Europe 9: The Turtle of Venice

On Friday, July 8, 2022, we said good-bye to Florence and drove about three hours to Venice. It took us a while to figure out how to buy gas, as there was no attendant and the machine didn't seem to want to take cards. We finally figured out how to feed it cash.

There is a long causeway that gets you from the mainland to Venice.

We were relieved to turn in our rental car without any problems. Beatrice was good to us.

It was fun to see our first bridges and canals there.

We spent just one night there, at an AirBnB not far from where we dropped our rental car. 

Here is the view from our room.

The place had cute antique furniture.

The owner showed us the garden in the courtyard, and there we met the friendliest turtle ever. It would "run" right over to anyone who came by.

In this 1 1/2-minute video, you can see the turtle run over to me; then run over to Sienna; then walk over to Linette. It ends with Sienna taking it on a "walk".

As soon as we were settled, we wasted no time in hitting the town, since we only had one day to see everything. We all grabbed a snack to tide us over until we could eat for real.

We waited at the "bus stop" to take the public water bus (vaporetto) down the Grand Canal.

The historic city of Venice has 118 islands, connected by over 400 bridges. There are no roads, and transportation is done on foot or by boat. In the satellite picture below, you can see the (backwards) S-shaped "Grand Canal" that goes through the heart of the city.

We purposely chose the slower water bus that makes every stop.

Sienna followed along in Rick Steve's Grand Canal self-guided tour, and read us each part as we got to it. That let us know what we were seeing, providing us with a cheap but fun tour, as well as transportation to the far end of town.

Masks were required on public transportation, in spite of this being outside. It was a beautiful if warm day.

It was fun to see the gondolas as we went.

We saw cool buildings all along the way, built over the centuries in various styles.

The grand canal is shared by water busses (Vaporetti), personal boats, and tourist gondolas. In addition, at a few points you can ride a gondola ferry (Targhetto) for just a few Euro, to get across the canal where there is no nearby bridge. People sit or, if they are daring, stand, as it goes across.

We even saw an ambulance boat go zooming by, which reminded me of James Bond scenes in Venice. Here's a short video if you'd like a look. (Watch the gondola bounce in the wake!)

The Rialto Bridge is the most famous bridge in Venice. Like Ponte Vecchio in Florence, it has shops all along it, with a spot to look out in the middle.

Here it is is from the other side, after we've gone under it. (I thought it was nice of the gondolas to make this an especially classic Venice picture).

For some reason there was a guy dressed like George Washington or something. (Maybe that's a pretty American thing to think...)

The architecture was adorable. The red & white striped poles were a nice touch.

There are a few bridges that cross the Grand Canal. You can also see that the canal can get pretty crowded.

There was an American on the voretto (water bus) with us who was living in Venice, so we had a nice chat with him.

Here is the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Basilica of St. Marry of Health, often called just "Salute"), built after an especially devastating outbreak of the plague in 1630.

This building had paintings in addition to its pretty arches.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is housed in this 18th-century palace.

The "Salute" is on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from our destination, so we just saw it from afar.

Once at the far end of town, we started wandering, which is one of the best things to do in Venice.

Pretty much every canal is adorable.

We came across this church, which turns out to be the Church of San Zaccaria, built about 1500.

There were beautiful paintings and other artwork inside.

We got a group picture as we crossed one of the many bridges on our way to St. Mark's Square.

St. Mark's Basilica was built in the 800s and rebuilt from 1063-1094 A.D. It was closed for renovations, but was still impressive to see from the outside.

In Italy it is said to be good luck to have a pigeon poop on your head. These pigeons apparently wait on this lamp post to dispense good luck upon unsuspecting tourists. Including cute ones named after Tuscan towns, for example.

St. Mark's Clock Tower (Torre dell'Orologio) was built in 1499, and displays the time, the phase of the moon, and the current zodiac sign.

Near the square, a restaurant chose us to eat at it (aggressive guy out front), and it was great. Here Sienna uses two breadsticks as chopsticks to hold a bread roll (which subsequently tumbled to the floor when the "chopsticks" broke).

At St. Mark's Square, there was an orchestra and opera rehearsing, so we stopped and watched them for a while.

Here is 1-minute video of the choir singing the end of a song:

Here is another 1-minute video of an opera guy singing a solo, accompanied by the orchestra:

St. Mark's Campanille (bell tower) is almost 100m (323 feet) high.

 

We also saw this small group of musicians playing "Time to Say Goodbye", which seemed appropriate for our last day in Italy. (I was sort of chuckling at the lady who kept taking selfies of herself at the end of this clip, while her date twiddled his thumbs. But then, I was videoing them instead of talking to my peeps, so...)

At that point, we started wandering our way across town, generally in the direction of our AirBnB, taking in the sights along the way.

We bought some cannoli to try. They have cream wrapped in a crunchy shell. (They were ok, but no substitute for a good gelato.)

The shops at the Rialto Bridge were closed by the time we walked over it.

But the views from there were great.

We decided to ride the gondola in the evening, when it costs a bit more, but when things are quieter and more magical.

It was a beautiful experience.

Our gondolier spoke Spanish, so he spoke to Isabel in Spanish for a bit, as well as in English. He also told us of the intense schooling it takes to become a gondolier.

Here is a 25-second video clip of going under a bridge.

I loved going under the bridges.

This was probably my favorite part of our visit to Venice.

All too soon, we were back at our starting point.

We took a selfie and the gondolier jumped in with a thumbs up.

After that, we did very random wandering to see what we could see.

We found what appears to be the one place in Venice that has tall trees!

We wound up at a dock, so we sat and dangled our feet for a while.

While we were there, we called Erika ("Hey, remember this?"), Kelsi ("You know how you always call from pretty places by water?"), and Jared, who was in England right then, working his way back from the Preston Temple. (Jared and Mikayla went on a BYU study abroad to study photography for a couple months in England, Scotland, Wales and Italy).

The lights on the canal were pretty as it started to get dark.

We ended the evening with one last gelato.

Venice is really pretty when it gets dark.

Finally, we made our way back to our AirBnB.

The next morning, we checked out of our AirBnB and started making our way to the airport.

We took a taxi to the airport, and then flew back to Madrid.

As we passed over Venice, I was able to get a picture that shows the Grand Canal through the middle of town, the causeway that leads to the town, and the natural barriers that enclose the lagoon.

In the next and final episode, we finally tour Madrid, and stop by New York City on our way home.