VeniceSeptember 2009

Art students in one of the campos (a type of plaza)

Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo

Local children in the campo

My first espresso in Europe and people-watching in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo

The Grand Canal

La Salute church

My first sight of San Marco Piazza!

Basilica of San Marco – designed in the Eastern Byzantine style to distance Venice from the influence of Rome. Gorgeous mosaics inside!

My artsy attempt to convey the magical, ephemeral Venice

7:00am – Gondolas slumber after a hard night of ferrying tourists

Doge’s Palace – The doge was the ruler of the Venetian trading empire

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore – designed by the legendary Palladio, whose mathematically-proportioned architecture inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (as well as almost every classical-influenced government building in the United States).

The beginning of the aqua alta, or floods.

Aqua altaat the Doge’s Palace – notice the courtyard is beginning to flood…

Ponte di Rialto

Waxing his most prized possession

Loading the mail for delivery

Rialto Produce and Fish Market

Bailing out yesterday’s torrential rains

Church of Santa Maria GloriosadeiFrari

A traghetto – how local people cross the Grand Canal for only 50 euro cents!

The cemetery for Venice