Sunday, May 02, 2010

Venice - Take One

I'm finally getting my photos from Italy into some sort of order. Here are a few that may give you a taste of what we saw.

First, is a glimpse of the Doge's Palace. In addition to being the home of the Venetian Republic's chief magistrate (the doge), this palace served as the center of government and housed stunning meeting chambers. Many of the walls are decorated with murals, and the walls and ceilings throughout the palace sport elaborate gold-plated trim.


We also took a trip to a glass factory on Murano, a nearby island. We were hosted by our own personal tour guide (read: sales person), who explained the art of glass blowing to us as we watched a glass-blower in action. Naturally, we bought some glassware.


We saw plenty of gondolas, and even rode in one. They ride very low to the water and are adequate for getting around the city's small canals, but I wouldn't want to ride one on the Grand Canal for any length of time.


This is the famous Rialto Bridge, an imposing bridge (one of four) that spans the Grand Canal.


There are many other small bridges that span numerous small canals throughout the city.


This is the San Moise Church, which was located just outside our hotel. Believe it or not, this is a small church that pales in comparison to St. Mark's, which is located just down the street from it.


This is a detail from St. Mark's Basilica, a beautiful, imposing church located at on Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square).


Here we have a shop window displaying some of the many Venetian Carnival masks that are sold throughout the city.



Finally, for today, we have a fake bridal couple. Dave and I are pretty sure they were fakes, because there weren't any attendants anywhere in sight, nor anyone else that appeared to be attached to the bridal couple. It was a nice, romantic touch for the tourists, just the same.

2 comments:

Dotti said...

Lovely, Evie! Can't wait to see more.

Barbara said...

Gorgeous pictures.

LOL about the fake bride and groom!