Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thursday 13...13 photos from Venice!

Monday, no Tuesday, no, crap. I have completely lost track of the days...Italy was exhausting as well as gorgeous and fabulous....must get my journal. BRB....

Got it. It's Tuesday, March 17. We take a water taxi across to the islands of Venezia. Or Venice, as we call it...It was foggy in the morning, and it was a damp and chilly ride.

During the day, we watched the pigeons and the people in Piazza San Marco, went up the bell tower -- it was horribly windy up there, and cold. We took a bunch of photos and went back down quickly, since we were freezing our asses off. We went on a gondola ride and got a totally awesome view of Venice from canal level.

Zach found out the hard way it is not a good idea to walk under light poles with pigeons sitting on them...and he does not believe being pooped on by a pigeon is good luck.

We went into the Doge's Palace, which is part museum and part palace and totally fascinating. I took a couple photos before they told us no photos were allowed. The Bridge of Sighs connects the prison to the Doge's Palace, and legend has it the Bridge is named for the sighs of sadness of the prisoners, for the quick last glimpse of freedom they got through the windows as they were led off to their cells. (Google image Bridge of Sighs for a better idea of what it looks like, as our one photo of it is not too great...)

Now! On to the photos!



This is the fulcrum the gondoliers use with the oar to control the gondolas.



A Venetian politia...Zach did not agree with me about how attractive this particular officer was...




Columns on a balcony on the Doge's Palace. They looked all straight and even in person...


Don't stand under the light pole...


A pigeon's eye view of Piazza San Marco.


The Piazza and Venice from the bell tower.


Reflections from the water on the underside of a bridge. (We were in a gondola at the time...)


The ground floor rooms of some buildings are no longer habitable because Venice is sinking.


We didn't get a good photo of the Bridge of Sighs...1875 photos, and this is the only one of the Bridge of Sighs.


St Mark's Basilica on the left and the Doge's Palace on the right.


Taken from the gondola.



From the water taxi.



St Mark's Basilica and other buildings off the Piazza.


Zach and I on the piazza.


The sun was setting as we left Venice.

I realize this is really the Thursday FIFTEEN...but I couldn't decide which two photos to cut. So you get extra value for your TT, and I once again prove I am not so good with the rules...



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13 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:17 PM

    Extra value...tee hee!

    You've got some great shots here yourself! :)

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  2. Wow...those are great pictures! I want to go to Europe. I want to take better pictures. I want to learn photoshop. Who knew that blogging could lead to such expensive tastes?! I need to do a photographic Thursday 13 next as this week really taxed my brain!

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  3. Anonymous1:36 PM

    Those are some great pictures, thanks for sharing. Happy TT!

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  4. awwww this makes me miss italy! i didn't have a very good time in Venice: i got sick on the water taxi, my grandad and i got into an argument (it lasted all of an hour) and the smell did nothing for my queasy stomach. BUT, i got some friggin awesome pictures and venetian glass.

    sigh...i wanna go back to italy...

    how much gelato did you eat??

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  5. Biddy...let's see...chocolate, tiramisu, more chocolate, strawberry, limone, more tiramisu, more chocolate...lots of gelato. How can you go to Italy and not eat gelato? And damn, they can make wicked cappuccino. I didn't get any glass...my son and I did very little shopping at all. Which means I have to go back some day, right? Oh, yeah, I was surprised it didn't smell much at all -- just a couple times on the gondola we hit stinky areas. They have really cleaned it up since I was there in the late 80's.

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  6. Anonymous2:05 PM

    What no shots of plates of food!? These are gorgeous. The city is huge.

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  7. Great shots! How fun for you. Oh - I agree with you about the police officer. LOLOLOL

    Happy TT

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  8. Anonymous2:38 PM

    I'm speechless. Those are just gorgeous. I'm so glad you had a good time and came back armed with pictures. The extra bonus ones were just fine by me. Looks like such a great trip!

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  9. Awesome shots!!

    Almost two thousand? I feel better about the 500 that the Tour Manager and I took over New Year's.

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  10. Those shots were absolutely stunning. Hubby and I always wanted to go there for our honeymoon, but never had a chance to go. Thank you so much for sharing those photos from your trip. I especially love the pigeon's eye view. Very clever!

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  11. And yet more wonderful pictures. Oh, and my sister and I agree about the police officer. He's quite a nice looking guy. I think I could ignore the language barrier! ;)

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  12. Great pictures Julie! I visited Venice once in the early 80's. It's sad it's sinks huh?
    It's a shame you had such bad weather, it sucked here too, we haven't had snow all winter, but we got a white Easter! And now it's raining. AGAIN. *Sigh*

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  13. Thank you for the wonderful photos of Venice. I hope to get there someday before the whole place sinks!

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