for a walk around Venice,
admiring some of the buildings,
the canals still quiet as we were up early,
Diana taking a pose,
by this rather ornate bridge,
in her red leather jacket,
one more for the album,
walking past this door I could not help but notice it's door knocker,
very nicely made,
and here is another impressive one,
the first of the gondolas,
with their passengers,
passing by,
then as if by magic,
people in costumes came past us on the bridge,
a family perhaps?
as they were going to the square,
we thought with a slight detour we would follow them,
the detour was to the Grand Canal,
we wanted to walk further along this side of it where we had not been before,
so off we went taking pictures as we go,
we came into a small square where a number of stalls had pitched up, this one selling gowns,
there were a number of permanent shops here too like this one,
selling flowers,
but many like this artist,
just set up where he could,
there were a number of jewellery stalls,
and this one painting masks on to your face,
and of course ones selling masks,
lots of them,
we passed the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the academy was
Diana giving this lady an admiring glance,
in a previous post,
I mentioned that if you suffer,
from,
coulrophobia, that is a fear of clowns,
you should look away now, as there are lots of them here,
oops! too late again,
another fridge magnet moment,
a team of rowers passed us by,
again we were blessed with blue skies,
looking towards the Grand Canal,
another one of those beaky masks, that doctors wore in the time of the Black Death,
though the beak mask has become an iconic symbol of the
Black Death, there is no evidence it was actually worn during the 14th Century
epidemic, medical historians have in fact attributed the invention of the ‘beak
doctor’ costume to a French doctor named Charles de Lorme in 1619,
He designed
the bird mask to be worn with a large waxen coat as a form of head-to-toe
protection, modelled on a soldier’s armour, the costume was worn by plague doctors during the Plague of
1656, which killed 145,000 people in Rome and 300,000 in Naples, the reason behind this was that it was thought that the plague was transmuted by bad air, have a long beak filled with for instance lavender it would protect you from the plague,
we passed another mask shop,
as pretty as a peacock,
just a street or two away it is packed with people here for the weekend, but it is easy to still find peace and quiet,
look out,
another clown, but it should be OK as he is only a small one,
then the start of a procession,
this was the steam punk group,
there were so many of them,
we decided to catch up with them later,
meanwhile we just continued our walk,
past another flower shop,
a quick pose,
a short walk,
and we found ourselves in another market,
selling all manner of goods,
and souvenirs,
a jesters hat, just like the blue one I have,
Diana was thinking about a different mask,
we turned and started our walk back,
but went by a different route,
passing buildings,
that I regret I do not know the names of,
and of course more mask shops,
occasionally we bumped into some one dressed for the festival,
and for some reason attracted the attention of this very tame seagull,
then the cowboys with woops and yells,
rode into town,
great fun costumes,
this for me is what Venice is all about,
no noise, just gently watching history glide past,
or,
you could go by motorboat, I prefer the quiet way,
a quick pose,
and we are on our way again,
look out the plague!
we next found ourselves,
in an avenue of stalls,
selling all manner of souvenirs,
as well as handbags, shoes etc,
it is the look alike brother of Captain Jack Sparrow that we saw before?
we then had a quick break for lunch, a pizza for Diana,
minestrone soup for myself,
then we were back in the square,
amongst the crowds,
and costumers,
today was the final day of the festival,
so everyone that had a costume,
was here,
looking their very best,
and some were taking a break,
we have not seen this one before,
or this one come to that,
it was bright in the sun,
but still bitterly cold,
but that did not put anyone off,
as costume,
after costume,
passed by,
many,
we had not seen before,
Yoko Ono perhaps,
with John Lennon?
we made our way to the stage where the judging was taking place,
with the contestant being described,
I believe to this lady,
by one of the court officials,
I am sorry to say my Italian is nonexistent,
so we did not have a clue as to what was going on,
but it was still fun to watch,
and applaud,
we next had a look at some of the side shows,
like this fortune teller,
and the bubble lady,
our cats would just love bubbles that big,
more contestants were arriving all of the time,
and then the first,
of the steam Punk contingent arrived,
more people flooded into the square,
was not this the guy that was listening to the group last night?
and still more costumers arrive,
I guess this style,
would be called goth,
two Queens of Hearts,
perhaps?
tea for two,
those hats must be heavy,
it is strange,
how some masks can look so sinister and others so happy, like these two, I wonder if anyone has done any research on what makes people buy a sinister looking mask or a happy one?
the colour is red,
the bow and arrow looks dangerous,
a fairy book character, the evil Queen from Snow White,
but she looks happy enough,
the march of the steam punks,
has begun,
there were so many of them,
in various guises,
the queue, going back as far as I could see,
this couple like us,
watching the steam punks stream by,
the effort that must have gone into this backpack,
it looked so complicated,
but the thing that made it stand out,
is that although it is difficult to see from the photographs,
the backpack is actually steaming, the steam being produced I am guessing by dry ice, what a neat idea for a costume,
but the show was not over yet,
as more steam punks
appeared out of nowhere,
I am guessing this was all rehearsed,
to come to the square as one huge contingent,
and it certainly worked,
as the procession continued,
by now it was getting late,
and we were hungry,
so we decided to take a slow stroll back to the hotel,
as we did so,
there were more people going to the square,
but for us as it was our last night we had booked a table,
so we made our way past the oil drummer,
to our hotel where we had booked a table,
after a shower and change here we were with a complimentary amuse bouche,
'Cheers!',
for starters steamed spider crab,
and a dish I do not recall the name of,
and I have forgotten the name of this one as well,
but I do remember it was just so nice,
but I do know what this one was which we both had,
a juicy and succulent beef entrecote,
I somehow ended up with 2 glasses of wine,
and then desserts,
which featured lots of chocolate, so no change there then!
one of the waiters very kindly offered to take our picture,
we finished with a complementary dessert, what a lovely last evening in Venice, and with that we were off to bed.
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