Venice
Having never previously been to Venice I had little idea what to expect. Actually, that's not entirely true! I had an idea, from what I'd previously seen on the idiot lantern, and images from books. The difference, when travelling by road, is in the approach to new places and, of course, being in the here and now. After the approach, it's the actual being there and thinking ....'blimey, I'm actually in Venice'!
Venice is as beautiful as all the images I'd previously seen, only this time I was there in the flesh and the impact it had was quite breathtaking, for a first timer, at least! It's a thoroughly fascinating place to be, made even better by taking one of the many boat trips to visit surrounding islands.
It was whilst in Venice that I decided to buy a new zoom lens for my camera, as the existing lens wasn't fully compatible with my Nikon, thereby losing the AF feature and instead having to manually focus for all images whilst using that lens.
Venice is fabulous for just passing the time away, having a beer, a coffee, a light snack or even a full meal, canal side whilst watching the world go about its thing, in an unhurried fashion.
It is, of course, a tourist haven and with bucket loads of tourist tat!
Despite this hugely busy wonder world that Venice is, and the numerous visiting nationalities everywhere you can cast an eye, it's quite possible to negotiate the many alleys and canal bridges quite briskly, should that be your chosen pace. On a personal level I was in no hurry, even so, there are many moments when very few people will be seen in and amongst the back alleys. Away from the numerous alleyways, then Venice thrives with pedestrianised activity.
The canal rides can, and do , get very congested, but this is a very slow moving stressless place to be and so water traffic snarl-ups are dealt with by way of patience, humour and song. It's just such a great place to be!
Venice is as beautiful as all the images I'd previously seen, only this time I was there in the flesh and the impact it had was quite breathtaking, for a first timer, at least! It's a thoroughly fascinating place to be, made even better by taking one of the many boat trips to visit surrounding islands.
It was whilst in Venice that I decided to buy a new zoom lens for my camera, as the existing lens wasn't fully compatible with my Nikon, thereby losing the AF feature and instead having to manually focus for all images whilst using that lens.
Venice is fabulous for just passing the time away, having a beer, a coffee, a light snack or even a full meal, canal side whilst watching the world go about its thing, in an unhurried fashion.
It is, of course, a tourist haven and with bucket loads of tourist tat!
Despite this hugely busy wonder world that Venice is, and the numerous visiting nationalities everywhere you can cast an eye, it's quite possible to negotiate the many alleys and canal bridges quite briskly, should that be your chosen pace. On a personal level I was in no hurry, even so, there are many moments when very few people will be seen in and amongst the back alleys. Away from the numerous alleyways, then Venice thrives with pedestrianised activity.
The canal rides can, and do , get very congested, but this is a very slow moving stressless place to be and so water traffic snarl-ups are dealt with by way of patience, humour and song. It's just such a great place to be!
There are numerous boat ferries that will take you 'stop to stop', as well as complete trips around Venice and back to where you started from. Furthermore, you can take a boat trip out to other islands, such as Murano - Burano. Murano is another gem for walking about the sights and taking a stop for yet another coffee, beer, or food!