Venice

I felt like I was stepping straight into a Canaletto painting with this view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto on my first day in Venice! I hadn't slept at all the night before, so I was truly in a dream, but the photos prove my dream was very close to reality.

We had run to the back of the vaporetto so got a lovely view of the Rialto as the boat pulled away from the dock.

It was a beautiful day: sunny and warm and clear-skied. Public transport on a canal is so pleasant!

On the Grand Canal there are many gondola docks

and it is so lovely to compare all the styles of old architecture, various types of arch...

and excited tourists on their first ride in a gondola (I went on a night gondola ride, which was magical!).

I passed St Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace, as I was in for the longer haul trip to the Giardini, one of the main venues of the Biennale.

The Giardini is a large public park with most of the national pavilions of the Biennale and there are, of course, lovely canals and bridges along the way.

 It was a perfect day for being outside, walking between the pavilions and taking in the sunshine.

The next morning I experienced the Venice fog, but this too was atmospheric. It burned off by the time I got to the Arsenale anyway - the other main venue for the Biennale.