A Mysterious Place...

It was a dark and stormy night,
all the roads were flooded,
and water lapped upon doorsteps as if seeking victims to wash away...

No, wait, it was noon on a hot sunny summers day... in Venice.

Where cars are boats;
where buses are ferries;
trucks are barges;
motorbikes are jet-skis;
and where push bikes are gondolas... except with champagne instead of a water bottle.

Speaking of gondolas, we went on one ourself, a lovely, calm trip through the canals (backstreets) of Venice or Venizia, as it is more commonly known.

Our hotel, The Danieli, was on the Grand Canal.

We had wonderful breakfasts on the rooftop terrace overlooking Venice and part of the Italian Alps.The highway seems to be a little crowded today.
Numerous cruise ships, like the Arcadia sailed close to the Grand Canal.

One of the places we visited was San Marco's square which can flood to above ankle height but we saw only a few puddles.
Among the many things we did in Venice, we took a "Car" to Lido island crossing 2 km of water to go to the beach there, and on another day, to play golf.

We also went to another island, this time Murano island, where we visited the famous Venetian glass blowing factory which I found very, and I mean VERY interesting. Seeing how glass and chandeliers have been made since the 1300's.






























Then he put the horse that you can see, on a table within touching distance of us, and it looked liked it had cooled down, and he said firmly in an Italian accent, "No Touch!" Then he picked up a piece of paper, touched the horse with the paper, and the paper caught fire. Three seconds later, there was no paper, just ash.

But the highlight of our Venice trip was the bi-annual (once every two years) fireworks display, in order to commemorate the end of the deadly plague.















It was the biggest fireworks display I have ever seen and it was right in front of our hotel.

It was not only fireworks, they (the people organizing the celebration) had music on loud speakers.

It is a funny coincidence that we seem to have fireworks everywhere we go:

Barbados (although that was because of the cricket)

Rome

Positano

Venice

Lake Como (future post).