Photos of Venice
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| Venice is like no other city in the
world. Where have cities have roads and cars, Venice has canals and boats.
Public transportation is by vaporetti, large passenger boats that make
scheduled runs just like buses do. For those not on a budget, there are
water taxis. For those not on a budget and not in a hurry, there are
gondolas. Many of the locals get around by small boat. |
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| The Grand Canal, the most famous
"street" in Venice. The buildings surrounding it have been there for
hundreds of years and sinking for nearly as long. |
Venice was once the richest city
in Europe and then fell on hard times in the 1500s. One of the reasons it is
so well preserved is that nobody could afford to fix things for a long time. |
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| The San Samuele vaporetto stop was
where we began our exploration of Venice. |
We stayed at a tiny hotel in the
San Samuele area, Hotel Stefano. It had 11 rooms. |
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| It rained a lot when we were
there. We were living in Bellingham, Washington, at the time, so we felt
right at home. |
Venice is photogenic even when
wet. This is Piazza San Marco, named after St. Mark. |
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| Another view of Piazza San Marco.
Venice has an incredible number of pigeons! |
The Doges Palace above housed a
prison that was the end of the line for many unfortunates. Legend has it
that the only person who ever escaped was Casanova. |
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| Inside St. Mark's Cathedral. The
bones of St. Mark were stolen from the Holy Land in the 850s and brought to
Venice. |
The mosaic tiles inside St. Mark's
Cathedral are Byzantine in style. For several centuries, Venice had a number
of Byzantine and Moorish alliances. Everybody else fought with the Moors;
the Venetians traded with them. |
| Originally posted March 22, 2002 |
