Venice and the colors in its Lagoon

 

Today we had an extremely full day, jetting all around Venice and nearby islands.  Venice is unlike anywhere that I have ever been, and Kristin claims it may be her favorite place ever.  Since Carnivale is in in full swing, throngs of costumed partygoers lurk around each corner, drinking and shouting obscenities in Italian.  It is a great scene, and in Venice, it is impossible to take a bad picture. 

 We left the apartment early, and headed towards the Rialto

 Some buildings along the grand canal, which carves out a curvy path through Venice.  Public transport is by boat and uses this main artery.  It is really easy to get around.

 Buildings with this look are everywhere

 It seems like such an interesting place to live, but supposedly, high rents have pushed most locals out and Venice is essentially a tourist town.

 Boats are everywhere, and most have names

 A mask shop, we decided to go in

 Kristin found a mask that she liked, and

 Bought me a nice leather mask for valentine's day.  We wore these for most of the day.

 Some more houses on the canal

 A gondola, these cost about 120 bucks for a 30 minute ride

 The canals floweth over 

 This place does not seem real, and in a few years, it may not be.  There are talks about turning Venice into an amusement park.

 So crowded, like a club around here

 Love these plague masks

 A goblin

 The Grand Canal

 Balloons? Check.

 Some more gondolas, these things are so ubiquitous that their charm has a half life of about 12 hours.  Since they are very expensive, I would advise that if you bring a girl to Venice, tell her that you will do a gondola ride on the last night, a farewell ride.  This will probably save money.  I will let you know if this works for me.

 Gondola

 Dog running after an orange

 We decided to head north and take a ferry out to the surrounding islands since Venice was so crowded with the carnivale crew

 We just randomly popped into this church, Gesuiti 

 It was extremely impressive

 Quiet too

 The noon light lit up the interior, but it did not warm it up much.  Freezing.

 Venice has all these intriguing looking islands in the lagoon surrounding it.

 We save alot of money eating pizzas and sandwiches.  Though, we tried to save money later in our day on some six euro pizza, but we were each charged 4 euros just to sit down.  Awful, just awful.

 Salame and fresh bread

 Venice Lou. Around this time, we went into a bar called Tortuga, and louie louie was playing.  We both agreed that the convergence of themes was quite serendipitous.

 

She looks a hell of a lot more approachable than

 Me

 On our way to Burano 

 We would love to take a boat to our 300 year old church on Sundays.

 Murano, the glass blowing centre of Italy 

 More Murano

 Water and Sky

 Torcello

 Stepping off the boats in Burano, we immediately noticed something, colors everywhere

 A bike and an old building

 We think it was probably laundry day 

 A pink house, why not?

 Random clown decorations

Every building has a unique color 

 We really liked this Burano place 

 Some flowers 

 Every direction was beautiful 

 

 Definitely worth the 40 minute boat ride from Venice

 Kristin finally peeled off her mask

 The church tower here has a bit of a lean to it 

 We were wondering if people commuted by boat to work in Venice, since most buildings seem like homes and not guesthouses.

 Color really adds alot of character. 

 I believe this is Torcello, Hemingway's favorite hunting grounds

 Kristin called this the Christmas house 

 Resident boats

 The sun was ridiculously bright 

 Even the clothes?

 Boats

 Carnivale dress

 The picture...

 ...the truth.  Most of these guys had ridiculous pro cameras, flipping out over the contrast with the bright blue background. 

 Lesser attractions, they should know to pick a bright background to pose in front of.

 Neglect

 The main drag

 Black never looked so out of place

 Too much light blue?

 We both loved this place

 Plant

 Reflections

 More homes

 A quiet footpath

 We seriously spent the whole day walking aroind in awe like we had never seen color before

 Color

 Window

 We decided that we were hungry

 So after much thought,

 Boo

 and the creepster

 had spag

 and lasag 

 Burano is also known for its s shaped biscuits

 Wine is really cheap here

 We walked to the tower

 And got kind of lost

 We prayed for the right path

 Kristin took the lead 

 We finally found the dock 

 And boarded a boat headed for venice

 We had difficulties explaining to thsi guy that we wanted the sunset in the picture 

 Venetian Skyline

 It was nice watching the sun set as we arrived back in Venice 

 Almost looks fake

 I am  pretty sure that Monet used the building on the left

 for his painting Dusk

What do you think?

 Pulling into San Marco

 Night approaches

 Awesome statue

 One after the other, like an assembly line

 People everywhere

 San Marco

 The Piazza San Marco was very full

 This guy had a motorbike built into his snail, was really zipping around

 Empty Gondola

 The main stage

 Venice

 The mask goes back on

 A lion made of veggies and fruit, check the carrot paw detail

 Quieting down

 We spent the night just walking around narrow alleyways, taking the long way home

 Decorations

 We watched this band for a while, they guy shouted poetry while his bandmates played instruments from a nook by the drummer

 No donations

 For one song, he walked around the crowd drinking Jim Beam and acting really drunk, before getting into a real somber number.  It was pretty weird.

 Snack

 Almost home

 Great

 Happy Valentine's Day

From Venice