Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Roads and waterways of Venice

This was our hotel - a member of the Best Western group. The staff were friendly and very helpful and the hotel was so clean I am sure you could eat off the floor (although I didn't try!!)
Breakfast was as much as you could eat and drink, the only problem being that on the second morning we had to leave at 6am before breakfast started!
Outside our window was a narrow canal used by the gondolas and small boats.




This was a small waterway off the Grand Canal.
It did seem strange to see canals instead of roads.






The Grand Canal became rather busy at times and it seemed like a free for all. The only rule on the canals was with regard to the speed - 4.5mph for private craft and 7mph for the public water buses, in the narrower canals the limit was 3mph. The only exception was for emergency craft.





Even the smaller canals became congested.




The actual walkways were very narrow and didn't see much sunlight.




I wonder if they have problems with parking near to their property!











No problem here - step out of the door into the boat.






Many of the buildings seem to be in a poor state of repair. Apart from the obvious problem of wave damage they also have to consider the damp and high salt content of the air. Only porous stucco may be used for renovation as anything else tends to fall off in sheets after a few weeks.





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