And finally, Venezia

We spent a total of 8 days in the lagoon, half at anchor, half in the marina. There is just nothing like Venice. I love towns that ban cars, it totally changes the living environment, But Venice is a large city with a population of 260,000, with the only transport by foot or water. Last year, there was almost 10 million tourist-nights, so you can imagine the impact.

Palazzo Ducal from the sea

One of Venice's few parks

Another imposing church entrance

We visited the  Palazzo Ducale (the Doge's Palace) on our last visit to the city. This is the building where the process of governing Venice was carried out.

Inner courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale

The Golden Staircase

Detail of the Golden Staircase

Just a corridor in the palace.

The immense size of these rooms of government, the elaborate dungeons, the sheer bulk of art (much of it by Tintoretto and his son) made sense given the number of Venetian forts and castles we'd seen along along the coast, beginning probably around Methoni in the Peloponnese and stretching all along the Greek coastline, through the Balkans and to Italy. Such wealth and power must have been concentrated here.

Small committee room

Tintoretto wall art  - the scale is huge

Can anyone recall the title of this painting, it's a well known one. 

Ceiling decoration 

The room where the Council of Venezia held its meetings

Another Tintoretto on the ceiling

Wall fresco

A small part of the armoury 

We wandered to the Jewish Ghetto and to Arsenale, a complex of shipbuilding yards and armouries.

The entrance to Arsenale

A view into the shipbuilding yards

A rather hang-dog Venetian lion outside Arsenale

The Jewish Ghetto in Venezia

Courtyard of the Ghetto

Commemoration plaques for Jewish residents sent to death camps in Germany

Venice is very like Rome, you can just overdose on the miraculous. So we backpedalled, and tried to find the ordinary in Venice. The shops around the Rialto Bridge provided us with some gourmet food and a lovely restaurant for lunch.

Venetian delicatessen

Megan sampling the art work

Fruit and wine??

A memorable lunch stop.

We've had a few rain showers while we've been in the lagoon, and wind velocities that are reminicent of winter rather than balmy summer. We've heeded the warning that its time to start heading south. We have about 800 nautical miles to travel to Licarta in Sicily, our wintering site. We have about 5 weeks before our contract starts there on the 1st October. We need to get trucking, so stick with us as we blast down the east Italian coast. Ciao for now.