Venezia

Arrived in Mestre about 2pm, settled into the next guest house and took a crowded bus to Venice where we spent a few hours exploring in preparation for tomorrow. Despite the heavy rain which was predicted, so far we are dry and have been pleasantly cooler than most of the last few weeks. There were plenty of opportunities to capture the classic waterway photos.

The Grand Canal is (mostly) VERY busy with water-craft of all shapes and sizes including a group of "older people" standing up in an oversize dinghy paddling forward in a way that looked like they were training for something equivalent to dragon boat racing. We have yet to discover what this particular sport is called.

Gondoliers were a common sight, but mostly they were standing and talking on the bridges and jetties. Very few people seem to actually use them for transport.

We walked as far as the Rialto Bridge today and this (true to form) was absolutely crowded with people and parts were cluttered with graffiti.

It also quickly became clear that there is a stronger influence here of middle eastern architecture (see the following photo) than elsewhere so far in Italy.

Merchandising is, of course a feature of Venice's history and no-one misses an opportunity to make a Euro or two where they can. Some of the shops and stalls are extremely colourful with goods from fruit and vegetables, to Murano glass, to tapestries, to Venetian masquerade masks. Actually we did discuss at one point whether the world really needed so many masks but I am sure it is just a matter of taste. We had heard that Venice itself is much nicer once the tourists leave for the day, but we wonder when that might be since as we left at just before 8pm, there were still people streaming in off buses from the mainland. Perhaps it has to do with the Venice Film Festival this month and the presence (apparently) of many celebrities hoping to win the "coveted" Golden Lion Award. (this is just for the movie buffs, I have never heard of it myself - I read it in a pamphlet I picked up somewhere).

Tomorrow we take the bus back out to Venice for the day and spend more time exploring, starting with a boat trip at least as far as St Marks Square, the Doges' Palace and maybe out to Murano, who knows.