29 August - Venice
Wow what a day we had today exploring beautiful Venice. It was total blue sky, sunny and hot.
We had a big "American style" breaky (bacon, eggs, pastries, cereals etc) in our hotel restaurant. We ate quickly so we could get to the train station as early as possible because we were going to Venice!! We hopped on the train from Mestre for the 10 minute ride to Venice. Most of the train ride was across a bridge between the mainland and the island. The trains were much different to what we are used to because the chairs were comfy!!! Here is the bridge linking the mainland to the island.
Venice is an island made up of many small islands with canals between and bridges linking them all. It was once a swampy area but over the last 2000 years the land has progressively been reclaimed. There are no cars on Venice, all transport is by boat on the canals and waterways around. All types of boats.
Incredibly there are traces of civilisation back to 10,000 BC here. The first formalisation of the islands dates back about 2,000 years. It was first a Roman city.
Did you know the buildings and structures that form the islands are mostly on timber piles driven into the mud below to more solid clay. In the mid 1900s a lot of development took place nearby on the mainland and many of these developments drilled artesian wells to extract water from underground aquifers. This changed the water table and weakened the foundations under Venice and caused Venice to start to sink.
When engineers and scientists worked out what was happening they banned artesian bores and wells. Venice stopped sinking although some believe that it is still sinking but only slower. The islands are still impacted by flooding and more regularly by king tides.
The waterways around Venice have been a major shipping port in the past and remain a significant port today. It is also famous for glass crafts and arts and culture type things including performing arts, literature, artworks and the like. It is also famous for face masks and period costumes.
After a short train ride we got out of the train and walked outside to see busy canals with boats of all sorts travelling in all directions. This was the grand canal that weaves through the middle of the Venice islands. It looked magical! Instead of cars they had boats. We saw not a single car!
We saw some amazing buildings, churches, canals and bridges. The main square Piazza San Marco was amazing with many famous historic buildings around the square.
Venice is a listed World heritage site. Here are some more pics to give you a feel for this amazing place.
Dinner on the Grand canal.
What a day! More from us tomorrow. We are flying to Nice on the French Riviera in the morning. We are there for a week before we fly home.
Seeya.
The Creber Girls xxx
Wow what a day we had today exploring beautiful Venice. It was total blue sky, sunny and hot.
We had a big "American style" breaky (bacon, eggs, pastries, cereals etc) in our hotel restaurant. We ate quickly so we could get to the train station as early as possible because we were going to Venice!! We hopped on the train from Mestre for the 10 minute ride to Venice. Most of the train ride was across a bridge between the mainland and the island. The trains were much different to what we are used to because the chairs were comfy!!! Here is the bridge linking the mainland to the island.
Venice is an island made up of many small islands with canals between and bridges linking them all. It was once a swampy area but over the last 2000 years the land has progressively been reclaimed. There are no cars on Venice, all transport is by boat on the canals and waterways around. All types of boats.
Incredibly there are traces of civilisation back to 10,000 BC here. The first formalisation of the islands dates back about 2,000 years. It was first a Roman city.
Did you know the buildings and structures that form the islands are mostly on timber piles driven into the mud below to more solid clay. In the mid 1900s a lot of development took place nearby on the mainland and many of these developments drilled artesian wells to extract water from underground aquifers. This changed the water table and weakened the foundations under Venice and caused Venice to start to sink.
When engineers and scientists worked out what was happening they banned artesian bores and wells. Venice stopped sinking although some believe that it is still sinking but only slower. The islands are still impacted by flooding and more regularly by king tides.
The waterways around Venice have been a major shipping port in the past and remain a significant port today. It is also famous for glass crafts and arts and culture type things including performing arts, literature, artworks and the like. It is also famous for face masks and period costumes.
After a short train ride we got out of the train and walked outside to see busy canals with boats of all sorts travelling in all directions. This was the grand canal that weaves through the middle of the Venice islands. It looked magical! Instead of cars they had boats. We saw not a single car!
Did you know Venice is separated into districts, 6 in all. There are around 100 islands and 400 bridges in
Venice!!!!!
The name Venice is derived from the Veneti people who were in the area around 10000 BC.
We walked around lots of different areas and saw heaps of incredible sights and interesting things. We went on a cruise along the Grand Canal and around the outer edge of the islands. The views were amazing and there was things happening everywhere, boats weaving in and out along the canals and into narrow side canals here and there.
We
saw heaps of boats including gondolas in the canals. We had such a fun day but it didn't stop
there!
We went on a gondola ride at sunset!! The gondola ride was so awesome! We were so
close to the water. The water looked bluey green. We went along the Grand Canal and then into several narrow canals. We went under low bridges. We
went past buildings owned by many famous people like Napoleon and Cassanova and various Kings. We had
a really fun ride. We had dinner on the edge of the Grand Canal in the evening and then went home on the train. We had an amazing day!
Venice is famous for masks. Masks of all types, colours and sizes.
We saw a funny white long nose face mask that looked really strange. Our brother Nathan who is a doctor said that these masks were used by doctors back in the medieval times when the black plague hit. The doctors wore black robes and hat and the white mask with the nose filled with herbs and scents to try to overcome the smell and limit the chance of catching disease. They also used to carry long "wands"/sticks to prod patients and check their pulse. That was really interesting.
We saw some amazing buildings, churches, canals and bridges. The main square Piazza San Marco was amazing with many famous historic buildings around the square.
Venice is a listed World heritage site. Here are some more pics to give you a feel for this amazing place.
Here are some pics of our gondola ride. It went for 40 minutes, very expensive, but we had to do it.
Dinner on the Grand canal.
What a day! More from us tomorrow. We are flying to Nice on the French Riviera in the morning. We are there for a week before we fly home.
Seeya.
The Creber Girls xxx
