We left Aberdeen at 11:50am, via Paris to Aeroporto Marco Polo, arriving about 8pm. Caught the No. 5 bus to Piazzale Roma, then the No. 1 vaporetto (water bus) to Rialto. Reached the Hotel a la Commedia at 10:30pm, ready to raid the minibar for peanuts and beer, or Venetian sparkling wine, depending on who you ask!
Tuesday 6th May
We walked down to Piazza San Marco by way of the Fondamenta Orseolo, well some of us walked! Here's Beth on one of the temperamental wheelchair lifts:
There was a traffic jam on the canal with all the gondolas trying to get by:
The done thing is to pass under the Bridge of Sighs in one of those gondola thingies:
Here's a couple of views of Saint Mark's and the Campanile (Belltower):
We had a fine time looking round the Doge's Palace...
...then took the lift up the Campanile for views across Venice. Here's a pic of the island of San Giorgio Maggiore:
Looking down onto the Lion of St. Mark atop his column at the entrance to the Square:
The next picture shows the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the distance (which we visited on Saturday) with the island of Murano lying behind:
Wednesday 7th May
We spent some time looking around the Rialto area. The first photo is the view from the bridge, and the second shows the Rialto Bridge itself.
The following pic shows that EVERYthing is transported on boats in Venice!
Onwards and upwards to Saint Mark's where we had a look round the basilica before finding refuge in our favourite wee cafe in the Doge's Palace. We then decided to escape the crowds by heading to the Lido di Venezia. The Lido is a long island on the Adriatic where we had a peaceful walk under lilac trees before catching vaporetto No.1 all the way back to Rialto for supper overlooking the Grand Canal.
Thursday 8th May
This was the day we took eight vaporetto from Rialto to Piazzale Roma to Murano to Burano to Torcello, and back again! We kept island-hopping across the Lagoon until we got to Torcello:
It was a bonny walk along the canal which ran from one side of Torcello to the other:
We stopped for a snack (sitting on the church's porch shown below) and a look around the Cathedral...
...then sailed back to the picturesque fishing village of Burano for a wander...
...finally stopping on Murano before heading back to Venice! If you click on the Murano photo below to get it full-sized, you will see the enormous (10 feet-tall, at least!) hand-made glass statue at the base of the clock tower.
We finished off a lovely, if tiring, day, drinking Italian wine (Barolo, called "the king of wines", and Amarone della Valpolicella, which is even better if you ask us!) in our hotel bar. Bella, bella!
Friday 9th May
After trying to get into the Galleria d'Accademia art gallery (loads of stairs; no lift) we sailed on up the Grand Canal to the church of the Frari.
This turned out to be a real gem, with beautiful paintings by Titian and Bellini, a statue by Donatello and the tomb of the sculptor Canova, as well as many other monuments like the one to Doge Francesco Dandolo (d.1339) below:
We finished the trip by partaking of some refreshments sitting under the belltower (below) and then having a look round a shop selling Murano (a.k.a. Venetian) glass.
Saturday 10th May
Back onto the boaties to Piazzale Roma on the way to the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Beth wanted to include the picture of the 'Church of Calvin Klein' for a laugh; Italians worship fashion, so it surely deserves suitable respect - Hail Calvin, full of Grace...?
The statue outside the church of Giovanni e Paolo is of Bartolomeo Colleoni (1496), a mercenary who fought for the Venetian Republic.
The inside was impressive, the photo doesn't do it justice but it's bonny for all that:
The tomb of Doge Leonardo Loredan (1572) is one of many monuments to the doges:
Here's me at a cafe outside getting stuck into some pasta!
Off we went on our travels to St. Mark's, before hopping onto another vaporetto to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
While there we saw the biggest cruise liner in the world! Notice the Campanile, dwarfed just to the right of the prow of the ship!
Sunday 11th May
Hame again, hame again!