Venice Venice 2019, side trip to Rome

[JustTravel]

We arrived in Venice a month ago on a beautiful day.

After picking up our luggage, we walked up to the taxi desk and was told that there were no taxis available unless we had reservation, which we didn't. So, we simply walked over to the dock to try our luck there. And sure enough, a taxi was available and was off within a few minutes for our apartment - the Carampane. Matilde of Pensione Guerrato picked us up where the water taxi dropped us off and walked us to the apartment. She took over our two checked-in luggage, carrying both up our first floor aparment.

After picking-up some groceries from the nearby Coop, I cooked and we ate dinner, and called it a night.

 

[JustTravel]

The next morning, I woke up early and took a walk. It was lovely to be out and about so early, although it was a foggy morning - very few people out. I savored being back.

After an hour, I returned home for breakfast and then went out again to do more food shopping: Rialto for fresh scallops & prawn, fruit and vegetables from the fruttivendolo, wine and some dried fruit & nuts from Mascari, cheese and prosciuto from Casa del Parmigiano. Also picked up tiramisu from Pasticceria Tonolo.

For the rest of the week, we continued to stock up the apartment. Also did a lot of walking, enjoying the beautiful weather.

....the Amerigo Vespucci​

....even the turtles were enjoying the sunshine at the foot of the Garabaldi statue​

It was a shock to see this huge cruise ship docked and visible from the Zattere​

.....from the Zattere​

 

[JustTravel]

On this trip, we took a side trip to Rome for a few days. Thanks to Pauline for conducting a contest and Massimo for offering three nights of their Rome apartment, the prize I took when my name came up. I added two more nights to our booking.

On October 20th, we took the Italo train to Rome. I booked us club seats, just a few more euro over first class. The club seats allowed us the use of the Italo Club Lounge at the train station - nice seats, drinks and snacks and clean bathrooms. We were the only ones there, enjoying the clean, quiet, and comfortable room. We were also offered unlimited drinks, snacks and newspaper on board, as well as a not so good looking box lunch that we declined.

Rome is huge and very busy. We took a taxi to the apartment, costing us €12. The apartment is in a great area of Rome, we were able to walk everywhere we went.

We have been to Rome several times but it has been April 2007 since we were there last. I didn't plan anything in particular, just planned on walking and visiting places we have been before. Campo dei Fiori is less than five minutes away, where I did most of our food shopping. Massimo was great in recommending places to go. The apartment is on the same street as Roscoli bakery, a place we went to everyday. We ate all our meals in the apartment.

We visited at least fifteen churches in three days. The most surprising is the Basilica di Sant'Andrea della Valle, just up the street from the apartment and one we have not visited before.

We were going to visit St. Peter's again on our last full day but plans had to be changed, we left a day early. Thanks to Andrew who posted about the general strike for the next day, the day we were returning to Venice. I checked our scheduled train for the next day to see if it was guaranteed to run and it was not. So, I made a decision to change our booking for later that day.

We visited the familiar....

Arrivederci, Roma.​

 

[JustTravel]

Temporary bridge connecting San Michele to Fondamente Nove for All Saints Day. The last one was back in 1950. I heard about it and checked it out on October 28th. But it was not done yet.

So I returned three days later when it first opened. It was a pleasant way to go to San Michele.

I didn't spend too much time in the island as it was getting late, so returned a few days later before the bridge was dismantled to see more of the cemetery.

I just liked this broom.

 

[JustTravel]

All Saints Day turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. We walked to the Giardini but not for the Biennale exhibit there. We just enjoyed the walk but did check out a couple of the outdoor exhibits along the lagoon.

 

[JustTravel]

Acqua alta season started a few days ago. I took these pictures on Sunday when the tide only came up to 105cm. However, this morning was at 127cm (although forcasted to crest at 140cm at 10:30am). There was a few inches of water on the back calle and a couple of inches infront of the main door of our building. We opted to stay in all morning since it was also raining. Tonight the prediction is at 140cm at around 11:00pm and tomorrow morning at 145cm. It is rough for many of the businesses but they deal with it. The word I heard today was "pazienza" which translates to "patience" - meaning the water will go down and it did as tides do.

 

[Susie L]

The next morning, I woke up early and took a walk. It was lovely to be out and about so early, although it was a foggy morning - very few people out. I savored being back.

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After an hour, I returned home for breakfast and then went out again to do more food shopping: Rialto for fresh scallops & prawn, fruit and vegetables from the fruttivendolo, wine and some dried fruit & nuts from Mascari, cheese and prosciuto from Casa del Parmigiano. Also picked up tiramisu from Pasticceria Tonolo.

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For the rest of the week, we continued to stock up the apartment. Also did a lot of walking, enjoying the beautiful weather.

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....the Amerigo Vespucci​

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....even the turtles were enjoying the sunshine at the foot of the Garabaldi statue​

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It was a shock to see this huge cruise ship docked and visible from the Zattere​

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.....from the Zattere​

Temporary bridge connecting San Michele to Fondamente Nove for All Saints Day. The last one was back in 1950. I heard about it and checked it out on October 28th. But it was not done yet.

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So I returned three days later when it first opened. It was a pleasant way to go to San Michele.

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I didn't spend too much time in the island as it was getting late, so returned a few days later before the bridge was dismantled to see more of the cemetery.

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I just liked this broom.

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I would love to walk to San Michele! What a great experience!

 

[JustTravel]

Here's a Yahoo article with lots of photos about today's acqua alta - https://news.yahoo.com/photos-venice-flooded-from-rising-tides-and-rain-163315914.html

 

[JustTravel]

The acqua alta is very high tonight, as well as being rainy and very windy. I had to close all the shutters.

According to wikipedia the record since 1923 was 196. Tonight was at 187 at around 11pm. It looks like it starting to recede. Here's the screenshot of the level at 22:39.

 

[JustTravel]

I just took these pictures from our first floor windows. If you look closely, you can see how high the water was last night.

- the water level this morning.
- the darker portion of the white marble was where the water level was last night

- our cul-de-sac this morning (main door on the bottom right). Water didn't come in our building last night
- water level last night is the dark part of the cement wall on the top



Not going out there until this water is down. We'll have to do with what is in the apartment. Besides most of the shops are damaged. I don't know if any of them are open or will be open today.

 

[Fletch]

It sounds terrible. We thought it was bad last year when we moved apartment for the night.
I wonder how "our" bar, Mar Adriatica, across from our apartment fared. Last year Francesco had to replace all his electrical appliances.
I saw a Facebook post from Estro with people with boots on, but it must have been early on as there wasn’t much water inside.

 

[JustTravel]

I don't know about "your" bar, Jill. I did pass by Tonolo which was closed, didn't particularly look at Estro.

The residents of Venice were subdued both today and yesterday and busy cleaning up; but most tourists, however, were their usual selves going around mostly unmindful of others.

Drying souvenir t-shirts and sweatshirts as seen in Campo Sant'Angelo. I wonder if they wil eventually be sold to unknowing tourists.

Goodnight from recovering and resilient Venezia.

 

[JustTravel]

Well, acqua alta is extremely high again this morning. It's ~11:30am and I hope it has crested already - 153cm at the moment. Here are some photos I took an hour and a half ago from one of our windows. Uncollected trash from the cleanup are floating.

Antiche Carampane restaurant is just down the street on the last photo and suffered devastating damage on Tuesday night. They have been busy cleaning these last two days and then today brought more water.

 

[Lisa in Ottawa]

Well, acqua alta is extremely high again this morning. It's ~11:30am and I hope it has crested already 153cm at the moment. Here are some photos I took an hour and a half ago from one of our windows. Uncollected trash from the cleanup are floating.

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Antiche Carampane restaurant is just down the street on the last photo and suffered devastating damage on Tuesday night. They have been busy cleaning the last two days and then today brought more water.

How awful. Like many places Venice is going through a challenging time weather wise. We were there about 10 years ago for aqua alta and it was kind of fun. Not this though. Venice actually made the news here in Canada because of the extreme conditions.
I hope things improve and you can go about and take your lovely pictures.

 

[Christian]

Excellent report! Thank you for the amazing photos. Like most, I have been following the news about the aqua alta and it's horrifying. Hopefully, it won't have caused too much damage.
In any case, I look forward to going back next June, as part of yet another trip to Italy! Venice has always been part of our trips to Italy, even if it's only for a couple days!

 

[JustTravel]

Venice is slowly getting back to normal. To most tourists, they probably would not see the devastating effects of last week's acqua alta. Even Basilica San Marco was open yesterday. Some shops are still cleaning up but a lot more are open. Some of the supermarkets are back in business but the Coop ones were still closed as of this morning. It was a beautiful day yesterday, today not so much - rain but no issue with acqua alta.

.....by the Academia Museum​

The temporaty bridge for the Festa della Salute is done.​

 

[JustTravel]

Some photos from today's walk

 

[JustTravel]

Festa della Modonna della Salute is celebrated all week, the 21st being the biggest day. I tried going to the Salute church on Thursday but there were so many people that I turned around deciding to return the next day, which I did, to light a candle for a friend.

Afterwards, we checked out the treats being offered outside.

Who eats these?!?

 

[JustTravel]

Intricate glass artwork

 

[JustTravel]

After a very wet Sunday, a beautiful Monday

Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore​

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute​