Who were the crazy people who thought to build a city in this watery place? I'm glad they did, because it is an amazing place!
Mark picked me up at the airport yesterday (sadly without his backpack-my only piece of checked luggage-but who needs it? We have credit cards!) and the first thing we did was get on the Alilaguna water taxi. Venice proper is about a 20 minute ride from the airport, and it was a very pleasant way to arrive in the city.
There are no traffic jams here, everyone just moseys about in their boats! We've seen everything from vaporetti (public buses carrying tourists and locals to markets, work, and popular sites) to James Bond looking speed boats with the wood lacquered to a rich shine, to the ubiquitous gondoliers. We also saw working boats, more like barges, delivering boxes of goods to stores - they pile up the goods, get to the shore, and then transfer them along the narrow calli (alleys) with a two wheeled cart kind of like a reverse wheelbarrow. Not the easiet way to earn a buck, for sure! I have to say that it's refreshing to not worry about traffic at all while we're walking about! Oh, and something else I've noticed - everyone is tanned a very deep brown. I suppose it's all that time on the water.
Our hotel is a little b&b close to Piazza San Marco. Although that is THE place in Venice that all travelers must see, it's surprisingly quiet where we are. A 10 minute walk away and it's residential and quiet and lovely. We even have a spare bedroom if anyone wants to join us!
We haven't done much here other than get blissfully lost in the winding calli, ride the vaporetti, and eat and drink. My kind of vacation!
Speaking of eating and drinking, it's that time again. So, rather than type any more, we're heading out. Still working on the photo thing - I sure hope apple improved their iPad with generation that came after this one! It's still a cool little machine, but we don't appear to be the first with this problem if the forums are to be believed. So suffice it to say we're working on it. Right after our happy hour in the sunshine on a piazza somewhere.
Ciao for now!
Mark picked me up at the airport yesterday (sadly without his backpack-my only piece of checked luggage-but who needs it? We have credit cards!) and the first thing we did was get on the Alilaguna water taxi. Venice proper is about a 20 minute ride from the airport, and it was a very pleasant way to arrive in the city.
There are no traffic jams here, everyone just moseys about in their boats! We've seen everything from vaporetti (public buses carrying tourists and locals to markets, work, and popular sites) to James Bond looking speed boats with the wood lacquered to a rich shine, to the ubiquitous gondoliers. We also saw working boats, more like barges, delivering boxes of goods to stores - they pile up the goods, get to the shore, and then transfer them along the narrow calli (alleys) with a two wheeled cart kind of like a reverse wheelbarrow. Not the easiet way to earn a buck, for sure! I have to say that it's refreshing to not worry about traffic at all while we're walking about! Oh, and something else I've noticed - everyone is tanned a very deep brown. I suppose it's all that time on the water.
Our hotel is a little b&b close to Piazza San Marco. Although that is THE place in Venice that all travelers must see, it's surprisingly quiet where we are. A 10 minute walk away and it's residential and quiet and lovely. We even have a spare bedroom if anyone wants to join us!
We haven't done much here other than get blissfully lost in the winding calli, ride the vaporetti, and eat and drink. My kind of vacation!
Speaking of eating and drinking, it's that time again. So, rather than type any more, we're heading out. Still working on the photo thing - I sure hope apple improved their iPad with generation that came after this one! It's still a cool little machine, but we don't appear to be the first with this problem if the forums are to be believed. So suffice it to say we're working on it. Right after our happy hour in the sunshine on a piazza somewhere.
Ciao for now!
Sounds like fun!
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