A lightening visit to Vicenza

We have been meaning to visit Vicenza for a long time and finally got around to it yesterday, catching the train from Venezia.
It is a lovely place and the comune is obviously wealthy as all of the public buildings and infrastructure are very well maintained.

 Market day at Piazza dei Signori overlooked by Basilica Palladiana

 The Basilica once the crowds have gone

We spent ages wandering around looking at the buildings by Palladio, had a great coffee and then visited the Teatro Olimpico.  This theatre was built in the 1550s and is the oldest surviving renaissance theatre with a covered roof (check the link for further info).
The theatre is absolutely beautiful and is a combination of work by Palladio and Scamorzzi. The theatre is amazing and has incredibly beautiful original painted wooden sets which create an optical illusion because they are constructed and painted using trompe l'oeil technique.

We sat in the theatre for ages and are so glad that we went. We only knew about the theatre because we had seen it in an art history program.

The original wooded seating is like an indoor Roman amphitheatre

 The central 'street' of the set is 12 metres long, but it seems much longer. The street is sloped and is higher and much narrower at the back. The walls of the  buildings are lower at the back and overall it looks like a long street lined by tall buildings. One of the staff kindly demonstrated the differences in width and height so that people could have a better understanding of how the sets work.

If you are interested, the The History of Theatre on youtube has quite a good explanation of the workings of the theatre.

Vicenza virtually closes down between 12 and 3.00pm and so we weren't able to see all of the places that we had wanted to.  We did get to visit the Palladio museum after lunch and saw the drawings and models of many of his most famous buildings.

We had an enjoyable lunch in the sunshine at Caffè Garibaldi in Piazza dei Signori.

 

Le signore hanno fatto una bella chiacchierata

  A relaxing place to go for a walk with your dog

Definitely worth a return visit, maybe next time by car so that we can explore a bit more.

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

Early morning Venice, Rob's running photos

 Sometimes when Rob goes running he takes a little camera.  Venezia is always beautiful early in the morning, peaceful, no tourists and just a few Venetians wandering around taking in the beauty of their city or going about their work. It is such a beautiful place.

Il Campanile di San Marco

The Campanile of San Marco is one of the focal points of Piazza San Marco. It always looks different depending upon the light.  I'll be adding photos of the Campanile from time to time.

Piazza San Marco has some interesting information about the Piazza, Basilica and Campanile.

Venezia è sempre bella

Piazza San Marco is always beautiful whatever time of day. There is always something new to see.

Burano

Burano is a delightful place that and we were long overdue for a return visit.  Like Venice the main streets are busy but a few streets back all is quiet, very peaceful.  Local people are really friendly  despite the squillions of tourists who daily invade their little island. The tourists bring welcome income but there is a price.

The houses are colourful and really well maintained. It would be a great place to live though you would get sick of tourists like this guy below filming with his phone straight through someone's front door.

 Cute, colourful houses

 Boots hanging out to dry

 Like Venice, lots of tiny alleyways

Despite its small size, there is a lot of green open space.

 A local florist

Rob did a bit of research before we went and when we arrived we made a booking for lunch at Trattoria al Gatto Nero .  The restaurant had heaps of good reviews as one of the best fish specialty restaurants around, even Jamie Oliver had good things to say about it.  We shared a degustation plate, Antipasto degustazione, and had Risotto alla Buranella as a main course,  We also had a Tiramisu for dessert. The antipasto and risotto were exceptional and we were both glad that Rob had checked up on it before we got there

Un piccolo giro di Venezia

Still really tired from jet lag and not sleeping well.
Today we went to the markets in the morning and bought fruit them wandered around Venezia mainly around Castello and San Marco. Most tourists are usually crammed into the same areas and as you move away from the Rialto and San Marco the numbers drop dramatically.

Gondola traffic jams around San Marco continue and the gondolieri have their work cut out for them with many gondolas stuffed to overflowing with up to six tourists packed in to save money.  It seems that more often than not the passengers are large tall people.  I can never understand why more people don't go for gondola rides in some of the quieter, equally picturesque canals and enjoy the sights and sounds of the canals. 

There have been a few changes in shops that we used to visit and there seem to be more shops closed with an ever increasing number of "2€" shops and cheap non-Murano glass shops and cheap leather bag shops.

The Queen of Casablanca,  an alternative clothes shop near Rialto has closed but at least another business has replaced it, many others remain empty. 

The weather is beautifully sunny and fresh and is forecast to stay that way for at least another week.  No big storms forecast for the marathon. 

We visited family in Mestre in the afternoon and it was lovely to catch up with everyone.  We had some very tasty home roasted castagne, just about the best we have ever had in Italy,  they were yum. 

It was a bread, cheese and fruit night for dinner.  Can't believe it, we've been here for three days and still haven't had a plate of pasta, although Rob has had white polenta and seafood.

Siamo in Italia

We arrived in Venezia yesterday after what seemed like a never ending journey. We caught the Alilaguna boat from the airport to Venezia and checked in to our apartment. The guy from the apartment company who merry us was very friendly and helped us with our luggage from the vaporetto stop to the apartment. Our apartment faces a canal not far from La Fenice, the Venice Opera house,  and also our favourite bar in Calle de la Mandola. It is quite comfortable,  very clean and has lots of space which is great.                         

Last night we were really tired as we had travelled for around 24 hours with hardly any sleep.                                          

Today we did all of the business stuff,  Italian sim cards and recharged our Venezia Unica travel cards etc.

These photos were taken with my tablet,  those taken with our cameras will be better and I'll usually post those.  I just wanted to make a start on this edition of the blog.                                                                                  

The fondamenta near our apartment. 

Nor far from La Fenice

I love gondole :)

Drinks in Piazza San Marco

Gondole near Piazza San Marco

Ciao da Australia

At home in Australia the winter rains have gone, spring growth is emerging in the garden and the days are getting longer. Meanwhile in Italy the harsh summer has gone and autumn, my favourite, is in in full swing.  How can we not go to Italy?

The countdown has started.  Once again our garden at home will have to survive springtime with minimal care and we will have to cross our fingers that  there is no heatwave while we're away. In a few more weeks it will be: Italy here we come again - can't wait.

Il Foro Romano

Another beautiful day in Rome so we went to the forum early to beat the crowds. We've been there heaps of times before, but everytime we go another little bit has been uncovered - or a favourite part "chiuso per restauro".  There is a lot of restoration happening around Rome - and even Venice which is great to see, private enterprise is finally contributing.

Yesterday we walked over to the Vatican but changed our minds about going in to see St Peter's Basillica again.  There were huge queues and I think that we would have had to wait 1 to 2 hours just to get in to the front of the church. We might go another day and try to be there just before opening time.

I'll post photos tonight