Venezia, mi amor

As confidently predicted, I had a wonderful time in Venice. The weather was perfect, sunny and so warm that we ate outdoors every evening, with just a hint of sea breeze to waft away the stink of the canals (which to be honest was more powerful than in previous years).

We arrived in the early evening, occupied the apartment, had dinner in a non-touristy restaurant literally around the corner, then went to the Piazza San Marco.

The Piazza is indeed the finest salon in Europe, as Napoleon said. Part of its effect is in the way one arrives there through a maze of alleyways, some so narrow that a broad-shouldered man like Robert Mitchum would have to walk sideways, where the sky is a blue ribbon five storeys up, where "the horizon" is a concept without meaning or precedent; then you turn a corner and walk under an archway, and are in a vast open space, made even larger by the contrast to the path you took. It is truly a huge space, 175 by 80 metres at the widest (it's not rectangular), nearly three football fields in area.

There are four cafés in the Piazza San Marco, three of which have small orchestras that play outside under awnings. On the north (sunny) side are the Quadri (ancient and honourable) and the Lavena; on the shady south side are the Florian (the first café in Venice, established in 1720) and the relatively recent, unmusical, Aurora; around the corner in the Piazzetta is a fifth, also with orchestra, the Chioggia. One of the tiny mysteries of Venice is this: The traveller arriving in the Piazza for the first time chooses a café on impulse - and remains true to this choice on all future trips. I am a Florian man myself, chosen on a momentary whim nearly thirty years ago; but we as a group patronise the Chioggia. The Piazzetta is (marginally) less overrun by tourists and vendors of tat and roses, and also has a view of the Isola San Giorgio.

The bells of the Campanile ring 72 times at midnight, the chimes can be heard all across the city. After that is silence, Venice sleeps early and soundly.

And that will have to do for today, more tomorrow. I'll post some more of the 176 photos I took on Flickr this weekend.