Venice
Monday
29th September
Venice
gets six million visitors per year. We think that five and a half
million were in St Marks Square when we arrived at 9:00am this
morning.
We
decided to pay a few euros more to travel from the port where our
ship moored to St Mark's via the canals. On arrival we were shocked
by the he crowds. We bought a map and headed into the labyrinth of
alley ways and canals to drop off our bags before heading into the
city proper. (Our hotel is only 200 metres from St Mark's so we
really shouldn't complain)
As
we were wandering in the square we ran into another Aussie couple,
Steve and Irene from Noosa who were on their first trip to Europe. We
were heading for the Guggenheim Museum and they joined us on the
journey. The Guggenheim is Jim's favourite gallery and it was a
joyous few hours spent with Picasso, Miro, Pollock, Giacometti, Dali,
Kandinsky etc all in a beautiful palazzo right on the grand canal.
This
afternoon it was the extended visit to the Ducal Palace on St Marks.
For Nic, it was the best museum of the trip. We hired the audio
guide, which made it much more interesting and walked and walked for
hours. Though the numerous chambers, past the largest canvas in the
world (which Jim initially didn't notice - !) and over the Bridge of
Sighs. From exorbitant beauty (fresco's, marble and gold) of the
upper floors to bone chilling prisons and armories down below, this
place really gave one an insight to the life and times of medieval
Venice. They had to throw us out at closing time.
We
were joined by Steve and Irene for dinner and then crashed after a
huge day.
