This vision bathed in magic blue ~ Venice

[bixaorellana]

The Giardini Pubblici park ~



The Arsenal ~



Zoomed picture of Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute ~



Venice is ready for tourists from all over ~







Every single time I saw San Marco I thrilled anew ~



Evening falls on my last night in Venice ~



Next morning at the train station, I encountered this alarming devotion to St. Lucy ~





Much as my own sight needs praying for, I went outside to stop looking at the shrine ~



A last look . You can see this picture full-sized here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48730140716_b8f09bab56_o.jpg (copy & paste) ~

[kerouac2]

The laundry looks like an art installation.

[bjd]

I's so nice that you took pictures other than the stereotypical ones but I must admit that the light in the "typical" ones is extraordinary.

[lugg]

Just wonderful, thanks Bixa.

[bixaorellana]

Ha ~ good call, Kerouac!

Thanks, Bjd. The sight of the Canaletto scenes shimmering there in real life and looking like Canaletto scenes is pure joy.

Thanks so much, Lugg, and thanks for your attention to this report.

[lagatta]

Before a Summit in Venice, Berlusconi wanted to ban Venetians hanging their washing on clotheslines between their houses. Fat chance.

I like that area near Arsenale. When I was first there, there were still families and hardware shops with brooms and plastic buckets, among other ordinary things. I suspect that many have moved to Mestre on the mainland.

[fumobici]

No, those little shops are still present here and there all over the old city (except obviously in the tourist hotspots). Sestiere Castello is probably the most likely one to see them.

[cheerypeabrain]

Oooh....the laundry! Great photo...beautiful composition.

[bixaorellana]

I so much appreciate how you all enrich this report!

The conversation about neighborhoods and what's still real and still serving residents prompted me to look back up the page and again notice the Valeria Valeria Valeria written on the wall in the picture of the two women sitting under lines of laundry. I googled that group of words followed by the word venice and got many hits. One of the more recent ones is titled This Tourism Company Trying To Save Venice From Tourists <-- click, but google Valeria Duflot to find out more and to draw your own conclusions.

[lagatta]

I'm so glad those little shops weren't driven to extinction! I stayed in Castello, because my Venetian friend said it was (back then) not overrun by tourists. As you can imagine, he wanted me to find a place nearby as one cannot live in old Venice and welcome everyone you've met at a meeting or conference unless you want to set up as a hôtelier, and he was a lawyer. www.iveser.it/

[bixaorellana]

As shown earlier, I also stayed in Castello. Venice is indeed overrun by tourists, but I did have one "local" moment. My 17th century building had lots of windows, especially in the very large bedroom and I'd open them when it wasn't raining. One day there was a great deal of rowdy conversation in the narrow alleyway in front of the house, so I leaned out to see. Glancing across, I saw another old lady in the window opposite mine also frowning down at the alley.

[lagatta]

I love that happening. Some rowdy young guys were speeding on motorbikes on a busy shopping street in Indischebuurt, Amsterdam East. A lady of a certain age wearing a headscarf and modest dress (think she was Turkish, as there are many Turks in the area, and she wasn't Moroccan (I know a lot of Moroccans here and in Paris, and now in Amsterdam) started bitching in Dutch about ill-mannered daredevil youth. I nodded in assent (my Dutch is not very good, my Turkish non-existent).

[bixaorellana]

There are those moments of silent communication when traveling where one doesn't speak the language, or even where one does, but no words are needed. They remind us nicely that we're connected to the whole human race.

[kerouac2]

The Venice flood barrier was deployed for the very first time yesterday during the big storm that ravaged a lot of Europe -- and it worked!

[bixaorellana]

It's pretty amazing -- one of those things that should work in theory, but ..... The success is real cause for rejoicing.

This article has pictures and explains how MOSE works: edition.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-flood-barrier/index.html

Incidentally, I used the little drop-down menu from the upper left on an anyport page in order to access the Italy sub-board. That's when I realized that what comes directly below Europe on that menu is Beyond the Breakwater.

[lugg]

I am not sure - sitting on the fence - Icannot help but wonder what the ecological impact of the barriers will be . Also St Marks is still under water I think ?

Anyway - Just loved going back through this wonderful thread ...
The two photos one before and one after this text are just especially wonderful.
"over walls that leaning crumble red, milky blossom and fresh leaf hover ..."

[bixaorellana]

Very belated thank you for your kind comment, Lugg.
As it happens, you address one of the ecological impacts on Venice. And, as it happens, I came back to this thread to add a news story about the descent of these hideous floating behemoths on Venice.

This is disgusting ~

‘We were deceived’: hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant cruise ships <-- click

[lugg]

Jun 6, 2021 21:15:44 GMT bixaorellana said:

This is disgusting ~

It is but just so complicated by the people factor. Those who support , those who are anti. But I think its clear that return of cruise ships will continue to assist the devastation in Venice.

[tod2]

Bixa - May I say how darn sorry I am to have missed this great and wonderfully detailed trip report! Thinking back it was during the time I had my hip op and stayed away from my computer for months. Well all is well now as I have looked at your photos over and over this morning. I kept thinking.....Why did I not see that? Hey, why didn't we go to that place! And so on and so on. I got out my Venice travel book and looked at the map carefully. I can only think that because we were on a guided tour with maybe one day free to roam and also because we stayed in the area called Dorsoduro between the water taxi stops of Zattere and Acadamia, we were well out of your area. I don't know.
Your lovely description of your stay in Venice makes me want to return. I didn't feel like that after we were done with our trip. I now think that what we saw and did was a Hors d'Oeuvre and that it would be wise to go back for the Main course!

[fumobici]

Great to revisit this, I think I may have been doing the internet tethered to a phone pointed hopefully out a window towards a cell tower across the valley when you posted this.

The photos are lovely, I like how the rain brings out the colors in all the stonework. It looks significantly busier than my visit in April was, but the magic is evident.

I do want to get back there and wander around a bit more. I never made it across the Giudecca Canal for starters. Travel will seem strange to me, I don't want to go somewhere where there are still lockdown measures in place but I will have to get back to Italy before too long so I hope things continue improving in the meantime. Italy should be mostly fully vaccinated by fall.

[bixaorellana]

Jun 7, 2021 20:35:45 GMT lugg said:

... just so complicated by the people factor. Those who support , those who are anti. But I think its clear that return of cruise ships will continue to assist the devastation in Venice.

Anyone who has ever lived around waterways knows the prevalence of "no wake" signs. And usually those signs are meant for pleasure craft, which are tiny compared to the monster cruise ships, so we can imagine the toll the huge tubs take on seawalls, etc. There will always be justification in Venice and elsewhere based on tourism, overlooking the fact that excessive tourism destroys the very character that tourists come to see. But surely even the greediest tourism supporters have to ask themselves, "Where is all that poop going?" Why does that damned boat need to blot out the sky?"
The headline above specifies giant cruise ships. "Giant" doesn't even cover the size of those things, which are ridiculous and vulgar.

Jun 8, 2021 12:01:47 GMT tod2 said:

I kept thinking.....Why did I not see that? Hey, why didn't we go to that place!

Tod, I know how frustrating it was for you to have to be away from the computer for so long. On the bright side, you wound up with more "new" travel reports to see than most of us during the forum's pandemic year. And on my personal bright side, I now get to bask in your kind words.
As far as asking why you didn't get to see this or that sight, that is exactly how I felt re-perusing Fumobici's fabulous report after I'd visited Venice for myself. His report and your beautiful one both hugely stoked my desire to see Venice.
One thing in your report that people should take note of is how well you captured the monstrosity of the giant cruise ships.

Jun 8, 2021 20:07:10 GMT fumobici said:

I do want to get back there and wander around a bit more.

Oh, please do! I have to say that, re-looking at your report recently (see above), I got something of a complex seeing that you seemed to have covered more ground in less time than I did and covered it extremely well, to boot. Now is not the time, of course, but your report keenly reminded me of how much I'd like to go back to Venice.

[mich64]

I do not know how I missed this fantastic report either! Normally we would have been away ourselves when you posted this but we travelled in April/May in 2019, so I am at a loss as to how I missed this.

You captured everything so beautifully Bixa.

Your report brought me back to thinking about how much we also enjoyed Venice. When I began planning our holiday that year, Venice was not on the list, actually Italy was not on the list. But, friends wanted us to join them (she was celebrating her birthday and he wanted to search for his family crypt) so they asked me to come up with a plan. I remember thinking Venice would be a place we eventually hoped to visit but never seriously considered each year. Now we both are trying to figure out when we can go back and now even more so after seeing your report today.

(If I still had my balance, I would want those shoes!)

[lugg]

Jun 8, 2021 20:42:44 GMT bixaorellana said:

The headline above specifies giant cruise ships. "Giant" doesn't even cover the size of those things, which are ridiculous and vulgar.

I know and hear you Bixa . I have just been in Dorset on my usual twice a month trip to look after Enzo. After months of looking out at the cruise ships idling off shore , yesterday nada - so I guess many are heading back out to sea on their journeys.

I wonder if cruise ships are any worse than airplanes in terms of overall impact on the environment? But I do think there are some places that cruise ships should not go ..one of them is into the Venice lagoon.

[lagatta]

There is a direct train from the mainland - if I recall, it is from Mestre (the part of Venice that isn't insular).