And so we return

It's been one year and 12 days since we were last in Venice.  When we were planning for this latest trip we thought it would be too soon but the minute we got off the train, we realised we were home.  It seemed like only yesterday we left.  The church opposite Santa Lucia was still being restored!  We went straight to the Venice Connected stand to pick up our vaporetto weekly ticket and toilet passes.  We pre-ordered them about a month ago and simply handed over our printed confirmation and a few minutes later we were on the 2 express up to San Marco.  Apart from a couple of photos on the Blackberry to load quickly onto Facebook to let our friends know we had arrived safely, the cameras stayed tucked away and we chatted quitely away as the vaporetto took us up to the hub of Venice. 

We rented an apartment again from Lux-Rest and the lovely Barbara met us at the Ferrari shop next door.  It was good we knew where the apartment was - it was the one we stayed in back in January 2008.  Very central but probably good for this time of year.  NEXT time we'd like to try another sestiere.  A few changes had been made since our last visit.  Once the formalities were done, cleaner money, and tourist tax handed over, we headed off to an ATM for some money and then to a restaurant just off San Lio which we hadn't been to previously.  We had a relatively simple meal and then popped into our a favourite restaurant of ours to book it for New Year's Eve.  We were a little surprised we had to leave credit card details OR 50 euros to reserve our table!  We ended up going for a 9pm setting, after which we'll head off to San Marco Piazza for midnight. 

A coop supermarket was in the area so we filled the apartment with some groceries - coffee, sugar, milk, bread etc - and then headed back out to the square (a minute away!) and walked up the Riva Schiavoni to via Garibaldi and back again, watching the sun set beautifully over the water, San Giorgio Maggiore, Salute and other wonderful churches. 

My love of the pink lamps of Venice was also getting a workout.  This time I photographed them as the sun set behind - just glorious.

We had a little hiccup tonight when all the power went out.  About 90 minutes inconvenience but then it righted itself, with the help of an electrician, and we ended up going somewhere close to the apartment for dinner.  Not usually a wise suggestion, seeing we are so close to San Marco, and we ended up choosing Ristorante "da Carletto" in Castello along Calle delle Bande.  The menu was in multiple languages but we both just wanted a pasta.  We both enjoyed what we ordered - salmon pasta and a fresh crab one - but were shocked with the bill.  The salmon pasta was only 14 euros but the crab one (a special of the day) was a whopping 25 euros.  I would have recommended the pasta there and indeed the restaurant itself - even though it was more touristy than we usually like - but the bill - at 52 euros for two pastas and a mineral water - was too expensive for what we got.  Ah, we all get caught doing things the wrong way.  Live and learn. 

Part of us doesn't really care, we're in Venice and we are happy. 

Another trip to our favourite place

Well, trip number five to Venice is on the horizon!  It's not quite 12 months since we spent our month there and the return is much sooner than we expected - I thought we'd be back when my long-service leave kicked in - in 2013!   Never in a million years would we have imagined a return so quick, but life is full of wonderful surprises.

Once again, we'll be there in off-season - arriving just before Christmas and leaving shortly after the New Year.  We know it will be cold - really cold! - but we're excited by that.  Christmas Day in Sydney, for example, is generally a hot day.  And we've never been a fan of summer, so why not head off to the Northern Hemisphere for a nice cold Christmas break?!  And a hot meal on the day rather than cold meats and seafood will be wonderful!  We just have to remember to organise everything as soon as we arrive because we'll have to work around public holidays and shop closures for the festive season.

We've organised an apartment through Lux-Rest - the third time we've used them -  and funny enough it's the same one we stayed in back in 2008, up around St Mark's. While we prefer to be out of the main hub of Venice, we're actually quite happy to be central again. For example, it will be great to watch NYE fireworks in the square and know that we're less than a minute back to the apartment and not a 30 minute vaporetto ride to San Croce.  The apartment is on a canal and close to absolutely everything.  And it's literally a hop, skip and a jump to the Basilica and Palazzo Ducale.

Part of me wanted to stay in another sestiere (Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, San Polo) but with only six weeks to go, we didn't have a lot of planning time!  It's a holiday that's being added to a work trip for the "better half" and is something spontaneous.  We still can't believe the flights are booked, accommodation is being finalised, train rides too (we're going to go via Siena, Bologna on the way up from Rome).  This time a fortnight ago we wouldn't have even contemplated it!  We were gearing up for summer in Sydney not winter in Italy!

Ah, as I said, life is full of wonderful surprises. So with another Venice trip on the horizon I'm back on this blog.  We know the place so well so I'll be posting the odd thing while we are there.  Perhaps providing more information to those travellers that go off-peak like us.  Share the love, so to speak.  Afterall, it is a place we love dearly....

Light and reflections

One of the most beautiful things about Venice and the surrounding islands is the way the light works - across the squares, the canals, the buildings.  Different times of day produce amazing results. There's beauty in every corner.

Yesterday we looked at some of the palazzos on the Grand Canal in the afternoon light.  It had been raining all day but glancing down the Canal you could see such beautiful reflections off the buildings as the sun after the rain touched them ever so gently before the light faded and the evening was upon us.

The canals reflect such beautiful light, off the buildings and walls, that when you come across something special, you know it. You can't help but take the camera out and attempt to capture it. I caught many beautiful moments today. Too many to load on Facebook, Flickr and this blog. Here's just one favourite:



And then there are the times you don't have a camera on you or the light is too poor. Last night we went around to Campo San Giacomo dell Orio, very close to where we are staying. Puddles were everywhere but what was magical was the way the lights from the buildings and the lamps reflected on them. Red, orange, yellow. The Campo was pretty much deserted - a handful of people in the local Osteria and Trattoria - and a few people travelling along the walkways at night getting from A to B, but generally it was very quiet.

Even though it was a cool evening, we picked up some gelato after dinner and strolled slowly back to the apartment. I would have given anything to have had the tripod with me. The colours across the square and the church there were beautiful.

We still have three weeks here and rain is forecast for the next week at least. I will have to make sure I stroll around one night to try and capture the magic. So beautiful. And such a delight.

In my happy place.

We arrived in Venice shortly after midday.  We were greated by a representative of Lux-Rest Venice at the ticket office in Piazzale Roma and were welcomed to our apartment in San Croce.  I nearly fell over when I saw it.  For months I've had a photo of the canal on my wall at work (thanks Google!).  And finally I was staring at the real thing.  I had to pinch myself.  Even more so because I've joked for months our apartment was the red building in the photo.  How true that was!  I couldn't believe it! 



After going through all the formalities with the apartment, we headed off in search of somewhere to eat.  We weaved through the back alleys and came across a small place called Trattoria Taverna Capitan Uncino.  Most of the tables were occupied by local workmen and it didn't take long to realise we heard no accents other than Italian -- which was great!  A local joint!! The menus were extensive and it took a while to decide what to order.   In the end I went for a tagliolini with mushrooms and truffle.  It wasn't at all bad - a little expensive at E18.00 but that was okay.  A bottle of aqua frizzante and an espresso later we were off again to explore the local area. 

In the next hour I took about 100 photos!  San Croce is an area of Venice we haven't explored previously.  To my absolute delight the rain stopped and blue sky appeared.  Again, I couldn't believe it.  (I have a running joke about the weather in Venice - afterall it took me three trips here before I experienced a sunny day.  And the forecast was supposed to be rain, rain, rain, rain for the next week or so.  A little bit of blue sky made my day!)  So I snapped away.  I absolutely love the canal we are on. 

There's magic around every corner.  I really don't think you can take a bad photo in Venice.  There's so much beauty and interest.  Whether it's in the water, the bridges, the boats or the decaying old buildings and magnificent churches.  There's colour everywhere.  And gorgeous reflections.  Light and dark.  Movement and silence.

At the end of the day however I feel like I'm home.  Actually I know it.  The headache I've had for the past two days has stopped.  It stopped when we arrived.  Afterall I'm now in my happy place.  And have 30 days to enjoy it.

Staying in Venice

Only three months until the next trip to Venice. This time it will be for a month. A whole month! We can't wait. We know it's going to be cold, wet, rainy, misty, foggy, flooding. But we don't care. It's a month in Venice.

The flights and the accommodation are booked. We're treating ourselves to business class flights and we've used the same organisation for the apartment - LuxRest Venice. Barbara Carron was so helpful in finding somewhere that suited our needs. She did the same a couple of years ago when we organised an apartment not far from St Marks. The reason I mention Luxrest specifically is their commitment to finding something that works for you. Other apartment websites simply expect you to go through their websites and look at every single apartment. To me that's the easy way out. I want to list requirements (i.e. be on/look out to a canal) and have the estate agency actually do the work! Then I'll go on a website and check out all their suggestions. And Barbara's suggestions have been good in the past. We hope the next apartment - this time in San Croce - will work well for us.

Here's some photos taken from the last apartment:





And here's the link on Luxrest if you're travelling to Venice and want an apartment in the heart of the city, a hop, skip and a jump from St Mark's Square: Ca'Francesca where these photos were taken from.

When we get to Venice in a few months I'll be blogging regularly. Then you can see photos from our next apartment! We actually didn't have San Croce in our top three sestieres but it's where we've ended up. I've been playing around on Google to get a feel for where the next apartment is. We are thinking it's somewhere around here. Excellent!