We are in Venice at last. We spent the day traveling, taking three separate trains to get here from Sorrento. It’s been raining off and on today, a nice change from the hot temperatures we’ve had everywhere else in Italy.
Our hotel is a former 16th Century convent on a narrow side street just down from St. Mark’s Square and the entrance to our room is an ornate wrought iron and stained glass door that opens onto the street next to the main hotel entrance. A line from either Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet, I don’t remember which, “Get thee to a nunnery” was a Shakespearean double entendre; a “nunnery” in Shakespeare’s time could mean a convent or a brothel. If our room really was part of the convent, its direct access to the street made it easy for those 16th century nuns to get it on without Mother Superior knowing about it!
When we arrived in Venice this afternoon, I switched to my 35 mm prime lens so I could take advantage of the fast lens because the skies were dark and cloudy. At the train station we boarded a crowded vaporetto, a water taxi, that ferried us down the Grand Canal to St Mark’s Square. I snapped away as we went. By the time we checked into our hotel and found a recommended ristorante, it was past 6 and we hadn’t eaten since leaving Sorrento at 8 AM. Unfortunately, our dinner was only mediocre but we walked back through St. Mark’s Square and enjoyed wine and music from several musical groups that played on small stages throughout the piazza. Not even a few raindrops dampened the evening for us.
Here are some of my first impressions of Venice.
