A wonderful thing about travel is you get to meet such nice and interesting people. Here are a few we met in Venice.
Ok, I admit it. We had lunch in the Hard Rock Cafe, but there was a cloud-burst and this was the closest shelter. On the plus side, we met Lauren and Bradley, a very nice couple from the UK.
La Canapiglia in Campo S. Maurizio – San Marco 2604, Venice. This is the artist who paints the masks hanging behind them. Super talented. If you’re in Venice, be sure to go by his shop.
In the Campo Santo Stefano, Grima met a gondolier who happened to be from Chile. What a coincidence. Learned a lot about gondoliers there.
Grima and Chen Mengwei on the Academia Bridge. Grima’s a friend magnet – strangers tend to gravitate toward her. Chen is a feature reporter for China Daily and was taking a break from covering a fashion show. Chen and I had a good conversation about photography.
Our last day in Venice we went to the islands of Murano and Burano. Beautiful islands and the weather was wonderful – until the storm. We stopped for lunch (pizza, of course) on Burano. It was in the mid-70’s and sunny. Before we finished the pizza, the temperature dropped 25 degrees, the wind came up and it started to rain. We found cover under a large awning while waiting for the downpour to end. That’s where we met James and Theresa, who are from England. After the storm, found a little cafe where we had hot chocolate.
Back to Venice from Burano, we found ourselves at a ferry stop we didn’t recognize and that didn’t have any ferries that went anywhere near the parking garage. We were given some vague directions to the correct ferry stop and headed out, but it was getting dark and, Venice isn’t the easiest place to find you way. Luckily we met these three lovely students, one who spoke some Spanish (believe me, there are enough differences between Spanish and Italian that it’s not a given if you understand one you can understand the other). They insisted on accompanying us to the ferry stop. Got there just in time to catch the last one.
Met these friends on Burano – they were taking each other’s pictures so offered to take a group shot of them.
Caught up with them again at the ferry stop. Bunch of really fun kids.
So, more to come. Love to hear what you have to say about our travels.