Walking Around in Venice, Italy

Saturday, May 19, 2001
I woke up early and enjoyed our hotel's continental breakfast. I used the time to write postcards and update my journal. We checked out of our rooms, stored our bags in the hotel's storage closet, and spent some time running errands.

We waited in line at the UPS/travel office for about 45 minutes, only to find out there was no Saturday service.

Walli

After lunch, I broke away from my sisters and their husbands. We planned to meet back at the hotel at 7:00 to have dinner before catching the night train out of Venice.

My plan was to find the graveyard, but I soon discovered that it is out on an island and required a boat to get to.

I decided to just walk around. I stopped in many shops and bought some trinkets that caught my eye and more postcards. Soon, I found myself following the shoreline of the Grand Canal heading away from San Marco Plaza.

Laundry Day

Windowboxes

Roof

I found a quiet little bench in a park overlooking the ocean (Adriatic Sea). You only could see a little bit of the sea when seated, but you still could see the boats go by beyond the park's hedge. They were pretty close to shore. I saw a Turkish cruise ship and a couple other big ships and many other boats in smaller sizes.

Behind me was a shaded park, and I listened and heard young people laughing, singing, and playing. Before me, between the bench and the sea, were two walkways separated by a fence with the hedge growing on it. The paved path beyond the hedge had a fair amount of foot traffic. The only traffic on the dirt path before me were two lovers who sat for a short time to the right of me. My feet and legs were getting a good start on a tan.

I saw a couple men sleeping on the benches in the park. While sitting there, I could understand why people fell asleep on those shaded benches. It was the quiet sound -- the sound of the sea; the sound of people talking, feet walking, birds singing; and the sounds of boat motors and the waves hitting the shore. It lulled you.

Even the pigeons were relaxed. They found in the park a quiet place to make love.

(Click hereto see a page with larger images of these pigeons.)

Sun roof

Slippers

Moss

Artist

I met my family as planned and we compared stories over dinner. Later, Boat Bus #1 took us back to the train station. We were all pretty tired, even though we had had a good night's sleep. We sat around the train station for a couple of hours. To pass the time, we watched a man toss a ball around and made bets as to whether or not it would land in the canal. We wondered how the hotel knew how much we drank from the refridgerator in our rooms before we checked out.

The night train toward France left at around 11:30 p.m., and we were on it.

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Last updated: May 25, 2002

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