Cruising the Adriatic--Venice, Shimmering at Night

We arrived in Venice Friday, October 26, 2013.  It was midafternoon and we dragged our bags across the bridge into pedestrian-only Venice and down narrow, shop-lined streets to our hotel, the Nazionale.  We were aided by three volunteer porters (who later charged us 60 Euro for their services).  We were saved from extortion by our porters by the hotel concierge, who hollered from the top of the hotel stairs, "No! Don't give them!  20 Euro only!" 

 

We took a nap after our marathon flight from SLC to Atlanta to Paris to Venice, and then fortified ourselves with the first of dozens of servings of gelato during our 18-day journey.  We then took the vaporetto (water taxi) down the Grand Canal to look around the city and attend a Vivaldi concert.

 

 

Our first task was to buy multi-day vaporetto tickets and memorize our vaporetto stop, "Ferrovia."

 

We cruised down the Grand Canal, admiring the palaces and other historic buildings along the way.

 

 

We wandered around the area near the Accademia, where our concert was scheduled later in the evening, browsing through all the things for sale. Tourists shop with locals at the open air farmer's markets. Venice has a world-renowned Carnevale each winter, similar to Mardi Gras, and masks are a favorite tourist item. And Venice is also an art city--with not only dozens of museums, but hundreds of galleries.

 

 

 

 

We liked this surrealist painting of a submarine surfacing in Venice's lagoon.

 

The shops, like the Italian people, are available late at night.

We took the vaporetto to St. Mark's Square to see the "dueling orchestras" that play in the evenings.

 

 

We then attended a chamber concert of works by Vivaldi and other Baroque composers.  It was held in a Baroque church, which created the perfect ambience, since Vivaldi was born in Venice during that period.  We especially enjoyed two works with solos by flute and piccolo.  The concert was so good that we returned the next night to hear the group play a different program.

 

 

 

 

Throughout the evening, we enjoyed the shimmer of lights on the canals. 

There is something melancholy about Venice at times, even though this is a party city.