{"id":2035,"date":"2013-06-08T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T09:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2026-05-25T06:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:05:15","slug":"two-wet-and-watery-days-in-venice-but-it-didnt-rain-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/06\/08\/two-wet-and-watery-days-in-venice-but-it-didnt-rain-at-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Wet And Watery Days In Venice, But It Didn\u2019t Rain At All"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the morning, when one wanders over to the shower block, you really need to be awake and have all your marbles about you, or there can be tricky consequences\u2026\u2026.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found that it helps to have my bag, with everything I need, packed ready by the door the night before.\u00a0 Rodney prefers the grab-it-on-the-way-out system.\u00a0 He started Thursday badly.\u00a0 After he had showered he realised he had forgotten his towel; his brain is obviously still fuzzy with a head cold. \u00a0So when he walked back in to the campervan he looked like a drowned rat, with his now very wet t-shirt and shorts clinging to him.\u00a0 It was a rather funny sight and started my day with a good laugh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ponte
Ponte di Rialto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Canal
Canal Grande<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 9:30am, very crowded, bus took us back in to Venice and then we boarded the No.1 vaporetto (water bus) down the Canal Grande to the Piazza San Marco where we boarded the No. 4.2 vaporetto across to the Island of Murano.\u00a0 This is a lovely island and not as crowded as Venice, at that time of day.\u00a0 We watched a bit of glassmaking, for which the island is famous, and we walked down numerous streets gazing into shop windows at the beautiful glassware on display.\u00a0 We ate pasta lunches in the garden courtyard of the Antica Trattoria Muranese and listened to all the accents and languages floating around us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Santi
Santi Maria e Donato, Murano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Brick
Brick and glass on Murano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After more glass window browsing and some purchases too, Rodney finally glazed over and we wandered down to the ferry terminal to catch another boat over to Burano.\u00a0 The houses on this island are all painted in incredibly bright colours, making it look a bit Disneyesque, but rather lovely to roam around.\u00a0 The island is famous for lace making and lace is still made here, but the few lace makers still working here can\u2019t keep up with demand, so there is a lot of imported lace too.\u00a0 We continued wandering, with gelato in hand, for about an hour until Rodney got a bit tied up in knots with all the lace shops and we headed to the ferry terminal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Burano\"
Burano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Burano\"
Burano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was about a 45-minute ride back to the Fondamente Nove terminal in Venice from where we struck out in a vaguely south-westerly direction.\u00a0 We stopped for cold drinks in the Piazza San Maria Nova and sat watching the gondolas passing in both directions on a canal so narrow that it looked like it should have been just one-way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking down on Venice from the Campanile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At St Mark\u2019s Square the queue for entry to the Campanile had dissipated, so we paid our \u20ac8 and boarded the lift that took us 60 metres up to the platform with a view.\u00a0 And what a view; it was lovely up there and we stayed for a quite a while.\u00a0 Back down at ground level we passed a canal junction where we stood a while to watch the most amusing traffic jam of gondolas.\u00a0 Despite the muddle on the water, the guitar player and singer continued to serenade their passengers and somehow, we never saw a gondola collide or even touch another; quite impressive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Gondola
Gondola traffic jam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After sharing a pizza and salad outside a nice pizzeria in Campo San Stefano, we walked through to the ferry terminal at Accademia and caught our last vaporetto of the day for a sunset cruise back up the Canal Grande to the bus station.\u00a0 It was a long day, but a lovely day and we\u2019re both glad our colds seem to be clearing up a bit at last.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sunset
Sunset over the Canal Grande<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was the one to have a wet start to Friday morning with a Venetian style flood in the laundry room.\u00a0 As I was removing our washing from the machine a Japanese father and young son opened the machine next to me to remove theirs.\u00a0 As he opened the door a wave of water and some of his washing poured out all over the floor and the water kept on coming.\u00a0 Dad got completely soaked all down his front and we were all standing in deep water, but the little boy just giggled and did a splashy dance in the middle of the room, which had us all laughing.\u00a0 Dad managed to push the door to almost shut so that I could get to my machine and remove the rest of our washing and then when I moved away he opened his washing machine door again.\u00a0 Another huge wave of water came pouring out; obviously the water entering the machine was not stopping.\u00a0 It became an international incident when a German man came in half way through the drama and joined in paddling with us and we all stood around scratching our heads.\u00a0 Feeling I would probably be of no use in solving anything, I wished them happy cruising and left the room to hang our nicely spun clothes on our washing line and dry my legs and feet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Lost
Lost in the Venetian maze<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After a cycle ride to the supermarket, Rodney settled in to one of his favourite occupations of watching the comings and goings of our fellow campers.\u00a0 He loves trying to guess the nationalities and watching how well, or how badly, some of them manoeuvre their vans in and out of position.\u00a0 I\u2019ve christened him with a new nickname of \u2018meerkat\u2019, because his head bobs up and down and swivels about as soon as he hears any movement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking up at the Basilica San Marco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After another recovery and catch up day, we headed back in to Venice and managed, after more meanderings, to get to the Basilica San Marco before it closed for tea at 5pm.\u00a0 The ceiling decorations are really quite beautiful, but the herding of the crowds through only a smallish section with officials calling for \u201cno photos\u201d, had us leaving after only about ten minutes.\u00a0 We dawdled back to the Rialto Bridge and sat in a small caf\u00e9 on the east side of the Grand Canal for a drink and then we split for an hour, so that Rodney could enjoy his beer and I could enjoy some girly shopping.\u00a0 We managed to find each other back at the bridge at the allotted time, which really did surprise me!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
A quiet, peaceful canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Canal Grande<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally we wandered over to the other side of the Canal Grande for dinner before trying to find another different route back through the Venetian maze.\u00a0Venice definitely feels like the sort of city that would be nice to stay right in the centre of, for at least 3 months, and really ‘live’ there.\u00a0 I can understand why artists and writers did so in the past and there\u2019s not many cities that have made me feel like it\u2019s something I would like to do.\u00a0 Maybe one day. \u00a0\u00a0 We said \u201carrivederci\u201d to Venice one last time at the Piazza Roma and caught the bus back to Mestre to research a campsite for Saturday night at the beach.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wandering
Wandering the back streets on the way to the bus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the morning, when one wanders over to the shower block, you really need to be awake and have all your marbles about you, or there can be tricky consequences\u2026\u2026.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found that it helps to have my bag, with everything I need, packed ready by the door the night before.\u00a0 Rodney prefers the grab-it-on-the-way-out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8395,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/8395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}