Venice, Italy: (13 pictures) – Day 17
Canal from the Rialto Bridge - This is Venice's Grand
Canal. There really are no streets in Venice, just walkways, and
definitely not even one car in the whole city. There are all kinds
of boats though, including trash boats, water taxis, police boats, ambulance
boats, UPS boats, and of course the ever present gondolas.
St. Mark’s Basilica from the top of Clock Tower - One of the
first things I did in Venice was climb the Clock Tower in St. Mark's Square
to get a great view of the city.
St. Mark’s Square from the top of Clock Tower - This shows
St. Mark's Square and a lot of the city of Venice. The buildings
are all so close together that you can't really see the canals that go
between most of them. All of the little tiny black dots in the square
are pigeons.
Lagoon from the top of Clock Tower - This is the southern edge
of the city of Venice. You can see a bunch of gondolas lined up at
the bottom of the picture.
St. Mark’s Basilica - This is the famous church in Venice.
You can see the clock tower I climbed on the right side of the picture.
The Basilica is very old and also very beautiful both on the inside and
outside.
Me Feeding Pigeons in St. Mark’s Square - This area had more
pigeons than I've ever seen anywhere else. Once I bought a bag of
pigeon food, I was pretty much attacked by the birds. They would
land on your hands, shoulders, even your head if they knew you had food.
It was definitely an experience, as I've never had six pigeons crawling
on me at one time before.
The Hall of the Grand Council in Doge’s Palace - This horribly
unfocused picture was snuck in inside the Doge's Palace. Tintoretto's
Paradise, the painting on the wall, is actually the largest oil
painting in the world.
Inside St. Mark’s Basilica - I wasn't supposed to take
this picture, but I went to the trouble of sneaking in with a tour group
to avoid the hour long line to get in, so I thought what the heck, I had
already sinned.
Pigeons at St. Mark’s Square - I told you this place had the
most pigeons I've ever seen in my life, and this picture proves it.
They were everywhere. Luckily I somehow managed to avoid getting
bombed by even one of them during my entire day in Venice.
Gondola in a Canal - This type of scene was very common
all over Venice. I unfortunately never heard a singing gondalier
though, and no I didn't pay the $60 minimum to ride in a gondola.
I did take a water bus through the canals though.
Giardini Pubblici (Public Park) - This is I think the one area
in Venice that actually had trees. I quickly walked through it as
it wasn't very big.
Canal from Water Bus - At the end of my day in Venice I took
a water bus along the Grand Canal back to the train station. The
bus drivers were actually on strike for most of the day, but they began
running again in the late afternoon. The 45 minute boat ride was
pretty neat going through all the canals and seeing all of the beautiful
buildings.
Rialto Bridge and Gondolas from Water Bus - This is the
same bridge that I took my first picture in Venice from. You can
also see a couple gondolas in the water here.
Continue on to Vienna, Austria
Go Back to the Start