Venice in October

Venice is a truly beautiful place despite the crowds!

We stayed in Venice recently on a weekend break. It is a city that is both charming and captivating.

We stayed in a hotel just off St. Mark's Square and arrived there by water taxi - what luxury!

The above photograph was taken from our hotel window on our last day when it rained. The other three days had been very sunny - T-shirt weather. The building in the distance is the Santa Maria della Salute. The church was built to give thanks for the ending of a plague.

The above photograph is of the Basilica in St. Mark's Square - the Cathedral of Venice. There were large queues to go in and as we had kept it until the last day and it was raining we decided not to go inside. I wish now we had gone in on one of our first few days there as the queues had been smaller. I will show you better pictures tomorrow when we were in St. Mark's Square on a sunny day.

This is the Doges Palace, which is situated next to the Basilica.

This is the Campanile - the bell tower. Although the queues were lengthy we did wait and go up to see the view. The panoramic views of the city and the lagoon were breathtaking.

This aristocratic looking pug was in a shop window and I just had to take a photograph. Doesn't he look dashing!

Of course, no trip to Venice would be complete without a ride on a gondola. It was pricey but something that you had to do. It is best to haggle and to find a gondola that is not too near the Rialto Bridge where the prices were expensive!

I love the painting of the Basilica on the gondola and you can also see a part of the Doges Palace.

Even the mundane has something about it in this beautiful place.

This photo was taken from the Rialto bridge and shows how hectic the Grand Canal can be. In the forefront of the photo you can see a vaporetto - a water bus. This mode of transport is much much cheaper than a gondola. Everything in Venice seems to be within relatively easy walking distance but when the feet begin to hurt then it is easy to hop on and off one of these.

And finally, how could I leave you without a photograph of a cat. This cat was sat on a small balcony watching the pigeons.

I will leave it there for today but will return another time with more photos of Venice.

Until next time.

June.