Venice

The first stop on our big trip was Venice. Our friends, Alfons and Hermine Sillaber of Innsbruck, Austria drove to Venice to meet us. We took the trip from Marco Polo airport to Venice via water. In fact, everything in Venice moves by water. Our focal point was St. Mark's square and the Ca' Dei Conte hotel just a couple of twists and turns off the square. We spent the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday exploring Venice, the glass factories at Murano, and Grand Canal. Lots of new experiences for us. Peggy discovered gelato. We also found the tiramisu to be much better than in the Italian restaurants in Knoxville.

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Peggy, Terminal E, Atlanta airport doing last minute e-mail

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Getting on the shuttle from the airport to Venice. Hermine and Alfons Sillaber

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Peggy's not sure she's gonna like this.

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First views of Venice. This is on the opposite side from where we wanted to go.

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View down one of the canals

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Cemetery. This island was man made for this purpose.

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Hospital and ambulances

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One of the many church towers. This one was leaning, as were most. They are not attached to the main building and the ground underneath is not solid.

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Typical view inside on the the "buses" which was a boat, of course.

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First glimpse of St Mark's square. Caught an airplane coming in.

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Structure on the Lido (beach) -- a thin barrier island. There were cars on the Lido, but not on Venice. Note the Esso station.

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View of Venice. St Mark's to the left

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Hotel on Lido

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Another hotel on Lido

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Pretty park

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Another view of public park

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Our bus-boat approaching Venice

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Coming up to St. Mark's

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?? St Mary's basilica under repair.

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Typical colorful houses. Nice Yacht.

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Bath in our hotel.

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View outside our hotel window.

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View from a small plaza where we had lunch

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Another view of small plaza where we had lunch

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Peggy with Alfons, and Hermine Sillaber

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A Canal

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Another view of a canal

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Front of Duke's (Doga) palace near St. Mark's

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Gondola going by

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Hermine inspecting a gondola

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Crowd at the waterfront at St. Mark's. It got a lot worse on later days.

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Canal with a bridge

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Courtyard inside the Duke's palace.

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Another view of the Duke's courtyard

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Church seen from Duke's palace

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Another church from the Duke's palace

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Looking down on the courtyard from the apartments of the Duke

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Duke's courtyard

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Information at Bridge of Sighs

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Inside the Bridge of Sighs

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Bridge of Sighs from inside the Duke's Palace

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Prison bars. This is where you ended up if you crossed up the Duke.

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Nice buns. I think this is supposed to be Neptune

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Mercury ? and Neptune ? at the top of the staircase where Inaugurations and other formal things took place at the Duke's palace

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Pigeons in St Mark's square

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St Marks square. Not bell ringers on top

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This is the entrance to the Duke's palace that leads to the formal staircase

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Feeding the pigeons

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Horses on St. Mark's church

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One view of front of St. Mark's

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Goose-stepping pigeon

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Typical musician group in front of restaurants around St. Marks square. If you had to ask the price, ....

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The bell ringers in action

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St Mark's

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Alfons, Peggy, and Hermine looking around the square. (Looking away from St Mark's)

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St. Mark's tower ... leaning a bit

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Tea room off the square

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Gonelier at work with a group

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Singing gondalier

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Another view of the Bridge of Sighs

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Our hotel room at Ca' Dei Conte

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Window treatments in our hotel room

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We were close to the roof

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Rope for trim

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Venetian style furniture

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Flowers on patios and window sills

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Canal scene

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More flowers

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This is a Venetian street!

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Walking down a street

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Colors and flowers

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Flowers on top...

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Another square near our hotel. St George's???

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Delivering the potatos. Everything is brought in by boat

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A catering service.

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Getting ready for a day of sightseeing at the glass factories and beyond. Note the jackets. They were needed.

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In the water taxi (a diesel powered speed boat)

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Hermine and Alfons up front with our taxi driver.

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Winding through the canals

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One of a million statues we saw

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Laundry day

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bed linen, too

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Seagull

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Breaking into open water

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Another water taxi

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A couple of citizens going about their daily business

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Our wake

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It's amazing what a Dramamine will do ...

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2500 rpm ... I think this was flat out

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Chandelier in process at Murano glass factory

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Close up of chandelier

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Artisans at work

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A vase in the furnace

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Not sure how this guy did this ... not two strands

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Making a horse (we have a video)

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Horse

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Leaving the glass factory

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On the street in Murano looking at other glass

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Some other glass horses

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Church on Murano built about 7th century

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Glass figures. Note the Pediatrician

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Mussels dug from the canal

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Glassware on its way around the world

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The first of many ornate churches we saw. Many did not allow photography. This one also requested no photography, but Alfons paid 2 Euro to turn the lights on, so we wanted to get our money's worth.

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A glass Jesus figure

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This is an ancient baptismal font. Now filled with glass to make it look like there is water in it.

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Monument outside church on Murano

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Alfons straightens another leaning tower

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This place needs a little work

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Here comes out bus to take us back to Venice!

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Arriving back at St, Mark's square

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Carnival is celebrated in Venice with elaborate masks and costumes that are promoted to tourists. The guy in the foreground had fainted. and the other guy was working on him.