Venice - Day 1
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2012
1
3
30
Trip End
May 29, 2012
Venice, Veneto, Italy
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
An Early Start
Hsing-ay and I slept like rocks. Kaela slept like a rock once she went to sleep at midnight. I awoke quite early and decided to take pictures around St. Marks Square at dawn. I arrived at the square just in time to hear the 6AM cacophonous bells from the multiple clocks around the square. That was wonderful. I discovered the square to be completely empty except for a dozen amateur photographers who were all hoping for sunrise miracles. We meandered back and forth around the square and waterfront looking for unusual angels or unexpected lighting. The sunrise did not produce fireworks, but I took plenty of satisfying pictures and enjoyed the busiest part of Venice with a rare stillness.
I woke the girls around 8AM so we could get on Europe time. We bought some groceries, cooked eggs, made a picnic, and headed for St. Marks Square. Now it was bathed in sunlight and filled with hundreds or thousands of tourists. We decided to take the lift to the top of the Compinale for the stunning views. We could see it all and put a physical reality to the theoretical maps we had been looking at for weeks.
Lunch
We then bought a 3-day pass for the Vaporetti (waterbus) and decided to take a boat across the Grand Canal for a picnic on the steps of Santa Maria de Salute. This church sits almost at the end point on the southern end of the Grand Canal and offers a great view of San Marco. We packed a picnic of salami, cheese, bread, and an apple. Very cheap and very satisfying. Lots more pictures and then we jumped on a Vaporetto back to the Rialto Bridge stop so we could take an afternoon nap.
Afternoon
After resting and regrouping, we headed out for the waterfront where we caught a Vaporetto to San Giorgio Island. This houses the magnificent Church San Giorgio Maggiore, which fills the view from the main island of Venice. Lots of pictures in the church, out of the church, and on top of the church before we caught a Vaporetto for a long trip completely around the main island and back to the Rialto Bridge stop. Then dinner and one last stroll for gelato (with a few more pictures).
All in all, I took around 800 pictures in one day (already edited down to less than 300. The weather was absolutely perfect and Venice is a paradise for picture taking. I’ve heard that people say it is just like Disney World. That may be, but is the original, real-deal thing and is unending in its alleyways, canals, unique buildings, unique tourists, and so forth. Here the worn stones, crooked walls, colors, and maze of alleyways and canals are the result of centuries of living and building. Venice is unique and beautiful and worth the price of admission.
One fun memory from today is when we gave Kaela a compass and told her the waterfront was south and that she should get us there. She probably had to make about 20 decisions and she lead us right where we wanted to go.
