Hello, again, Blogonauts! We (that is, my four favorite fellow vagabonds and I) have managed to plop ourselves into the land of canals and cannoli. Venice opened both its arms and its clouds to us as we arrived Monday for a brief stay, before we head off for visits further afield from the local lagoon. Our current domicile is a lovely 4-bedroom apartment located near the Ca' d'Oro vaporetto stop. (The vaporetti are essentially the city buses of Venice, althou...

Hello, again, Blogonauts. You guys deserve a break! So I'll be more brief about how I spent my Saturday. Besides simply wandering the city, I visited the Frari Basilica, a Franciscan church that contains some spectacular art work, none of which I was allowed to photograph. (Click on the links to see some samples found on the Web.) Let's just say that Titian and Bellini were well represented. Titian is even entombed here. (Alright, I snuck one photo. Claudio M...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Friday was my chance to dip my tongue ... er ... toe ... into Venetian history, which contains much that is attractive and quite a bit that is distasteful. (Perhaps I meant tongue after all.) I'll begin with the enormous (and frequently waterlogged) Piazza San Marco. Three structures dominate the Piazza’s southeastern corner: The Campanile (The Bell Tower, which also has served as a light house for shipping), the Basilica of Sai...

Hello, again, Blogonauts. Venice is beautiful, historic, and culture-packed city. And along with these indubitable virtues, it also happens to exist in 21st-century Italy. Italian disagreements are common and often filled with drama. (This is, after all, the country that lifted grand opera to its treacherous, tearful, tragic peak.) Along the way, the innocent are often hooked into their hostile hijinks. I had researched my arrival at Marco Polo Airport exceedingl...