May 1: May Day in Venice!

It was a tough start to the day:  too hot to sleep in our room, and a 4:15 wake-up call.  It was a good thing we packed last night, because the taxi driver made it to the reception desk before we did!  We arrived in Athens at sunset, and left it at sunrise.  I was very glad to be able to buy a book in the Athens airport, and we had no troubles on our flight, and then we were in Venice.  Ian believes everyone should arrive in Venice by boat, so we had a dry run of the Alilaguna that we will take our mothers and our niece Alanna on tomorrow.  It is so exciting to see the bell towers (campanelli) emerge on the horizon.  Our hotel room wasn’t quite ready – we don’t have the apartment until tomorrow – so we went for our first Italian pasta meal, and then back to our old neighbourhood, where Ian and I stayed last time we were here.  We took the bus from the Ferrovia station around the outside, past the cruise ship terminal and between Venice and Giudecca islands.  We stopped off at San Gerogio island and saw the church with all its Tinterettos, then took the elevator up the Campanile for some great views of the Venice archipelago.  Finally, we caught the vaparetto down the Grand Canal back to the Ferovia (Railway) stop. We got gelato and then got into our sweltering room.  After a couple of cool showers, we went to wander once more around the block, found a bar with Internet, and had the best coffee we've had in weeks.

The view of St. Marks bell tower and the Doge's Palace from San Giorgio

Heading from San Marco Airport into Venice on the Alia Laguna (Red Line).

The way to our hotel after getting off at the Guglia stop.

There were 4 cruise ships in the cruise ship terminal, this Holland America line ship was the biggest.  When it left in the late afternoon it was towed by tugs right down the Grande Canal past San Marco.  It dwarfed most of the buildings.

Geudecca from the #2 Vapporetto as we traveled to San Georgio and San Marco.

 

San Georgio exterior.

A bad picture of one of the many Tintoretto's inside San Georgio.

Choir inside San Georgio.

More views from the Campanile.

The Tetrarchs in Piazza San Marco.  When Diocletian reorganized the administration of the Roman Empire he tried to create stability by having an Emperor in charge of the east and one in Charge of the west.  Each emperor had a junior colleague.  This is a representation of Diocletian and his 3 co-rulers.  It was plundered from Constantinople (Istanbul) when crusaders decided it would be easier to plunder their alley than the more powerful Turks and Egyptians.

But when they took it one of the feet broke off and they left it behind.  We saw the foot in the Archaeological museum in Istanbul near the beginning of our trip.  You can see the foot has been replaced in Venice by a different colour marble.

One of the old Venetian Palazzos on the Grand Canal.