Another overnight train ride, leaving a little after midnight in Lucerne and arriving in Milan at 0545. Switched trains and pulled into Venice at 0930 50 years ago today.
After checking into the Pensione Zecchini (Journal: “Not bad, but we may have the smallest room in the place.”), we took Vaporetto Line #1 (the public water bus system) to Piazza San Marco and then hit the beach. The Lido. Pretty sure I stuck my toe in the Adriatic. (Kevin confirms: “We were determined to take our shoes and socks off so we could say we were actually in the Adriatic . . . and so we did.”)
St. Mark’s Square is the main public square in Venice. It attracts lots of tourists and even more pigeons. One of its principal visual features is the 323-feet-high Campanile (seen in the photo at the top of the post). (Sather Tower on the campus of UC Berkeley is also known as the Campanile because of its similarity to the one in Venice.)
The Campanile is adjacent to St. Mark’s Basilica, a massive church.
The square was also the site of earthly power, manifested in the Doge’s Palace. Doges were the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice 726-1797. Each was elected for life by members of the Venetian aristocracy.
The Lido is a seven-mile barrier island in the Lagoon of Venice, with a town also called Lido. “Sat around Lido, had a couple of Italian beers, and came back.”
After naps and dinner, we returned to the Lido to see if its nightlife was more interesting. We noticed the double-decker water bus we had taken in the afternoon had stopped running and we took a smaller boat. We should have gotten the hint. After another couple of hours sitting around, we closed that adventure.
Our second and last day in Venice was spent shopping and chatting with two girls from Canada. Dinner on the last evening was on the Grand Canal and just about everyone in the restaurant was US.
Here is a gallery of other photos from Venice.
