Den and Wen in Italy - A Day In Venice

Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 - Waking up in Venice is pretty cool. Having said that, there are ZERO places to get an "American Breakfast" (and those locations that say they offer "Breakfast" don't open until 12:30!). So we opted for a "traditional Venice breakfast" - a cup of Americano coffee and a chocolate croissant (that's got to be healthy!) on the corner right next to last night's restaurant:

Finally, time for THE MAP:

Our hotel ("Palazzo Pianca") is the Red Star. The galleria at the top of the map was closed-for-renovation, so we don't need to worry about that. The other 3 museums (Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Gallerie dell'Accademia, and Ca' Rezzonico) are across The Grand Canal; and the 2 basilicas are easy to identify.

Compare Venice and Boston, in size:

An early-morning view of Venice-at-work - the restaurant tables are put away, and the garbage is being collected:

Because my butt-muscle was hurting-when-I-walk, we gingerly made our way to Piazza San Marco:

Unfortunately, the interior of the San Marco Basilica was closed for repairs.

We turned south to The Grand Canal, to figure how to get across. We saw some Beauty on the way:

I can see San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica:

It turns out that the "Water Ferry System" is very well organized, and resembles a combination of the New York City Bus and Subway Systems:

I bought 2 day-pass tickets, which are actually good for 24 hours, so we used them tomorrow to get to The Train Station.

It turns out we want the #2 Ferry, which leaves from the San Zaccaria station:

A look back, after we landed:

San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica:

"The Tower" was closed, so we stopped at the cafe for a rest and coffee and THE VIEW:

We figured out the ferries to get over to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, by water and narrow streets:

I really like the Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Calder, Braque, Sam Francis, Modigliani:

My two favorites are:

Jackson Pollock - Alchemy, 1947 oil:

Pablo Picasso - The Poet, August 1911 oil (sorry about the blue reflection on the glass):

The Streets of Venice on our walk to the Gallerie dell'Accademia (Tiepolo, Marieschi, Bellotto, Canaletto, Guardi, Joli, Visentini):

My two favorites are:

Francesco Guardi - St. Mark's Basin with the islands of San Giorgio and the Giudecca, 1774:

Michele Marieschi - Capriccio with Gothic building and obelisk, Early 1740s:

Then it was back out on the water to get to the Ca' Rezzonico (Canaletto, Guardi, Bellotto, Carlevarijs):

Canaletto - Il Canal Grande da Palazzo Balbi a Rialto [The Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to Rialto], not dated:

We saw the sights of Venice, and had dinner at the same restaurant:

What a Beautiful Day. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Day-In-Venice!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Den and Wen in Italy - Travel to Venice

Wednesday, Sept. 23/Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026 - Our Wedding Anniversary is June 9, 1979. We are celebrating our 47th this year, but Wendy got the "hiking in The Dolomites" bee-in-her-bonnet, and justified it because, since we met February 1976, this is the 50th Anniversary OF US MEETING (I'm good with that!). So she booked a trip with Classic Journeys for late-September:

I figured that since we were in that part of Italy, we might as well throw in a couple of days in Venice (Wendy wants to see churches, and I have 4 museums I want to visit). For our 5:45 PM flight to Frankfurt, we got picked up by Edward Cushing at 2 PM on Wednesday (11 days is too long to pay for long-term parking). Everyone and his friend were at Logan Airport, but we had plenty of time:

Although our plane was an hour late, all seemed fine as we got on-board (don't worry - all those seats got filled):

7 hours later, we were landing in Frankfurt:

I had budgeted 1 hour 50 minutes to make our next flight (to Venice). Even with us being an hour late, since the next flight was also on Lufthansa, I figured it would only take a few minutes to get from one gate to the other.

WRONG!!

Since Frankfurt Airport (FRA) serves as Lufthansa's main operational base and primary global hub, Gates are literally miles apart. Tack on 1 hour 40 minutes to get through "Passport Control", and we missed our flight. The people at Lufthansa's Service Center were very helpful, but the earliest we could get was a flight at 9 PM this evening (we got 2 boarding passes for that flight). But as we were leaving, the man whispered "Maybe you could just go to the gate for the noon flight - people for that flight might get delayed". Good idea - we made our way to that gate and were told that the flight was sold-out and they had a long waiting list. We had to wait somewhere, so we grabbed some seats and took a nap. When they started announcing for the flight, I said Maybe we could just stand near the Gate, to show we are still interested. Lo and Behold, after repeated announcements of "Last Call", the woman threw boarding passes (for 2 no-shows) into our hands and hustled us and another couple down the gate and onto a bus-to-the-plane [Thank You God]. We flew over The Alps, and were going through Venice Airport by 2:45

The hotel had told me to take The Alilaguna Water-bus Orange-line to the last stop (Santa Maria del Giglio):

Reminds me of Claude Monet's "The Grand Canal, Venice", 1908 oil (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco):

We made our way through the streets of Venice to our hotel:

After ringing the buzzer, the owner came from around-the-block (nobody is ever paid to just sit at a desk and greet guests). He took us around-the-block, over-a-canal, and up-an-alley to our building's door:

Our room was one flight up, with a nice terrace, and a pretty view out the back:

After crashing for a couple of hours, we went to the lovely restaurant right at the end of our alley, on a canal:

The sun had set by the time we finished, so we walked through Venice, past the shops and over the canals to St. Mark's Square:

It does take your breath away:

Back to the room, and off to sleep. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Adventure!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/