Analogue Adventures – Europe 1984 -Venice, Italy

All photos taken on June 25, 1984.

Well, in addition to the hotel being on the outskirts of the outskirts, it also had the most underwhelming breakfast on our tour…a roll and coffee.

Another 30 minute bus and boat ride into Venice for the included 1/2 day sightseeing tour to Piazza San Marco, Basilica San Marco, Doges’ Palace, Piazzetta, Bridge of Sighs and Rialto Bridge. The afternoon in Venice would be either a Cosmos $13.50 optional tour or we could explore on our own. The last one sounded like more fun.

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave  rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile). In 2020, 258,685 people resided in the  Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical city of Venice. The city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.

The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century  BC. The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice for over a millennium, from 697 to 1797. It was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as an important center of commerce—especially silk, grain, and spice, and of art from the 13th century to the end of the 17th. The city-state of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center, emerging in the 9th century and reaching its greatest prominence in the 14th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The first part of our tour was a cruise down the Grand Canal.

One end of the canal leads into the lagoon near the Santa Lucia railway station and the other end leads into the basin at San Marco; in between, it makes a large reverse-S shape through the central districts of Venice. It is 3.8 km (2.4 mi) long, and 30 to 90 m (98 to 295 ft) wide, with an average depth of 5 metres (16 feet).

(Source: Wikipedia)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Piazza San Marco – Napoleon referred to it as the drawing room of Europe

Basilica San Marco and bell tower, Venice, Italy (built 829-836/rebuilt 1063-1094)

St Marco’s clock tower (1496-99), Piazza San Marco,

Basilica San Marco Venice Italy

Inside the Doges’ Palace.

The Doge’s Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic. It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries. It became a museum in 1923 and is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

(Source: Wikipedia)

• 

• 

• 

Views from inside the Doge’s Palace

Venice from Doges Palace, Venice, Italy

church and cloister on San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy

roof of Bridge of Sighs from Doges Palace, Venice, Italy – this bridge connected the prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace

Basilica San Marco bell tower in Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy

After our morning tour, we joined our Thai friends, Pat & Ulan for lunch. We found a nice restaurant and ordered, what else…Salami Pizza. We also enjoyed Ravioli Ragout, lemonade, tea, cakes and beer.

For our afternoon tour, we went together with Pat & Ulan and hired a gondolier to show us Venice from the canals.

The gondola is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing  oar, which is not fastened to the hull, in a sculling manner and also acts as the rudder. The uniqueness of the gondola includes it being asymmetrical along the length making the single-oar propulsion more efficient.

For centuries, the gondola was a major means of transportation and the most common watercraft within Venice. In modern times, the boats still do have a role in public transport in the city, serving as traghetti (small ferries) over the Grand Canal operated by two oarsmen.

Various types of gondola boats are also used in special regattas (rowing races) held amongst gondoliers. Their primary role today, however, is to carry tourists on rides at fixed rates. There are approximately 400 licensed gondoliers in Venice and a similar number of boats, down from the thousands that travelled the canals centuries ago. However, they are now elegantly crafted, instead of the various types of shabby homemade boats of the distant past.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Our gondolier’s name was Almondo and he cut quite the dashing figure as he rowed us about the city.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Grande Canal from Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy

Canalside restaurants Venice Italy

Pat in front of San Moise Church Venice Italy

Before we left the square to return to our hotel, we had a drink in a café on the square. Even though I had heard that it had a taste similar to lighter fluid, I ordered a Campari over ice. Now, I have never tried lighter fluid, but after drinking Campari, I do not intend to.

Back on the boat to the bus to return to the outskirts of the outskirts and our hotel. Dinner that night was Rigatoni, French fries??, chicken, tomatoes and wine with chocolate pudding for dessert. Onward tomorrow.

Advertisement