Venician Brown p9

The Gold House (incidentally -not- the ca'd' oro)

This was the most flashy-designed house on the Grand Canal. Each time we passed it, I tried to get a shot, and this one turned out pretty good. The front is all gold-shiny and very symmetrical. You know some rich merchant called this his home.

Mom said that this house is one of the glass-makers from the nearby island of Murano. You can only get to Murano by boat, and we opted out on this trip. The glass from the island is everywhere, though. The houses and churches in Venice are filled with these beautiful glass chandeliers. Some day I'll have one in my house. Oh yes I will. You can buy little glass trinkets in the shops all around Venice, too.

At the neighboring island to Murano, lace is their specialty. Between every glass shop and souviner shop is a lace shop. We neglected to go to the lace island, as well, but enjoyed seeing the lace throughout the stores.

Kind of off topic, but our first meal in Venice was at a little tiny cafe. It only had about 6 tables in it, and was very crowded. The personality of the place and the 2 ladies that ran it was very ...eclectic. I remembe that the menu was posted on the window so that passers-by could see what the restaurant served. I thought this a bit odd while eating, as people seemed to be peering in at MY food. I felt like a live advertisement ... the food was extremely good, I would tell them. Everywhere in Italy, its normal to have a menu on display outside the restaurant. Whenever you're hungry, you walk up to a restaurant and look at what they're serving, and then decide to eat there or not. It also helps to know how much you're going to be paying for dinner before you sit down.



Surprise, a Spire!

All of the streets in Venice are relatively narrow. There are no vehicles on the island so there is no reason to have streets wider than is necessary for 2 people to squeeze by. The buildings are tall, too, so form walls all around you. By buildings I mean apartment type housing. They are relatively plain-looking tall structures all touching with flat facades. It feels like a maze navigating through Venice at times. You have to just keep telling yourself 'im on an island, I cant get THAT lost on an island.' You then allow yourself to enjoy the places the winding narrow roads take you.

Where they take you ... usually a canal, a bridge, a courtyard or a dead end. The view constantly surprises you, though. I remember walking around, kind of paying attention to where the little street was leading, andthen all the sudden, i get a peek of thetop of this church, out of nowhere.

On a different walk we walked down a narrow alleyway that seemed destined to end at a only an dumpster and a chain-link fence. Instead when we got to the end of the road, there was this beautiful serene coutryard. Somewhere you'd do yoga.

Venice is surprising, everywhere you go. You get all these peeks at what its all about, but you can never wrap your head around this majestic city.



Tall Windows

This was just a beautiful church. The brick was a beautiful brown, enhanced with stonework on the edges. I liked that these churches had so many arches, but in their design, their footprint formed an arch. Like the building was reaching out to welcome you in.



No way to describe.

This is such a perfect setting. This chapel is near the end of the Grand Canal, where all the houses stop and the island opens up to this big patio that has steps leading down to the water. The skinny windows and the tightly rounded face of this building made it real pretty. Later, this is where the wedding party gathered, as we sat and watched on the steps dissappearing onto the left of the picture. (Santa Maria Della Salute is to the left out of this picture - as seen in the previous post)