Aqua alta

There is aqua alta for the next three days in Venice -around 1. 2metres.  Jules and I went out when it was at the peak this morning. We bought wellies yesterday but I still manged to get wet feet from the waves on the Zattere.

The gondola was at the same level as the campo

Water being pumped from inside a shop

The marathon is supposed to be going through here tomorrow morning

and running through here as well :(

The squero/gondola workshop was very watery

Someone left a pile of cement :(

No junk mail Italian style

On the vaporetto & Piazza S Marco

A beautiful day so we caught the vaporetto to San Marco and wandered around for a bit.

I want a door bell and post box like this!

It is difficult to take a bad shot of this view

Piazza S Marco with Paul busily taking photos

Paul, Sarah, Chris & Jules

A forcola

Venice marathon - freezing, stormy weather predicted

Rob is running in the Venice Marathon again this year. He has been regularly checking the weather forecasts on Il Meteo and they are getting worse by the hour :(







The Bora winds were predicted to be 50kmh but from the rain forecast posted this morning they will be 50 - 80kmh, with rain and the maximum is expected to be 8C.  That's running into a strong headwind, soaking wet and freezing cold. It will be difficult for the runners who finish in just over two hours but imagine how hard it will be for those who take near the cut off time of 6 hours.  I'm so glad I'm not walking!



The marathon starts around 9.30am but runners have to get to Stra for the start of the race. That means we will leave the apartment around 6 so that Rob can catch the bus to Stra. After that he will be hanging around outside in the rain until the start of the race.  He really feels the cold so it is going to be a very difficult race for him.

(copied from  Venice Marathon Facebook)

We went to Parco San Giuliano so that Rob could complete his registration and pick up his marathon pack, he also bought a few warm tops -I think that he will need to wear all of them at once.  There was a buzzy excitement at the place and everyone was extremely friendly. We listened to a presentation  about the course and the runners joked about the weather and the possibility of snow.  How bad the weather will be is an unknown, but no one is expecting conditions like last year.
Photo from presentation

Very few Australians go in the Venice Marathon and after Rob bought some merch we had our photo taken -it will go up on Facebook somewhere so I'll post the link when we find it.

Venezia, Venezia

We arrived in Venezia yesterday and all of us are happy to be here.  Our apartment is great, very comfortable and immaculate -a huge improvement on the apartment in Piazza Tuscolo in Rome which was grimy and needed a good clean.

Rob's cousins Rosaria and Livio met us at the station.  They are really lovely people and it was great to see them again and for Sarah & Paul to meet them.

Taberna Recina

On our last night in Rome before heading off to Venice we again went to the Taberna Recina for dinner. Even though a few of us were really tired we still had a good time and the food was outstanding.

Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Rigatoni alla gricia

Linguine dell Vesuvio alle cozze e carciofi

Tortilgloni del Vesuvio tonno fresco e zucca

Brasato di chianina al vino rosso

Zuppette di seppie, vongole e fagioli cannelini

Bistecca di chianina ai ferri

Rughetta e pomodori

Cicoria di campo