Goodbye Venice

Tuesday, July 15th.

Our last day in Venice. We were up early to take advantage of our last morning here. We would leave the hotel at 11:30am to start our long journey home to Canada.

I decided to take a bit of a different approach to shooting Venice this particular morning. And, if I had enough courage, I might do something like this in the future: shoot with only one prime lens. In this case, my 50mm f1.8. Every time I travel, I struggle with camera body choices and the lenses. Part of this is due to air travel becoming more restrictive with respect to carry on and part of this is due to my minimalist tendencies. I prefer to travel light.

The fifty is a very sharp piece of glass and it provides a fairly neutral perspective. However, it is a bit challenging when framing shots particularly for travel photography. There is an incredible feeling of freedom, mind you, when you can take a very light rig out on the street.

So that is what I decided to do that morning. The 24-120mm f4.0 was put away and the rest of the day was captured with the prime. Click on any image for a larger photo and slideshow.

The Centurion Palace was our home for the time we spent in Venice. It is a beautiful property located right alongside the Grand Canal.

The public tap water in Venice is safe, cold, and great-tasting. It’s piped in from deep wells on the Italian mainland, and it’s so good that it has its own brand name: Acqua Veritas.

What a lovely morning for a wedding.

What is this box? There were so many of them in Venice.

Even the signs are works of art.

The Academy Bridge (Ponte dell’Accademia) is so named because it crosses the Grand Canal at the Galleria dell’Accademia, one of the top museums in Venice. While the Ponte dell’Accademia is not a new bridge ”“ it was first erected in the mid-19th century then replaced in the 1930s ”“ it is interesting for its high arch construction and the fact that it is wooden. The current Academy Bridge dates from 1985, when the 1930s bridge was deemed too dangerous. This early in the morning, the bridge contained no tourists.

Rising flood waters, sinking palazzi, tourist congestion and corrosive pigeon droppings. And now a different problem.

Inspired by a bestselling romantic novel, couples attach locks to the bridges.

The craze, inspired by I Want You, the 2006 novel by Federico Moccia, involves couples writing their names on the padlock, swearing eternal love and throwing the keys into the canal.

Couples had first shown a preference for Venice’s wooden Ponte del Accademia, where up to 300 padlocks are now fixed, despite a clean up with boltcutters in February. It did take me a while to count all of those locks. Can love still be eternal when the locks are broken into pieces?

There is always room for Gelati so why is this place closed?

Lots of climbers and flowers. Very few trees.

The area around the Rialto bridge is very popular with tourists.

Strange looking machines are found hanging against a wall.

Gondola racing is not for the weak.

Many buildings along the Grand Canal are flooded and unoccupied. Usually you could tell by the lack of flags and flowers. In this case, the building on the right side was occupied, the building on the left was not.

It must be tough to be a water taxi operator in Venice.

Gondolas leave the Rialto bridge area.

Now that is quite an entry way.

Another water taxi passes us by on the Grand Canal.

Our driver gave us an extended ride back to the airport. Wonderful views of Venice from the water taxi.

So many churches and bell towers in Venice. How many? Well, 149 churches. You can tell me if I did not count correctly. And somewhere around 80 bell towers.

Mooring poles. Not to be confused with Barber shop poles.

We had a wonderful time in this beautiful city. It was hard to leave it behind.