This is the second part of our first day in Venice. This part is documenting the views of Venice by water. As I began to assemble the photos for this post I realized that I have a lot of images and that many of the images I am not able to identify other than those that I remember being described as we went by. As a result I will only ID those things I am pretty sure about and the rest will simply have to be scenery as we took a nice boat ride. In the graphic below is a copy of a map of Venice and the surrounding islands. The ship docked in one of the two slips on the left had end of the main island. The strait line heading up to upper left side of the map is the causeway connection to the mainland. From the dock area we generally headed in a counter clockwise direction to some of the outer island and went by several interesting spots near the main island. The larger island north of the main island is where they make the Murano glass we went as far as getting around to the causeway and could see our ship on the other side and then headed back the other way and got dropped off near the entrance of the Grand Canal which is where we started part III of our first day in Venice.
The map below is an old classic map but illustrates the canal system reasonably well. You can see that there has been quite a bit of land filling over the years. for example the bocks have been added on the west and there has been quite a bit added to the east as well.
We basically retraced the route though which we had come on the ship and then peeled off to go through some canals and out and around some of the outlying islands. We will be seeing the buildings at a water level rather than from overhead like on our way in.
We are motoring along in the middle of the waterway between the main island and the narrow island to the south.
Here is the C. Stucky building again
There are a lot of big churches in Venice. This one is San Giogio Maggiore.
At sea level the buildings almost looks like they are flooded or sinking.
Above is San Giorgio Maggiore church circa 1570's
A look back at San Giorgio Maggiore church and ahead.
Access to all of the internal canals from the main waterways. Usually the entrances are marked by a bridge.
Another church similar but different.
I think this is a golden angel standing on top of the roof of the tower.
The tower above is San Sebastiano
Here is the south entrance to the to the Grand Canal.
Later in the day we took some of the water ferry/buses up and down the Grand Canal.
Here above and below is the Doge's palace and San Marco plaza, Basilica San Marco (church) beyond the plaza, the building with the dome. We will ve doing a tour of the Doge's palace the next day.
Below is a close up of San Marco plaza.
Close ups of the tower and Doge's
In the photo above are two bridges over the canal between the Doge's Palace and the building across the canal. The lower bridge connects the walks out in front of the buildings and the bridge above and beyond connect the buildings at the second floor. The upper bridge is called the Bridge of Sighs. Back in the day the court met in the rooms on that side of the Doge's Palace and once the prisoners were pronounced guilty they were walked across the bridge to the dungeon, seeing the sunlight for perhaps the last time and they sighed as they passed by the last window.
Somehow it seemed unusual to see a horse and rider in a city that is so focused on water.
We went back past and got up pretty close to San Giogio Maggiore church. This church was on a small island across from the Piazza San Marco. There were so many churches that might have been interesting to visit but with the time we had seeing them from the outside would have to do for now.
A view back toward the main island. Below some of the building in the San Giogio Maggiore church complex.
The photo above illustrates the question I kept asking myself. Why would someone build a building right on the water like this.
Above is the entrance to a boat garage. Below is something like a loading dock for boats.
This boat garage is not quite as fancy. Around the corner is one of the most expensive hotels in the area. Apparently lots of celebrities and dignitaries have stayed here
This would have been a nice place to stay but not on my budget.
Interesting hotel shuttle.
The shot above is of a the drive/float up entrance to the hotel with a porter standing by to receive guests.
The deeper channel parts of the water ways were pretty well marked out.
In a city on the water you would expect a lot of nice boats.
The many towers of Venice punctuate the skyline of the city
Most of the canals had pedestrian bridges over them some more elaborate than other. The one in Photos above we had seen on the way in earlier in the day and noted that a secondary shallower ramp system had been added on the both side which made it easier to cross but not as picturesque.
From out in the open water looking back at the city it almost looks like the buildings are just floating.
In the photo above are a couple of boats that we had seen earlier on our way through in the ship.
Another nice boat. I was surprised by the large number of wood boats.
Another church among many that we saw.
I couldn't tell if the walls were there to keep people in or people out
In the photo above looking back toward the city you can see our ship on the right side sticking up above the sky line.
Water fowl caught in mid flight.
Another boat garage
Another small island that is occupied by another church complex.
From this point on we passed by a residential neighborhood with some really nice homes.
With land being at a premium is was interesting to see some areas where vineyards and gardens were developed and the elaborate fencing they had to keep the deer and rabbits out.
Access to the canals was everywhere. The variety of ways to get to the boats was not unlike back home around the lakes and channels.
High priced housing was everywhere in this area.
More canals
The photo below was a canal leading into an area of local shops and restaurants.
towers, vaulted domes and churches were everywhere you looked.
Another marina full of boats. More towers and churches.
Above is Below is a ferry with a full sized semi trailer on it.
This area had the look of a European river town.
We passed by a residential area that look a bit European.
There were a couple of small island complexes that appeared to be abandoned or no longer maintained, but had a one time had a lot of money spent building them.
Lion and man heads are carved into the arches key stones.
A small church or chapel which seemed to have been abandoned.
Above a couple of helicopters and below a barge with hydraulic rams to stabilize the platform as a work site.
We followed the barge for a while down this wide canal.
The land on both sides of the canal seemed to be more like a park than a developed area like most of the islands in the city area.
Thisa wasa oura Guidea which madea ita a bita difficulta toa understanda.
The barge began to make a turn into a slip and we passed on by.
Whereas most of the structures and sights are fancy and expensive, there were also back lots and construction yards. Below is a boat yard for boats not unlike we would have at home.
Here is a construction yard with lots of equipment for handling and installing pilings.
The piles of sticks are actually pilings which were probably 20 feet long, sharped on one end and set up for a pile driver on the other end.
More boats
More churches
Arsenale Shipyards at one time where hemp rope and sails were manufactured and boats repaired there. Now it is more of an art gallery. Below more towers and a lighthouse.
Nice hotel limo above.
Some views were full of towers and domes, others two to three story warehouses and shops.
The next several shots include different towers and one lighthouse.
Murano Island has a lot of individual buildings some as glass factories and some as shops of glass products.
Nice lighthouse and buildings.
It was hard to tell how many of these buildings were actively in use.
There were a lot of individual buildings on this island, and most of them were in some way associated with glass making.
Here is a canal with with lots of shops. that cuts into the Murano Island retail district.
Off to another site and more churches.
Here is our tour group on the boat.
I think this was either a cemetary or a go-cart track or both. I might be wrong on this one.
We headed back over near the main island. We are around on the north side of the island now. As on other parts of the island there were plenty of churches and towers.
We went by the building on the left to a point where we could see our ship beyond the causeway. We turned around at this point and headed back toward the city center.
On our way back we went by this area which is/was the Jewish ghetto which is on the north side of the main island.
Then we went by some areas that were set up for boat and ship maintenances and at one time building.
This block building was at the entrance to an inlet that lead to a dry dock.
We went by the entrance in to the Arsenale boatyard again
You can see some of the buildins that were used for boat building.
Even here there were multible churches.
The structure above is a heavy duty crane used to lift boats out of the water onto the dock. Below is a pretty good sized boat up on chocks being repaired.
A car ferry above and plenty of sailboats below.
We went by this area where they were enlarging marina, and docks.
Here is a construction site which is much different from those back home. This is where the barges come in handy.
The we went by an area that looked a lot like a University.
There was a yacht club.
There was a couple of basketball courts in what appeared to be a park.
And of course more canals.
We headed back toward the city center.
We went by more bridges and bigger tour boats
Doge's palace and San Marco Plaza above. Below across the Grand Canal is the Basilica di Santa Maria Salute.
Finally we got back to dry land. We started our walking tour here about couple of blocks east of the Doge's palace and will be completing the third part of day one in the next post.
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