Roman Holiday: Venice: San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore

Our last morning in Venice! Our agenda for the morning: visit San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore, check out of hotel, and figure out how to get to the end of Stage Three of the Giro in Valdobbiadene. Let the adventure begin!

We queued up first thing, to see the amazing Basilica San Marco. It sits in Piazza San Marco adjacent to the Palazzo Ducal. I honestly don't think that words can describe the exterior or interior of St. Mark's Cathedral. The exterior porticos and interior ceilings are decorated with elaborate golden mosaics! It's awe taking!

The Doge's Palace (We didn't go in, I'm sure it's nice inside too):

An interesting spot where St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace meet:

Detail on the corner of the Doge's Palace:

More architectural detail:

As we waited in line I spotted these unusual brown figures. I just noticed that they are described in my Berlitz Pocket Guide to Venice: "...note the four curious dark brown figures of the Tetrarchs (also known as the Four Moors), variously said to represent either Diocletian and associates, or four Saracen robbers who tried to loot the basilica's treasury through the wall behind them." A fortuitous shot indeed!

The portico around the Doge's Palace:

I have been to Venice now twice, and both times I have photographed this hotel on the waterfront. It's one of my favorites:

Approaching San Giorgio Maggiore:

The best way to see Venice, actually see all of the island, is from the Bell Tower at San Giorgio Maggiore. It is unreal. There was a sign in the elevator up to the the top of the Bell Tower that noted that the elevator's capacity was 8 occupants and someone had added (a European no doubt) that it was 8 occupants or 6 Americans. Sad but true.

There is a weird trick of the eye going on that makes it appear that the Vaporetto above the Statue's head is sinking. I am pretty sure it isn't, but I could be wrong.

This bridge was a mob scene, harder to pass than than any canal or church. I am not positive, but I think people are ogling the advertisement?

A courtyard near our hotel:

Goodbye Venice! Goodbye ugly lamp that I have walked by for the last three days! I will miss you, well, maybe not the lamp...

We're off to catch a Vaporetto  to the train station, to take a train to Valdobbiadene, where we're told we can catch a bus into town to see the end of the race...

Roman Holiday: Day Two in Venice

Where were we again? Oh yes, Day two in Venice. Lest we forget, I am still bitter about having missed what would have been day one in Venice which would have made this actually day three in Venice. Alas, one can not fault the weather in New York...

Have you ever been to Venice? It is known or renown, I suppose, for it's remarkable quality of light. I guess that quality can best be described as ethereal. There are also some "classic" sights of Venice. Some, that you just won't see here! For one, the Rialto Bridge. It's like the South of The Border of Venice. Ick. We crossed it, but I refused to take a picture. Instead I got caught up in the whole narrow streets, crumbly buildings, and canal thing. Narrow Venetian street:

I love the bridges over the canals. I just find it amazing that a place so different from my know landscape exists. It's easy to forget the monotony of a subdivision, sameness of every strip mall, and general suburban lifestyle, and get transported into another time and place.

These little water fountains are all over Venice and Rome too. I did see a sign that said the water was "potable," but I'll stick to bottled, thank you! 

The Grand Canal is like the 15/501 of Venice. (Not really).

Palazzos on the Grand Canal:

The Grand Canal from a Vaporetto:

Right around Piazza San Marco there isn't a lot of greenery, but I do love how residents add their own touches of green. 

The "gondola ride" is a big thing in Venice too. I'm not big on the whole tourist aspect of it, but the Gondoliers were pretty cute in their striped shirts. I much more enjoy to compare and contrast the tackiness with which the interiors of the boats are decorated. This one, not too bad:

And here begins my obsession with winged angels. This will become a major theme as we get into Rome later:

Crumbly Building: they just don't do architectural detail like they used to:

Hello Kitty behind bars! Not to worry! There was a store just like this in Rome that I looted for Ava!

The Grand Canal as seen from the Academia Bridge at night:

If I may interject one small tiny complaint here; dinner in Italy does not start until at least 7:30pm, and that's if you are lucky! Some days I didn't get dinner until 9 or 10pm. That's all well and good if you are European, but I have to admit I am a creature of habit and my habit is unfortunately to have dinner at 6pm. I have kids, what can I say? So on any given day, I have walked at least ten miles (no complaints yet) but am getting a bit hungry by, let's say, 5pm or so. All the museums, churches, etc. are closed, so there's nothing to see, but you can't get a bite of dinner until at least 7:30pm! This leaves an awkward two and a half to three hours to kill. Enter Happy Hour. I admit, I like Happy Hour or Two Happy Hours if need be, but I can only drink so much, until I really need something to eat. There, I said it. I started stealing prepackaged toast from our hotel to tide me over until dinner. But, I dipped it in Nutella, so it was ok.

One last shot of The Grand Canal at night and then off to bed. Tomorrow we have a half day in Venice before we attempt to take a train out of Venice to catch up with the Giro 'd Italia!

Roman Holiday: Take Two Part II or Time Trial on Lido

Here we are, finally! On Lido, a barrier island off Venice, at the race, and ready to see some racing! 

There are some photographs that Jeff likes to call, "Pictures of Jeff's Vacation." These are not to be confused with what Jeff calls, "Danielle's Artsy Pictures." I must warn you loyal reader, the pictures that follow mostly fall in the the latter category. There are however, a few rare photographs that can meet the criteria and are BOTH "Pictures of Jeff's Vacation" and "Danielle's Artsy Pictures." I'll let you decide for yourself which ones those are! But, since we are now on Lido and about to watch the opening time trial of the Giro 'd Italia, here is a "Picture of Jeff's Vacation" to start us off:

It turns out that Skoda is a european car manufacturer and one of the major sponsors of the race. Not, as I had previously decided in my own mind, a european chewing tobacco. Team Lotto on the course warming up:

Lance? Lance are you in there? I have to say "Hi" and give you a hug from Susan. Lance?

Lot's of serious faces on trainers warming up. (BTW, if you know who any of these guys are please leave their names in the comment section, thanks!)

There is actually a person, whose job is to prepare the trainers for warm-ups. I'm assuming they have other responsibilities too, but this guys is good!

I heart Christian Vandevelde. I think Levi said today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Christian! (Those are ice pack vests that they wear while they warm-up, ironic, isn't it?)

Heart palpitation. Heart palpitation. Sweet ride!

In this picture, I have actually allowed Jeff to touch the camera and take a picture of some fancy shifter/brake combo thingy. It's all the talk around the water cooler at Performance.

When the teams warm up, they do intervals in unison on their trainers. The sound is similar to that of a jet engine taking off. They probably turn more watts in warm-up than most of us on our best day ever. (Often they have cotton balls stuck in their noses too. I didn't include any pictures because it's not very pretty, and I don't know why. Again, if you know why, please leave a comment.)

This is why I am now the proud owner of my very own aero-helmet: so I can look just like this guy; who appears to be the champion of something in his country (note the green suit even though he is clearly on Team Colombia High Road).

This lesser known european team is waiting behind the starting line for their team time trial.

Team Lotto rider that keeps getting into all my shots, what a camera hog!

Mark Cavendish awaits the other finishers as they determine his fate:

Lance! Lance! Over here! Oh well! I'll catch him next time.

Cavendish wins the time trial, the stage, the pink jersey, and all the other jersey's up for grab!

Ever wondered how they make the winner's jersey's? There's actually a man at the finish line with his iron press, awaiting the results and cranking them out. He's trying to cool this one off, I think, so as not to singe our winner, Cavendish.

Cavendish celebrating his win. He is later accompanied by Dolce and Gabana, who keep walking by our seats and as stupid uncultured Americans, we have no idea who they are.

We finally return to our hotel after an amazing dinner with our new friends. On the way I stop to shoot St. Mark's Cathedral. Next time, I will bring my tripod and sneak it into Jeff's bag, so I can have it, but won't have to carry it.

Piazza San Marco:

It's been a forty hour day and I am ready for bed, but not until after one last shot of the amazing Venetian streets at night!

Roman Holiday: Take Two

After my last workout for what would be ten days, vowing to never fly through JFK (until we had to get back into the country), and another few hours in beautiful Terminal Two at RDU, we are finally en route to Venice! Upon missing our flight to JFK, where we would have made our connection that would take us directly to Venice, I rebooked us for a flight the following day that went from Raleigh to Atlanta to Paris to Venice. I seriously vowed never to go through JFK again, ever. Until, of course, we had to fly home. But that's another chapter of our story, later to come!

Arriving in Venice is such an amazing experience! You take a vaporetto (water bus) from the airport past the barrier islands to Venice. The Vaporetto can best be described as something akin to the "T" on water. After an overnight trans-atlantic flight, there's nothing more refreshing than the sea wind in your face and the beautiful panoramic sight of San Marco getting bigger and bigger as the vaporetto approaches! (Which is not what is depicted here. I think this is the cemetery island as seen from the vaporetto.)

Sadly, because we were a day behind in our schedule, we had to hustle off the boat, check in to our hotel (after finding it first), drop our bags, and catch another water bus to Lido, to catch the start of the opening time trial of the Giro 'd Italia. I believe our plane touched down around 11am in Venice and the race started around at 3pm. I think this day turned out to be no less than forty hours!

I was however, not in too much of a hurry as to miss one of my favorite things about Venice: the amazingly confusing yet beautiful street signs! En route to Lido:

Jeff felt right at home in Italy, as they worship the scooter as much as he does!

We finally made it to Lido! Would I ever catch a glimpse of Lance? Did I realize just how much walking I was about to under take this week? Just how may calories are in a tiramisu...

Roman Holiday: Day One

I've decided to post photographs of our trip to Venice and Rome on the photography blog, so my loyal reader can get the full story of the trip! With any luck, I'll be able to keep that reader on the edge of their seat, anxiously awaiting the next installment! And so we begin!

Have you been in Terminal Two at RDU yet? It's so nice! The architectural detail is very industrial and airy. We got to inspect every I-beam and panel as we waited with anticipation to find out that our flight to JFK went from being "delayed" and status updates every hour to cancelled after seven hours.

Jeff was less than thrilled. We spent the first night of our vacation at La Quinta Inn at the airport. The upside? They had a gym there and I got to workout. Jeff got to make himself some waffles. The downside? One less day in Venice.