We walked home through the Biennale gardens, with tall Cypress trees and a grey statue of Garibaldi. At night in the gathering evening we came across the white Campanale that one can see from sea as one approaches Venice. Beside it is San Pietro and San Anna which is falling down. In the nearby area there are streets that are hushed and houses that are empty, though there is some rejuvenation going on. History and the present collide.
Category: Travels in Italy
Italy Journal 3
We passed St Mark’s Square where one can see the domes of the church and the wonderful pink and white palaces, the striped posts, the gondolas and the young men who drive them in their traditional black and white striped shirts. There was huge church, white and with huge domes, topped with a Christ in majesty with all the stars around him. The sea water was turquoise blue. As one waits for the water taxi at the pontoon, by the water’s edge it was heaving. The boats pull alongside and people just file off and more get on. There’s push chairs and babies, dogs, and life.
The Road to Venice 2
Then the trip was divine, in sunshine, on a main road or waterway marked by wooden posts and in the distance the skyline of Venice, immortalised by all those painters, arose from the land, like a heaven, everywhere beautiful buildings arose from the sea and hung there. It was like they were suspended in thin air.
Then that night we walked in the evening watching the water moving on sudden canals and boats rushing, but quietly, lit by green and red lights, the wash quietly moving everywhere.
The Road to Venice
Having landed in Venice we take the water taxi where my companion meets a retired English vicar and his wife from Camborne who spend month at a time here in Venice, just because they like it. What an interesting type. They have all the Brunetti books by Julia…and come several times a year and follow the Brunetti walk that has been created for those who follow the books.