Venice

From Zugspitze, we continued our vacation to Venice.

I feel that Venice need no introduction but for those of you who are interested, Venice is a city in northeast Italy. It is a group of 118 small islands linked by foot bridges.

Such as this one bridge.

Venice is famous for its architecture and its setting.

There is just something romantic about being surrounded by water.

And cute bridges everywhere.

The vaporetto (public boat) is the main method of transportation around Venice.

Gondola is more of a tourist method of transportation. We thought of taking one for fun but decided against it due to the price.

1 1/2 hour scenic gondola ride through the Grand Canal: USD200.
45 minutes direct and shorter route: USD100.
1/2 hour scenic vaporetto ride: USD14.
Taking pictures of other tourist riding the gondola: priceless.

So we ended up taking the vaporetto. Aside from being way cheaper, it turned out to be a much more pleasant trip as the Grand Canal was quite wavy. I would not have been able to take pictures had I been on the gondola.

It is so fun to see boats parked along the sides of the house (vs. cars).

Later on, we found out that there are cheaper gondola rides that locals use to cross from one side of the Grand Canal to the other. A one way trip is 2 Euro.

After the ride and some walking around, it is not dinner time yet but as we walked by this restaurant, the heavenly baked pizza smell "forced" us to stop.

Just look at all those bread-dy goodness!

After a thoughtful consideration, we settled on this: roasted flatbread with mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, pepperoncini, and arugula.

Also a couple of glass of vino bianco (white wine). No wine in the picture below, I snap the photo after we finished it :)).

By the time we finished with dinner, evening has arrived in Venice.

I took this photo from on top of the Rialto Bridge.

Trying to capture the movement of the gondola. I was experimenting and do not know what to expect. I think the result is pretty fun.

Next, we took a stroll to Piazza San Marco.

It was drizzling a bit so there is not a lot of people there. Which is awesome for pictures!

One of the restaurants has this band playing outside. I was setting up my mini tripod just as they were about begin playing. The standing man with the violin bowed to me and then got to work. I love how this shot capture his movement as he played his instrument.

St. Mark's Basilica.

If you look at the picture below, there is a little blue light on the upper right hand side of the building. That is not an illusion, but is a toy with light that the street vendor threw up in the air.

From the Piazza, we walked to the pier and took a shot at the Santa Maria della Salute across the canal.

The next day we woke up to a beautiful Venetian weather.

The canal is already buzzing with all the boats!

We took the vaporetti (public boat) to Burano island. Burano is 7 km from Venice, a short 40 minute trip from Venice.

Burano is famous for its brightly painted houses.

I don't know anywhere else in the world where you can see all these colors in one street.

Extremely red house!

Shiny taxi.

I think these masks are so pretty. Unfortunately, what used to be a unique Venetian mask is now all "made in China." Maybe it's just me, but somehow the fact that every street vendor and shops sell these mask make me not want to have one.

On the vaporetto back to Venice. More pictures :).

This is the vaporetto stop, where we would stop to get off the boat.

Boat Routes. Reminds me of subway system in New York or London.

I really wanted to try take a beautiful sunset photo in Venice. Highlight the word "try" because I don't have a lot of experience with sunset photography and don't even know from which side of the island I should take picture.

I do know what time sunset is so about 45 minutes prior to it, we started walking from the hotel to the side of the Grand Canal near Piazza San Marco. Standing on top of one of the foot bridges, I took these shots.

After the sun has disappeared, we started walking around. I saw the crescent moon and some statues and thought they make for a cool shot.

Doesn't this guy look like he might want to fight off the moon?

And this one is motioning the moon to come to him?

Maybe I am crazy but that is what I thought of the shots :).

Dinner. Spaghetti ala Scoglio. 

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the Bridge of Sigh. The story behind the bridge name is that the view of Venice from this bridge is the last view that prisoners saw before they are taken down to their cell. In reality, there is not a lot that prisoners can see from the bridge as the windows are pretty small.

The next morning, we woke up to another beautiful Venetian weather and sadly, had to say arrivederci!

I apologize for such a long post. I took over 200 pictures in Venice and ended up sharing about 60 of them. I hope you enjoyed it.