Venice

Welcome to Jan & John's holiday blog. Click on any of the images to see an enlarged view.

For us kiwis, flying to Europe is a fairly demanding trip. The day before we left, a friend told us about this oasis in the Singapore Airport so we packed our togs. It's a refreshing break from the rigors of long distance flights.


32 hours after leaving Wellington we arrived in Frankfurt and had our first proper sleep. We stayed in the same place as our last visit on the way to the Isle of Man, the Hotel Continental right across the street from the main railway station.


Inside the main bahnhoff.


After a good sleep, an early start, a missed flight (long story), a 1.5 hr flight and a bus ride from the Marco Polo Airport, we arrived in Venice.


This shot was taken out the front window of the bus on the 3km long causeway out from mainland Italy.


The bus dropped us off at the western end of the island and that was the last we saw of wheeled transport for a few days. This was our first glimpse of a Venetian canal, a 'side street' off the Grand Canal.


The Grand Canal is a sort of 'S' shape, about 50m wide and basically bisects the island.

This boat is a Vaporetto, the Venetian equivalent of a bus.


The Grand Canal with Vaporetto piers on the right.


I think this scene is amazing - if it weren't for the vaporetto on the LHS, this pic could have been taken 300 years ago.


This is a water taxi, standard design and unchanged for years.


The bell tower in Marco Polo Square

Jan captured this group of chooks queing at some attraction.


Basilica of St. Mark in St.Mark's Square Square

Panorama of St.Mark's Square (or Piazza San Marco)

These are the traditional gondolas. Dome covered in scaffolding in background.


On our second day we took a tour out to some of the adjacent islands. This is Burano, famous for it's vividly coloured houses and lace making.

Here's Jan on the island of Murano, famous for it's glass making and all of it far too expensive for our pocket.

We saw this glass horse made in about 2 minutes, absolutely amazing.

Back on the mainland and here are some pictures focusing on transport.

The wine merchant making deliveries.

The DHL courier!

The cops (or as Terry and Arthur put it 'river filth')

General goods delivery.

This is the famous Rialto Bridge, one of three bridges over the Grand Canal.

The honeymooners on the Rialto Bridge.

So it was goodbye Venice and hello Florence...

Florence

Florence is a 4 hour train ride from Venice via Bolognia where we changed trains. Our Acommodation was near the main Florence railway station so there were plenty of cafes to choose from.



You can't get a car license in Italy till age 18 but you can get a scooter license at 14, so there are many scooters.


We ate lots of Pizza, this is the meal deal at our local.


There are many replicas of Michelangelo's David, but this is the original. Photos are not allowed, naughty me.

As an interesing aside, Michelangelo's David took a two year visit to the United States. Here's a picture of him on his return to Florence ......

Thanks to the sponsors...

This is one of the replicas up the hill at Piazzale Michelangelo.


Nice view up here, click on this panorama to see the full sized pic.


This is the Ponte Vecchio bridge


This is the massive Duomo of Florence. We are up a decent sized hill but not that we are lookin UP at the top of the dome.


Here are some pics of Duomo of Florence at ground level.

It's just massive, the photos don't do it justice, you've really just gotta go and see it for yourself.


The Bell tower


This is the Piazza della Signoria


Statues in the square




There must ba a fairly gruesome tale behind this piece.


Ponte Vecchio bridge, like the Rialto bridge in venice is covered in shops.

In this case, they are all jeweler shops.


On our last day, this big lug turned up from the UK via Pisa.

And hung out with us for the rest of the trip


Come, come, dine with us!

On the Friday we picked up a rental car and drove about 35 km north of Florence to Galliano, near the Mugello Circuit for the Italian MotoGP.