Another day in Venezia

Rain was predicted so we went out prepared but apart from a ten minute downpour when we were at San Marco the weather was lovely.  The rain was great because it cleared the dust and the air was fresh.  Our cousins in Mestre didn't fare so well, they got absolutely soaked when they were walking home from a computer class and the rain lasted longer there as well.

 We just spent the day wandering around and loved it.

We'll have to stop taking photos here -I try to but the light always makes it look a bit different

We also haven't taken enough photos of gondolas from the Rialto :)

We reciprocated in taking photos for another couple of tourists

A gondoliere with his telefonino - Italians are as bad as Australians with mobile phones, though maybe not in restaurants.

The downpour cleared San Marco

Except for this guy who was enjoying being the centre of attention.  Not the right body shape for the wet Tshirt look

Gondolas in their raincoats

Hope the tourists managed to get out before the gondoliere covered the seats

From the Accademia bridge -di nuovo :)

e un altro :)

This guy was very brave paddling down the Grand Canal in a kayak.  The boats are all much slower now -except for the occasional taxi.  Some German tourists died in a gondola/vaporetto accident near Rialto in the summer and as a result the Commune has more tightly regulated traffic, speeds etc

Torcello

We visited Torcello yesterday and wandered around.  The vaporetto comes on the hour so we spent about two hours there.  We walked to Riva degli Schiavoni and caught the vaporetto from there to Torcello.  It was a slow trip via Lido, Jessolo and Burano.
It was foggy early in the morning but had cleared by the time we got to Torcello.

These Vigili del fuoco musn't have been going to a fire -they were in a queue behind stacks of gondole.

Leaving the vaporetto stop in Venice

It was interesting to see the flat marshes - hard to imagine that parts of Venice  was built on land which started out like this

The walk in to the centre of  Torcello

Torcello was the beginning of the Venetian Empire - there are only a few traces of the grandness of its opulent past

A 1600s building on a canal which is now a restaurant

It was very glary day and difficult to take photos

an unusual collection of statuary in a courtyard adjoining a building

In front of the cathedral there are remnants of Roman structures

These lizards were everywhere - they were an interesting colour.  I was reminded that we have squillions of lizards in Australia :) but still found these interesting

A rather unusual marble plaque

The Venetian lion

Remnant plaques and marble carvings

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta.  There are extensive beautiful mosaics in the cathedral which are in a Byzantine style like Ravenna. Photography is not permitted in the cathedral.

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta and the campanile. The Cathedral was constructed in 639.   The campanile is covered scaffolding for restoration

 Today it is hard to imagine the bustling, prosperous city of old.

Ponte di diavolo

View from the Ponte di diavolo

Taken from the vaporetto stop at Torcello

Slow Internet

Our internet is very slow at the moment -we are using the apartment's wifi. Until it is sorted I may not be able to post much for a few days.

The 28th Venice Marathon

This is the third time that Rob has run the Venice Marathon. This time he found it hard because he had trouble with his legs and had a bad headache.  Still as always he persisted and finished around the middle of the field.

After a foggy start it was much warmer than usual and many runners seemed to be struggling with the heat and humidity.  Quite a contrast with last year when it was freezing cold, huge storms and there were 60km winds in the middle of the day.

Rob said that the people in all of the little towns along the route were very encouraging and lined the streets cheering people on. This support, as well as bands playing and volunteers handing out food and drinks made it a entertaining environment for the runners.

We made an early start from Venezia to Mestre

It was very foggy and we waited for a while for the bus to come -we were also directed to one spot and had to go back when the bus arrived where we were originally.

Rob didn't manage to get a seat on the bus to Stra

The runners were packed in like sardines for a long trip

It was difficult to see through the crowd to spot Rob

Happy to be finishing

The finish line is in sight

Michele brought along an Australian flag which Rob spotted in the crowd :)

Tired after a long run

Don't know how but Rob perked up pretty quickly

Rob with Francesca and Michele

Rob is happy and I still look worried - I knew that there was something wrong when he was much slower than he had intended

Three great Venice medals -he will have to run another 20 Venice marathon to get the San Marco medal -I don't think that is going to happen :)

A day with family

We spent a lovely day with our Italian family on Saturday.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone again.

Rosaria cooked some fantastic ravioli con funghi porcini -at home we would need to take out a bank loan to have porcini like that :)  She also cooked a fabulous array of fried seafood: various shell fish, prawns, fish and squid. It was all very tasty and we were very lucky to have such a great meal. Venetians know how to cook fish!!

Livio is a master at cooking castagne and he was up to his usual high standard.

Michele made an apple strudel which we all enjoyed and we were lucky to have some later in our apartment.

We had a great day and lots of fabulous food but stupidly forgot to take photos :(

Teatro La Fenice

We've always wanted to go to an opera in Italy but have always lucked out with timing and availability of seats. This time we made it. We went to La Fenice and saw L'elisir d'amore  (The Elixir of Love), a comic opera by Donizetti.

The opera was fantastic -a huge step up from what we have seen before. The singers and the orchestra were fabulous and  La Fenice was beautiful.

Teatro La Fenice has burnt down and been rebuilt several times.  The last rebuilding was completed in 2004 after burning down in 1996 - arson was suspected.  There were several Vigili del fuoco in the building during the performance last night.

All of the photos are from our seats.

I was very happy to be at La Fenice - Rob got us great seats on the second level

The whole place was very opulent, very Venetian

We had a good view of the stage and orchestra

The view from Rob's seat wasn't quite as good so we swapped at interval. It would have been fine but we had another person sitting behind us and if we spread out she wouldn't have seen much.

We had the two front seats in our box

This is the central box -the people in this took more photos of themselves than us :)

View from our box to the left

The central chandelier

View from our box to the right.