Trips

Sun., 7/26/15 – Bolzano to Venice
           This morning our bus used the main highways for our route to Venice.  We used the rest stops for bathroom breaks and yucky lunches at Autogrills.  We left the Alps and Dolomites but never left the vineyards.
           The land flattened out and more industry appeared around the larger towns.
           The bus dropped us off at the bus port at Venice.  Our luggage was loaded onto a separate boat and we just hoped it would reappear in our hotel room.  We loaded into a water taxi for the ride across the lagoon to the train station in Venice.  Our hotel, the Continental, is two blocks from the train station.  We walked through the mass of humanity to our hotel and found our room - nothing to write home about.

Flag of the City of Venice	Loading up for the boat ride to the hotel
Along the Grand Canal	Smaller tributary canal
Along the Grand Canal	Romanesque and rectangular windows in the same building
Sgraffito	Vaporetto stops - as you are on land and facing the docks: to travel to the right, you use the left hand dock; to travel to the left, you use the right hand dock - that way when the boats are in the dock they are bow-to-bow and the exhaust doesn't overwhelm the passengers (as it would if they were stern-to-stern).
Our luggage did not arrive before we had to leave by vaporetto (water bus) for our included walking tour of Venice’s highlights.  We rode the vaporetto to the Rialto Bridge where we met our Venice guide, Peter (or Pietro).  The Rialto Bridge is two stories with shops and was rebuilt in 1592 with stone.              Peter took us down one of the many three-foot wide alleys to see a courtyard with the spiral staircase for the house outside the building.  It is eight stories high.
Gondolas parked along the Grand Canal	Rialto Bridge - under renovation
Along the Grand Canal	Along the Grand Canal
Typical street	House with an exterior spiral staircase
Eventually, we wound our way into St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco).  The large square is in front of St. Mark’s Basilica which is surrounded by imposing buildings.  In 1966 there was a high tide that flooded the square completely.  This week we will have a neap tide and part of the square will have a couple of inches of floodwater.  Venice is still sinking.             We looked at the façade of the Basilica.  It is unique and the art is not fresco but all mosaic with marble tiles on the floors and glass tiles on the walls and ceilings.  Some of the tiles are double clear glass with gold leaf glued in the middle.  St. Mark’s Tower – the Campanile -  was rebuilt in 1912 because it collapsed in on itself.  The tower is an exact replica except it now has an elevator to get to the viewing level.  Of more interest is the clock tower with a 1499, 24-hour zodiac clock.  It has a new mechanism but still works.  A second digital clock was added in the 19th c.  On the hour, two statues on the top strike the bell.  The façade also has Mary and St. Mark’s lion.             At the waterfront are two granite pillars (each one piece of granite) from Egypt.  One has a statue of the winged lion of Venice and the other a statue of St. Theodore and a crocodile.  He was once the patron saint of Venice.  Between these pillars is considered the gateway to the city.
Campanile in Piazza San Marco	Campanile in Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco	Iconic lamp post with pink Venetian glass
St. Mark’s Basilica	St. Mark’s Basilica - Bronze Horses - from the Hippodrome in Constantinople
St. Mark’s Basilica - Bronze Horses - from the Hippodrome in Constantinople	St. Mark’s Basilica
St. Mark’s Basilica	St. Mark’s Basilica
St. Mark’s Basilica	St. Mark’s Basilica - Lion of St. Mark
Clock Tower in the Piazza San Marco	Clock Tower in the Piazza San Marco
Lion of Venice	St. Theodore with a crocodile
Jacqueline, Cary, Marge, and Gale, fellow travellers for both Italy tours	Our Farewell Dinner was at the Palazzina Restaurant.  We ate indoors at two long tables.  It was hot and noisy.  We had spinach ravioli and vegetarian lasagna that were very good and then baked grouper fish on thin slices of potato.  The tiramisu was okay.  We said our good byes after getting our Grand Circle souvenir pins.  Most of the group head back home in the morning, we and another couple begin the Venice post-tour.

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