The planks ran around the entirety of the square.

~ San Marco ~

~ Piazza San Marco ~

We were all a bit tired and cold by this point of the day. So what to do to
cheer us up? Why, ice-cream of course! I took this photo at this spot to
capture the masks in the store's window. There was a masquerade shop on
every corner! There is a big 'Carnival of Venice' that is held every year just
before the start of Lent. Some of the masks and costumes were quite elaborate.

Taken because the sun was attempting to peak at us!

So now that we had walked for hours, we needed to make our way back to the
parking garage. How to do that!? We really needed a map at this point. Or....
we needed to take a boat back. We looked into the gondola rides since the sun
was trying to show itself, but that would just return us to the same spot. So
we opted for a taxi. Not as expensive as the gondola ride and get dropped
off about a two block walk to our car. Best decision of the day! It was pretty
cool to be out on the water. Most people probably sit inside the taxi as it is
warmer and dryer there. But since this was our "gondola" ride, we all sat or
stood right beside the driver! Tourists! He didn't quite know what to do with
us. We kept asking him questions as if he was our tour guide. At least we
made him earn his money, right?

~ Polizia - police boat ~
We did see an ambulance fly through a canal at one point but couldn't
snap a photo quickly enough. Its wake lapped up over where we were standing.

We were just about to leave Venice when I realized that Tracy and I had not
taken a picture together! So we started back into the city to find a decent
bridge for the photo op. The boys were a bit in disbelief that I insisted on this.
I figured that 1. I wanted this photo and 2. I was training them in how to be
patient and kind husbands. I did have to compromise, too, as this was not a
great place for a photo. We saw so many lovely spots during the day. I guess
that means we were enjoying those spots and not thinking about photos.

The boys watched a Psych episode on Tracy's Mac on the way back to
Milan. The heat was cranked high to warm us up again! 

I wasn't sure if the first photo turned out okay so snapped another one. I just
happened to snap it during a scary part obviously! Even though Noah has
seen the episode a couple of times, he still always covers his eyes. At first,
I thought he was just trying to hide from the camera!

Though a horrible photo, it was hard to get a decent shot of all of the
vineyards between Venice and Milan. Mile after mile was filled with
thousands upon thousands of grape vines. I think I was anticipating big
overgrown grape arbors everywhere! At this time of year, most were
not more than waist high.

Our original plan was to stop in Verona and see the balcony from the story
of Romeo and Juliet. Alas, there is never enough time in a day. Add to that,
I was the only one remotely interested in this and we were all tired and
hungry...it was a pretty easy decision to keep on down the road. We stopped
in Milan to get some pizza and ended up bringing it back to the B&B to enjoy.