Arsenale stop on Colonna,
Garibaldi street
Venice.
June 9 23
THE APARTMENT
Yesterday we were met at the water taxi stop at Arsenale by our host. We were shown to our place which was adequate, more than as we were in Venice and it felt amazing. The air is so clean as you are surrounded by sea water and sunlight. The light falls on all the beautiful colours around.
What is it like to be in a city without cars? Just try Venice, there are no cars and suddenly things become more manageable and slower, much slower. It is heaven. There are boats everywhere.
THE VEGETABLE BOAT
Now it’s getting hotter, which is great. This morning we began with fresh vegetables on a boat, like a grocery shop on water. So, we were able to buy peaches, green beans, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes all very fresh, off a boat. How wonderful, to have vegetables so fresh and the shop is a boat.
THE GRAND CANAL
Then the day began by catching the number 5 boat up the Grand Canal, destination the Ca d’Oro. But first we had to pass the world and everything beautiful by taking a boat on a sunny day in June along the Grand Canal in Venice, stopping but not getting off at just about all the places in history, from a Venetian point of view and much of the world too. They had an enormous number of ships travelling the known and unknown world in search of luxury goods, spices and silks for the market in Europe.
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 RIALTO FROM A WATER TAXI
The Rialto is just magnificent, bridges are ornate and white, the buildings decorated and a deep shade of pink brick, everywhere is beauty and the sea with small boats babbling about and somehow nothing crashes into anything else. The sight of the Rialto in real life, not a painting, or a chocolate box and teeming with life was one of my favourite moments, teeming with life, busy with boats and people.
AT THE CA D’ORO
At one point while in the Ca d’Oro we heard a siren and looked out over the balcony at a yellow boat speeding through the traffic, it was a water ambulance, racing to rescue someone, somewhere in this city without cars. When cars aren’t there, the people are friendlier, can stop and talk on the street, in the middle of the road.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7796332.Lynne_Pearl
