Day 9: The Art of Wandering Venice
Daily Briefing
I got up really, really early. Venice was just too beautiful to spend my morning sleeping. I was out wandering on the streets before the sun came over the horizon. You can make some of your best pictures before the tourists are up and before the cruise ships arrive. It's only you and the workers and the ancient city. I started at the Rialto and made my way to St. Mark's. By the time I got to the Square the sun was breaking out. I'm so glad I did this, take a look at the resulting photos!
I have to admit, I lost control of my picture making in Venice. I shot everything in sight because it was all so old and so picturesque. When I got home, I discovered that I took 843 pictures, that's about 43 per hour or 1 every minute and 15 seconds. I think I must have felt that if I took enough pictures, I'd bring part of Venice home with me. We began our day with a walking tour of Venice with Elizabetha. She's one of Rick's local guides and one of the best. As we explored Venice, she explained the history and culture of the city. We ended in St. Mark's Basilica where Pam and I chose to visit the museum upstairs. There we saw the original horses of St. Mark's as well as a close-up view of the richly decorated ceilings and dome. The exhibits also included numerous mosaic remnants from medieval times. In the evening we took a vaparetto ride around Venice and were able to see many of the palaces from the water. Finally, we took a late night photo walk to see the city at night. It was another tiring yet exciting day. Most of the group got their gondola ride while we focused on night photography. According to Pam's FitBit, we walked 20,000 steps, over 8 miles and 38 flights of stairs and that doesn't include my morning photo walk. We learned that the best way to experience Venice is to wander it's neighborhoods and take in this wonderful city. Reid continues to warn us that the pace will be accelerating all the way through Rome. We're off to Florence!! |
Image of the Day
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