Firenze: Fog and tourists

The Pope and flag wavers have gone but there are still quite a few religious conference delegates around - wandering around with their ID tags.  There is quite a difference in the nationalities of tourists here compared to Venice.  This morning every second person seemed to be American, with a sprinkling of people from other countries.  In Venice there was more of a mixture of European and Asian tourists -whoever happened to be on the despised "grandi navi" or cheap weekend flights.

From our observations more English is spoken here and few English speaking tourists seem to try to speak Italian in shops, restaurants etc.

The fog has arrived in Firenze, it is not as dense as in Venezia but enough to soften buildings in the distance.

Ponte Santa Trinita from the Ponte Vecchio. The water  was so still today

Palazzo Pitti, a very imposing building.

 I'm playing around with B&W photos again.

 A door knocker on a building bordering Piazza Pitti

 Entrance to Chiesa San Stefano

 The Arcone or Arch viewed from the top of la Rinascente building

 Had lunch at Caffe' La Terrazza on the rooftop of la Rinascente. A fabulous view of the Duomo and rooftops of Firenze. Couldn't help but take a few photos

We were lucky as while we were having lunch a young woman was singing, mainly opera, just below us in Piazza Repubblica.  Fortunately she was using a microphone.
 Unbelievably while we were watching, a tourist went up to the her and put her phone as close as she possibly could to the singer's mouth and then tugged at her arm as she turned her head to sing.  It was such incredible rudeness and to make it worse when the tourist had had enough -before the song ended- she just walked off without giving the singer anything. No wonder many people don't have much respect for tourists.

La nebbia

Fog (nebbia) is incredibly beautiful in Venice and it gives the city a really mysterious and secretive feel.
When we're in Venice there are often days with really heavy fog but this year we have had clear bright days except for our last morning. After checking out of our apartment we spent the last hour before our train left racing around taking photos.  I'm glad that we did as the fog was beautiful and in some parts of the city and on the water, visibility was really low.

 View from the Rialto

 The Rialto markets 

 Campo S. Angelo with the leaning Campanile barely visible in the background

 Gondolas near the Rialto

 Three gondolas in the Grand Canal with one stupid tourist trying to stand up. If he'd fallen in it would have been very difficult to find him.

 The same gondolas about 30 metres away

 View from the Ponte degli Scalzi

Chiesa San Simeone Piccolo across from the railway station is visible through the fog

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 :)

La Nebbia

We made a late start today, we had both been up early but just took a while to go out. The fog outside was really heavy and we both wished that we'd checked outside as soon as it was light.  We still managed to get some ok photos of the fog.

I love the fog/la nebbia as it really suits Venice, makes it more mysterious and softens everything.

This man sings opera in San Polo Campo dei Frari. He has been singing opera there for years and is still very good.

A typical daily scene - a lady in her dressing gown checking out what the workmen next door are doing

The fog is beautiful

Fondamente de la Dogana

The Campanile in San Marco rapidly disappeared in a cloud of fog.  Now you see it

Now you don't.

San Giorgio Maggiore

San Giorgio Maggiore taken from the Fondamenta De La Dogana

The Venice street lights are beautiful

Tonight the opera :)