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| The astounding thing abut Venice is that it exists! Whatever
possessed people to build such a city? Defense, evidently. The city is
located on a sand island in a lagoon. |
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| They drove huge pilings cut from trees (deforesting the
surrounding area) into the sand and built upon those. |
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| Ever wonder how supplies are delivered to the stores,
restaurants and hotels? By boat. This one appears to carry linens. |
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| Some of the building appear unused and deserted. The
population has declined significantly over the past few decades. Tourists,
vendors and those in the tourist service trades populate the city by day,
but at night some areas are eerily vacant. |
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| Occasionally the canals do stink...a river (or rivers?) flow
through the city 'cleansing' the waterways...but clearly not all areas are
flushed equally. |
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| San Marco Square. Tourists and pigeons mix freely and the
musicians make it marvelous. |
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| We had trouble finding our 'guesthouse' when we first
arrived-- "From the vapretto stop, walk to the first street and turn
right". We would not have called this a street--nor the one in
which Gary could have touched each wall with his elbows. I didn't take a
picture of one of those. Darn! |
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| The Grand Canal. An experience. |
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| Venice in June was not too crowded. We found we were able to
wander the 'streets' freely explore--especially away from San Marco
Square. |
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| A quiet corner in Venice. |
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| We stayed at Al Campaniel--a
small, quiet guest house very close to the San Tomá vapretto stop on the
Grand Canal. This was a convenient location.
The room was very clean and comfortable, with a window onto an
itsy-bitsy courtyard. The private bathroom was across the hall and just
off the main entry. I did not see the other rooms--they were
upstairs. There are no 'common' or public areas and 'breakfast included'
meant modest snacks in a basket in the room and make-it-yourself instant
coffee, tea or hot cocoa, so we didn't get to meet the other guests.
Espresso, pastries, food, and gelato are all available in the nearby
campo.
The Internet spot across the 'street' was a mixed blessing. Noisy at
night if 'kids' are in there, but convenient when we wanted to use it.
However, days and hours of operation were sporadic. |
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