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

Ways of doing things Venice style

Delivering goods to shops

Furniture removal guys

Virgili del fuoco, the Fire Brigade

More removalists

Taking your dog for a paddle instead of a drive

Hanging out the washing

Delivering luggage to a hotel

Sempre uguale ma sempre diverso

Even though you walk often around the same streets there is always something new to see. The same things look different, the light is different, there are different people, always the same but always different.

I don't know how many photos we have from this spot. 

 The beautiful light at dusk

 The Basilica of San Marco is still being restored. It is a huge job to maintain it given the inundations of water and tourists

So many beautiful canals

30th Venice Marathon 2015

Rob ran in his fifth Venice Marathon on Sunday 25th October.  For those of you who aren't runners, a marathon is 42.2km on the direct course but people usually run a bit more -crossing over for drink stops etc always adds to the distance. This year it was the 30th Venice Marathon and as usual Venice put in a lot of effort to make it a successful event.

The race starts in front of the Villa Pisani in Stra and finishes  near the Giardini on Riva Dei Sette Martiri in Venice.

Rob waiting for the bus to Stra.  We were up at around 5.00am to get to Mestre by 7.00am in time for Rob to catch the bus.  The race didn't start until 9.45am -a long time hanging around.

 The start of the Venice Marathon

(https://www.facebook.com/ASDVenicemarathon/photos)/

This is how Rob found the marathon this year:

The Venice Marathon starts at Ca Pisani, a Venetian villa at Stra on the Brenta River canal. After an Alpini brass band played the national anthem the music switched to a loudly played Back in Black by ACDC as the runners crossed the start line.

The first 18km is mainly along the canal with many beautiful villas along the way and passes through the towns of Dolo, Mira and Malcontenta. This is a great part of the race with fantastic scenery and great local crowds giving great support to all the runners. With many local runners in the event there were frequent shouts of recognition and local support.

There are a few kms of not so scenic running through the Marghera port area before moving through some leafy promenades and then the central piazza of Mestre. Runners then move through the large  expanse of Parco San Giuliano. At about 32km the runners reach the Ponte de La Liberta to run across the Laguna to Venezia. I always have mixed feelings here. It is great to be on the lagoon but the Ponte is a long 4km at that stage of the run.

Once in Venezia we have a couple of kms through the port area before running along the Zatterre alongside the Giudecca Canal. Runners then cross a pontoon bridge from Punta della Dogana across the Grand Canal. It is a long bridge set just for the event and gives a special view of the Grand Canal.
From there it is through Piazza San Marco, along the Riva dei Schiavoni and Riva dei Sette Martiri. The last 3 kms are amazing even though difficult because of the bridges - 7 just in the last kilometre.

From the beginning of the race the crowds were absolutely fantastic, cheering on runners they knew and visitors. There were about 20 different bands - garage, punk, blues, pop, metal, and a Kiss cover band. We also had locals banging pots and pans from balconies, lone saxophone players and generally people supporting any way they could.   I was lucky as I had some support too - Michele and Francesca in Mestre with the Australian flag and Chris at the finish.
The weather was perfect. A great event.  Thanks to the Venice Marathon Club and to the many volunteers who helped runners along the way.

 Rob nearing the finish line it was one of his best times yet which is pretty incredible as he had very little time to train this year. Sorry about the head in the corner of the photo, I did well to get a photo at all as there were so many people cheering and encouraging the runners. A really nice atmosphere.

 A tired Rob after the race

 It was a great medal for finishers this year -very Venetian in maroon and gold

Castello

We hadn't been to the Basilica dei S.S. Giovanni e Paolo for a long while, so we caught the vaporetto to Rialto and walked around quiet calli  and made our way there. We stopped and looked at many things along the way, including a visit to the Chiesa di San Lio.  With many wrong turns and interesting things to sidetrack us it took ages to go the short distance to SS Giovanni e Paolo.

 

Like everywhere else, everyone  in Venice seems to be glued to a mobile phone including the gondoliere and passengers.  A lot of people look at Venice through their Ipads.

 I was sure that I was way too tall for the Sotoportego Tramontin or Basadonna and bent over so that I wouldn't hit my head

 I guess not :)

Short Venetian women must have been my height

I was messing around with my camera and got it stuck on black and white for a while,

and sepia.

Rob stuck with colour

View into Campo S. Maria  Formosa

The pharmacy in the campo is  very close to the funeral business - not far to go to deal with mistakes

We seem to go through Campo S. Maria Formosa quite often when we cut through from  near S. Marco, the Arsenale or Riva degli Schiavoni - not really a shortcut, just a different route.

At the entrance to Basilica S.S. Giovanni e Paolo there was a beggar- normally I wouldn't take photos of beggars but he was very well organised and was hiding his phone from view and changed his strong phone voice when asking for money 

The Venice public hospital - Ospedale Civile

Saturday morning in Cannaregio

Saturday morning was a bit rainy and there was acqua alta so we put on our boots, went to Tonolo in Dorsoduro for the obligatory caffè e bigne and went for a walk through Cannaregio.  There were heaps of tourists on  Lista di Spagna and  near Strada Nova struggling with suitcases on the wooden acqua alta platforms. We decided to avoid the main drags and wandered around the fondamente nearest Madonna dell'Orte.

 A nonno  going to the market with his grandson - he ended up carrying him when the water got too deep

 Just doing the shopping is hard with acqua alta

The Cannaregio market a messy mixture of water, tourists with suitcases and local people trying to do their shopping

 The statues of the Mori attached to the Osteria dei Mori have been restored. The one at the front looks as though he has a gangrenous nose or his rusty old nose has had antirust liberally applied .

 A great old doors in Campo dei Mori

Venetians must have all been around my height :)

 

We went to the beautiful Chiesa di Madonna Dell'Orto  and were very lucky that the church organ was being played for the whole time that we were there.  The sound was incredible and the organist very competent and he obviously enjoyed playing.  There are many beautiful paintings including many by Tintoretto who is buried in this church.

One sad note was an empty frame in the chapel near the front door of the church. A 1480 Giovanni Bellini painting of "The Madonna with Child" was stolen in 1993 and there is only a photograph of the painting and an empty frame to remind us of the beautiful painting that was there. No doubt it is in some wealthy Bs collection.