This was a city that Marlene always wanted to visit, and who wouldn't. It's a one of a kind place, unique, ornate, crowded, expensive, but so serene and different from every other.
Flying into Venice, the watery city, on an early fall morning. This gives you a sense of scale of the city , it really is quite small and easy to get around it all on foot or by vaporette. The huge cruise ship docks are up front and the Lido is at the far back of the image.
We stayed at the far end of the Castello District, also know as the green or leafy end of the group of islands. Hotel St. Elena, a renovated and restored monastery was our base. It was an excellent hotel with a nice breakfast as well as a very good restaurant. It was located only a minute or two from the St. Elena stop for the vaporette, so an ideal location for us. We could easily walk about 20 minutes to get to San Marco square along the edge of the water and over a few bridges. We did get a pass for transportation while there as it is a very economical way to move about. Single boat fares are very expensive for tourists.
The hotel was in a residential area so it was quiet at night, but only took a few minutes to get to areas where there were lots of restaurants etc. The park and pavilions of the Biennial were close by and the focus was on architecture this year, and alternates with the visual arts which will be next year 2017. There is food everywhere in Venice so you'll never go hungry but finding good quality food is sometimes a challenge and takes a bit of exploring.
The Dorsoduro area of Venice has lots of nice small cafes and restaurants that are easily accessible and walkable. There are lots of smaller hotel in this area as well. It's on the opposite side of the Grande Canal from there Castello district, which has all of the very swanky and expensive hotels and cafes as well as lots of smaller tourist class places. The Dorsoduro district also looks across the water to Giudecca island which has a fabulous Hilton hotel built inside a renovated flour mill.
From our stop on the vaporetta at St. Elena we could go one stop to the Lido and a whole new world. This is part of the mainland and the beaches of the Adriatic Sea. The Lido is a very residential area with lots of very green areas as well as a nice selection of restaurants and shops on the Main Street that leads to the Sea. Prices are cheaper here and worth the boat ride over for dinner or a gelato or Aperol spritz.
A modern watery sculpture located on he walkway just outside the entrance to the Bienniale grounds. The tidal actions covered and uncovered it as the day went on. We could find no indication of who the sculptor was or when it was installed.
We spent five days here investigating all the nooks and crannies we could find, visiting as many of the touristy sites that were not too crazy busy and several side trips to some of the other islands as well. We went to Murano, as the hotel, made arrangements for it's guests to have a free shuttle over. As is usually the practice, we were taken directly to one of the glassblowing studios, shown around the workshop then given the hard sell on the glass ware. We did buy a few small paperweights, but they really wanted you to buy the big expensive and somewhat gaudy stuff instead. We had a great time, the weather was beautiful the whole time, as we were glad we went when we did. The city is sinking, it's evident everywhere, it's also being overrun by day tourists from cruise ships and tours that move in and out of the lagoon, on a regular basis. There is growing animosity amongst the residents about these huge ships and what they actually provide for the city. Lots of protests on the water each time on of these behemoths leaves port.
Our original plan was to take the train to Verona from Venice and explore this city but it was almost impossible to find a place to stay during our dates due to the start of the opera season in the city, so instead to took the train up through the Italian Alps and into Austria and spent four days in Innsbruck. There could not have been a greater contrast.
One of the most beautiful train rides we've taken, up through the Brenner Pass into Austria, where everything is so perfect and organized and efficient. Even the fields look like they've been cut by hand with a mover. It's hard to believe that the landscape can change so dramatically in only four hours.
We chose Innsbrucke as it was a simple train ride from Venice, and Marlene wanted to see some of the Alps. I had been to Innsbrucke many years ago and only had vague memories of it. We stayed right in the city centre in a very old 16th century hotel, Gasthof Weisses Rossl, a beautiful location and full of history. Innsbrucke is a city of contrasts, there is loads of old historical buildings and history in the centre but also many very contemporary examples of architecture. It's a sports city for sure, having hosted the Winter Olympics twice, but its also full of arts and cultures well.
One of the beautiful sunsets alongside one of the many bridges that cross the Inn River, one of the two rivers in the city that gave it it's name. The Brucke is the much smaller and less significant river close by.
We took advantage of the Innsbruck City pass and rode the hop on hop off bus around the city and around the countryside seeing all of the sites and there are lots. We rode the Nordkette Cable car, to the Alpine Zoo, then up to the top on the Hungerburg cable car to the Seegrube mountain complex, then another cable car to the final Hafelekar station at the very top. It was amazing clear and the view was fantastic, a lovely restaurant at the top and lots of places to walk and hike. The Austrians are very fit people and you can see many of them walking, yes, walking up this mountain as you take the lazy cable car ride to the top. We also went to the site of the ski jump venue from the Olympics which is in a nice park area not far from the downtown and you get the other side of the view across the valley. All beautiful.
After four days it was back to the train station and the same ride in reverse back to Venice. It amazing how different the view can be going in the reverse direction. This time we got off at the main station for Venice on the mainland and stayed at the Hotel Bologna. Nice modern hotel across from the train station and within easy access to the bus to the airport the next day. Great trip, want to go back and see some of the other places in this area that we missed, another trip I guess.