What is beyond these doors?

I may have gone crazy with all the unique door knockers but windows and doors beckoned me to pause and look and I did......

This ironwork with the curly scrolls and diamond shape centers caught my eye. 

So many doors leading out to the water from old buildings..... decaying, rotting, yet a gentle lapping of water softens the silent demise of an entry long since used.

E. liked the Moorish style windows (which are called Venetian Gothic) and since there are many in Venice, I began to tell her "there's your windows E.!" every time we passed them.  These windows were at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti which sits next to the Grand Canal in a palace by name of Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti built in 1565 but many improvements have been done since then.

Just before we crossed the Accademia Bridge opposite the Instituto was a quaint home with this scrolled gate with the initial "M" on it.  I of course thought of my youngest daughter M.

Walking by a pair of doors I spied a him and a her...or that is what I thought.  Delicate garlands across their chest / breasts and a blissful look upon their faces.

You can tell which one is handled the most....

I fell in love with this balcony with the aged patina of the shuttered doors and the curvaceous iron work.  Who is behind those doors do you suppose?  

The Venetian Gothic upper windows and the lower doors of massive size...contrasting or opposing...which is it?  Another pair of doors that fall below the water line of the canal and above those doors two faces different from each other.

This balcony of a filigree marble design and the leaded glass panes above the shuttered door reminded me of a Romeo and Juliet balcony.

Venice by night......

 


Ready for a ride down the Grand Canal at night with some music by Dean Martin....sit back and enjoy...

Click on the Vimeo logo and watch it there.

Standing in the Piazza San Marco

After some unpacking, a much needed shower and some rest E. and I are ready to have our first evening out in Venice.

I am delighted with our location for our first time here.  I know that I would call our area "ground zero" for the crowds but as a starting point we are close to the Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Basilica, the Campanile, the Torre dell'Orologio or St. Mark's Clocktower, as well as what we know we can't see because of renovation, the Bridge of Sighs (it just recently has been finished and can now be seen).   

Coming through the narrow calle out into the Piazza was euphoric!  We're here!  My first thought was "thank goodness it is not crowded"!  So often I have been told not go to Venice because of the crowds and yet here we were with hardly a crowd at all.

St. Mark's Basilica

St. Mark's Basilica is incredibly beautiful.  And indeed it does remind me of a lavish wedding cake as I had read on a blog Venice for Vistors.  At once it feels light and airy compared to the Duomo in Florence.   Gold shone brightly on the mosaics we could see on the outside as the sun began it's late afternoon descent.  Domes, spires, ornate crosses, statues and those magnificent bronze horses gazed out on the Piazza.  The original horses are safely kept inside in the Museum of San Marco (I'll be writing about this later).

Mosaic over one of the doors to the Basilica

The Piazza is large with buildings framing three sides opposite the Basilica.  To the right is the  Torre dell'Orologio whose clock face is of the Zodiac signs of gilded gold with a deep royal blue background.  Atop the building above the clock is what we can see from our room, the bronze bell with two figures who ring the bell on the hour.  E. points out the lion above the clock face who reminds her of Aslan from the book the Chronicles of Narnia.  What I know now is this is the traditional symbol of Venice that stood for Mark the Evangelist who is the patron saint of Venice.  We will see many of these lions in Venice in days to come.

Torre dell'Orologio

We walk farther into the Piazza and I notice the restaurants opposite each other and side by side, that my friend K. had said do the dueling pianos in the evening.  

One of several restaurants in the Piazza that will be doing dueling pianos concerts in the evening.

Rising from the Piazza stands the St. Mark's Campanile.  It is surrounded by fencing as they are doing renovation here.  It is still open to take an elevator to the top for views but we have decided we will not do that.  We will take our views from the Basilica.  

St. Mark's Campanile

I'm a bit awe struck here in the Piazza because it is almost too much eye candy to see.  Every building is either with gilded gold upon them, deep hued colors of the mosaics, statues, ornate columns, the dramatic fabric awnings over the restaurants arched openings, elaborate marble designs, the many languages of the tourist around us and of course the ever moving street vendors trying quite hard to get you to buy their cheap toys while on the look out for the Polizia to shoo them away.  

Another view of the Basilica

We soak it in and I am once feeling how much history lies on this island.  How little I will fully learn while here for our short time and how I wish we were staying longer.  I remember my brother by marriage asking how long we were staying in Venice and told him four full days.  He said we should stay at least a week, maybe two and I told him that we only had so much time to see the other places we wanted to go to.  We couldn't fly all the way to Italy and only go to Venice!  Yet I was beginning to see what he might have meant and we had only been here but mere hours.

First views, first bridge and first knocker

When I saw the view from this bridge and I knew that I was in love with Venice.  The light in the sky, the color of the buildings and the boats lined up on the side of the canal made me smile inside because this was a place like no other I had ever been to.  

E.'s photo with her "Miniature" special effect ~ I love this look!

E. and I walked without a true path but felt we would find our way ....eventually.  

I found my first door knocker and called out to E. to stop, reached in my bag to get my camera out and snapped this shot.  My family know how I feel about "knockers" from our previous trip to Italy.  I stop often (constantly) to admire and take photos of them.  E. was forewarned before this trip that I would be taking lots of photos.

I love this photo of E. as she looks like a conqueror, and in a way we both were prepared to conquer Venice, with amore for it's charm.

 

Here is a close up of the church Santa Maria de Nazaret which we walked by on the opposite side of the Grand Canal.

We passed by the church of San Geremia,  stopping long enough to take a photo then kept on with my rolling suitcase clunking along, weaving in and out of others walking along or against the flow of traffic.  So much to digest and feeling the tiredness of our flight and little to none of sleep.  

I have found out that San Geremia houses the remains of Saint Lucia of Syracuse who was a Christian martyr.  She refused to marry her "pagan" betrothed and chose to give her wedding dowry to the poor.  Her betrothed was none to happy about all this and told all that she was a Christian.  With that they tried to burn her and when that didn't work they took her eyes out with a fork!  I would have liked to have given my respects to this strong woman had I known.  Next time.....

From plane to bus and by foot...we have arrived!

With just enough time to eat we boarded our Lufthansa flight for Venice.  Can I just say what a clean airline they are with comfortable seats and free drinks.  The flight was just as nice with gorgeous views of the mountains covered with snow that would make you think we were on a trip in December.

E.'s photo

Suddenly the mountains passed and flat land began to appear.  In the distance I saw what I thought was Venice and as we got closer the images that I dreamed about began to appear.  I could see St. Mark's Campanile and knew then that the Piazza San Marco was right below it.  The Grand Canal, the road and train route leading over the water, boats skimming the surface going to and fro from Venice, it was all coming to life this trip of ours!

E.'s photo

The Venice Marco Polo airport seemed very new and was quite the contrast from Frankfurt's dreariness.  E. was carrying a backpack so she didn't need to go through baggage claim for her luggage.  I had decided the night before that I could not do a backpack.  I had really wanted to do this and had researched as well as asked a close friend of what she carried when she traveled.  I bought the Rick Steve's Convertible Carry-on  and multiple packing cubes that separated as well as made it easy to find what I wanted versus searching my bag for toiletries, chargers and camera items, undies, pants and tops.  However once I had packed and repacked, attempted to cut items from being packed, I knew the backpack would be too hard on my neck.  If I didn't have an iffy neck I would have 100% done the backpack.  Down to the wire,  hubby found a rolling carry-on bag up in our garage that would work just fine.  For future travel with a rolling bag I plan on finding a lighter weight one as the one I carried was an older style that was quite sturdy but not that light.  I choose to check it so that I would only carry one bag around that could hold my Canon DSLR camera, a small Gorillapod, a book to read, water in a bobble as well as passport and money.  


Ahead of the trip we talked about how we would get to Venice from the airport and I found that there were two bus shuttles that could take us there.  Based on blogs and research we decided to buy our bus ticket ahead through ATVO which we could catch in front of the terminal.  E. and I strolled out front to find the ticket machine where we were to obtain our tickets. They were quite easy to find just as was written. We were suppose to put in our paid code/confirmation number and it allegedly would spit the tickets out, but no such luck.  No matter how E. typed it in no tickets would come out.  After spending quite a bit of time and letting others use the machine to buy tickets (watching how they were doing it and hoping someone else was trying to do a code/confirmation too) , seeing buses coming and going, we asked a driver that was standing by one of the buses how to obtain the tickets.  Response was we needed to go back into the terminal and locate the tourist transportation ticket area inside to receive our tickets.  For the record it is easier to buy your ticket there and whatever little we saved by buying ahead is not worth the waiting in the tourist ticket line.  Buy your ticket outside by the buses like everyone else.  The ATVO buses were very clean and they even load and unload your bag for you.

In looking at the one website that had been so helpful after we came back, I do see that we were suppose to go inside to get our tickets.  Sometimes there is only so much information you can store in your head or write down and this was just one of our stumbling blocks of what I will call "we didn't know", aka WDK.  For us it just added to the adventure and of our "flying by the seat of our pants"!

The bus dropped us off at Piazzale Roma where all the bus and car transportation stops are.  To step off the bus in the parking lot wondering which way to go felt like the opening of storybook.  We were here and ready to cross our first bridge.  In essence we just started walking in the direction of the first bridge we saw,  E. walked silently and I went over the bridge clunk, clunk, clunk, as almost every bridge in Venice has small steps.  Benvenuti a Venezia!

Buon Giorno!

I'm missing a morning in Venice, thinking of when E. and I would walk down the four flights of stairs inside our hotel the Ai Do Mori, in search of where to have a cappuccino and to pick out which delectable baked treasure we would eat that day.  Out the door away from the Piazza San Marco (which was just a left turn from our hotel down a short block) we would go, a quick right against the flow of most foot traffic.  We might go left and right multiple times, up one Calle and down another.  A small square might open up before us or a dead end to one of many small canals.  A gondola might glide by awaiting passengers or already inhabited with a couple on their romantic tour.  Silent except for the oar as it would break through the still, opal colored water.

E.'s photo ~ our hotel the Ai Do Mori

We didn't always pick the closest place, often trying to find one with seats to sit at.  Most of the Venetians would stand next to the bar to have their quick espresso or cappuccino, chatting away to the barista animatedly.  "Buon giorno!" and "Ciao" were all I could pick up.  Everyone seemed happy in the morning in Venice.  For that matter every establishment we went into we were greeted kindly.  

Photo by E

We would savor our breakfast treats, remarking on the flakiness or if one had a filling and what it was.  I would clean the cup with my tiny spoon to scrape the remains of milky froth left at the bottom.  A part of me really wanted to order just one more but the beginning of the day begged me to stand up and start the adventure of our day.


Venice had countless panifici or bakeries.  We saw meringues the size of your fist.  Some in the shape of seashells that were delicately dusted with cocoa.

Then there were the toasted tipped macaroons that looked shamlessly like nipples.

It was impossible to escape all the sweets that tried to lure us and lure us they did by our standing at the shop window examining every item.  Our mouths salivating while we resisted (why?) a purchase.  Why were they all so big?  The Venetians were not overweight but svelte and neatly attired.  They must not buy them but are bought by the turista.

All of this just one of many layers to fantastical Venice. Buon viaggio con me!