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Because the sky was a brililant hue of blue and the church was incredibly white.

Labels: italy, lomo, photography, photolog, projects

• We were given free rein to wander around the city, with no one to tell us where to go, or what to do. Along with a few other friends who participated June '06's humanities trip, we navigated the maze that was Venice, armed with a map (which came in pretty handy!) and a very, very trustworthy navigator (Pamela T, whose presence was greatly appreciated!). We learnt how to revel, somewhat, in getting lost in the middle of a strange place. Yeah, romantic and all that.

• Water, water everywhere, and not a CAR in sight. The lack of smog really made a difference. Boats (either motor controlled or manually rowed) and gondolas took their place.

• Historical and cultural value. Venice didn't become beautiful overnight; neither was she a product of pure coincidence. Every magnificent structure you see there has its own story to tell. Even the ugly ones, come to think of it.

And when we finally did reach Venice, I found that it was exactly as I thought it would be. Narrow waterways and canals separated one district from another, and strategically placed bridges linked them together. This is possibly the most common photograph of Venice:

This is so Venetian

Of course, there were the gondolas, which Venice is so famous for.

Gondolas At Night

Gondolas in the Day


Single Gondola (This is not my photograph; it belongs to someone else who went on the trip, but I can't remember who, so if you're reading this, tell me and I'll credit you)

Some of the gondolas looked like they just sailed straight out of a royal palace from somewhere. Their seats are incredibly ornate (though I'm really sure it's all sprayed gold or something), and the boat is basically fit for royalty.

By the way, regular Venetians don't ride the Gondola. They'd be crazy to do that. Each round of the gondola costs around 120 Singapore Dollars (60 Euros), if I didn't hear wrongly. What they do: they take public transport, the traghetti, which is in the form of a motor boat chugging up and down the main canals of Venice. We hopped onto one of them, and this was what we saw:

On to the attractions. We went to the "Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo", otherwise known as the "Bavalo", which is actually one of my favourite structures. It's really outstanding (literally), rising above the relatively low-rise buildings around it. It's a 15th Century Palace (believe it or not!), and is one of the more hard-to-locate attractions. I was fascinated by it, so I took more pictures. Bear with them.

The Bovolo's exterior

The Bovolo's interor, halfway up the stairs

Treading on 15th Century Stairs. Heh heh.

One of the most famous attractions would be St. Mark's Square, or the "Piazza San Marco" in Italian. This is basically what you could call the "CBD" of Venice, except that there are NO skyscrapers to be found around here. It houses offices, and is the location where most festivals are held. It's really popular with both humans and pigeons, so basically we were milling around with hundreds of other tourists, as well as maybe thousands of pigeons. No kidding.

St Mark's Square by day

And when the sun goes down, St. Mark's square begins to light up. Better still, the crowds mostly disperse because tourists usually go back to mainland Italy at night (hotels here are basically small and expensive.) So I was the happiest at night.

All lit up

FYI, I managed to take a shot at night because like my travelling companions, I was staying at a small hotel in Venice. Clean enough, but still expensive for its puny room size. I did mention that there were no skyscrapers in the Piazza, but there was one tower standing tall...

And who could forget the St. Mark's Basilica?

Pigeons and People! (Shot taken by ZH)

If you're a sucker for shopping, go to the Rialto - commercial district of Venice - where much of the touristy items are on sale (at cutthroat prices). If, however, you're searching for authentic Venetian crafts, I'd suggest you roam the maze of streets in Venice. Most of the shops selling genuine Venetian masks are tucked away in a quiet corner. Beware though, the Real McCoy is always more expensive.

The Rialto Bridge. Excuse the poor photo quality!

And whilst roaming the streets of Venice, this was what we found....

I know it's in Italian, but surely you can figure out what it means

We didn't go in, in case you were interested.

There were a couple other attractions we visited, including the Doges Palace (next to the St. Mark's Basilica), and The Arsenal. Doges are basically high-ranking Italian officials, in a nutshell. The palace is connected to an old prison, and prisoners would walk from the interrogation rooms in the palace, through the Bridge of Sighs, and into the prisons. The connecting bridge was named so because apparently, prisoners would sigh as they looked out the bridge's window before reaching the prisons. That was their last view of Venice before living a life devoid of freedom.

If you're still not convinced that Venice is sinking, and that you should go there soon before it does, this photograph may prove otherwise:

A tilting tower. It's not digitally altered!

And that was the last of photographs I have for you guys. Please do NOT take them without prior consent from me (anyway, the resolution is poor). I do have quite a few other shots of Venice, and if you're interested in them you can always leave a comment in my comment box.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is Venice.

Labels: italy, photolog, travel, vacation, venice