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.

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 :)

Out and about and a visit to San Giorgio Maggiore

"The Garbage Patch State Venice" an installation by Maria Cristina Finucci At the Ca' Foscari University. It is an arm made of plastic lids creeping over the wall

Lids in onion bags

The Vigili del fuoco -the Fire Brigade Venice style

Vigili del fuoco. Fire fighting would be a nightmare here despite the water everywhere as access would be very difficult

There are a lot of scultures and other art works throughout Venezia from the Biennale. This one is near the Ca Rezzonico vaporetto stop

It was supposed to be a rainy day with lightning etc so we changed our plans to go to Torcello and went to S Giorgio Maggiore -the beautiful church across the canal in the background of all of those gondola shots taken from near S Marco.

S Giorgio Maggiore with a statue in front by British artist Marc Quinn:  "Alison Lapper Pregnant"

Alison Lapper Pregnant

Detail from statue

This photographer was fussing around posing these models in Carnevale type dress

We never tire of the beautiful mosaics

We went to the top of the campanile -our cameras don't do the view justice

Gardens in the S Giorgio Maggiore Monastery

Looking across Giudecca

Giudecca on the left and Zattere on the right

The bridge is being built across the canal for the Venice marathon on Sunday

No need for comment!

Later in the day we went to Parco San Giuliano and Rob picked up his pack for the marathon.  It will be the third time that he has run the Venice Marathon and this time it sounds as though the weather will be good.

Just wandering around

From the Ponte delle Guglie across the Cannaregio Canal

We seem to photograph this fig tree every time we come -it always looks a bit different.

These old guys on the Grand Canal were pretty quick and were manoeuvring around vaporetti and other boats

Rob took from this from the Ponte della Libertà, the bridge connecting Venice to the mainland, on his early morning run  

Gondole, gondole

Photographed a million times, another to add to the collection :)

 A bank up in Cannaregio

Busy spot not far from S Marco

After a slow start we're settled in.

We're in beautiful Venezia and settled into a beautiful apartment near Campo San Barnaba, one of our favourite locations in Venice. We've done lots of walking, caught up with lovely family and have started to work our way through the cakes and pastries at Pasticceria Tonolo - the best in Venice secondo noi :)

Rob is out running, getting ready for the Venice marathon on Sunday, while I'm sitting in the apartment eating Buranei biscuits from Tonolo. We hope that he will go ok but he has had a rotten lead up with injuries and the flu. No big storms predicted this year and it could be much warmer -it should be around 20C max.

We still haven't adjusted to the time difference though this morning slept in until around 5.00am so we're getting better.
The weather has been perfect for walking around and taking photos and we've only had one really rainy day so far.  I love Venice at this time of the year.

With doors like this you know you're in Venice

Even the corrosion has an artistic touch here

We're managing to have conversations in Italian and even though we know that we make heaps of mistakes, people are very patient and it is good to be able to talk about everyday stuff.

From Accademia bridge

Sculpture in garden next to the Accademia Bridge

A florist preparing his flowers in a campo

How it looks in the day light.  Will post more when I know more about it,

Venezia domani :)

We'll be in Italy tomorrow. YAY!!