Discovering Venice
Venice in mid-January? Have I gone mad? I hope not.
As a little boy, my first awareness of Venice, Italy was through the “reels” of a little View-Master projector. If you’re old enough you may have seen or remember this variation on a slide viewer – it was a curious-looking, boxy thing you pointed at a light source, then held up to your eyes, looking through it to see images represented in “Stereoscopic 3-D” (as they were known in the day).
The little View-Master “reels” were thin cardboard disks containing seven Stereoscopic 3-D pairs of small transparent colour photographs on film, so everything tended to look great – especially when you viewed the magical palaces and places of Europe. I have early memories of looking at a Venice reel which displayed what I now know to be Venice’s Piazza San Marco, the Doge’s Palace and the Campanile Bell Tower, among other things. I remember at the time thinking: Wow… where is this place? I never dreamed I’d actually get to travel there one day.
To be honest, I’ve never had a real burning desire to see Venice; it’s never been very high on my bucket list, but its architecture has always intrigued me. I’m not interested in the “romantic” side of Venice (i.e. gondola rides with a singing gondolier, etc.), but rather the architectural and design aspects of the city. To walk through a major city “floating” in the water essentially being held up by posts under the structure, is fascinating to me. I’ve seen Venice images and thought, Gee, I’d love to photograph that… Well, this is my chance.
A Light & Land Tour
This foray to Venice is a dedicated photography trip for me; I’ll be travelling with a Light & Land photography tour group. For those not familiar with Light & Land, it is a tour company based in the U.K. which organizes and conducts a large number of photography tours in many locations throughout the world. A Light & Land tour is led by a Leader who is both a professional photographer and a travel guide. They do all the leg work and take you to the best spots for your photography so the only thing you need to focus on (sorry, bad pun) is your photography and getting the shot.
As a group in Venice, we will spend five days exploring that historic city, discovering new sights and locations. Venice simply begs to be photographed and I am only too happy to oblige.
Why the odd travel date? Venice in mid-January??? WHAT? The reason for this odd travel time is simply to avoid the tourist masses which normally clog up the city at any other time of the year.
So Long, Air Canada; Hello Air France
I’m making the European trek this time on Air France (sorry Air Canada, you were just way too expensive) and, as a major self-spoil and treat, have booked Business Class from Toronto to Venice (love those lie-flat beds on an overnight flight).
Unbelievably, I can fly from Toronto to Venice in Air France Business Class cheaper than I could on Air Canada’s Economy class, so the airline choice for this trip was a no-brainer. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of airline research and watching YouTube reviews about Air France, and the feedback from customers has been excellent. We shall see…
Notes On The Blog
The daily activities of this Venice trip will be related in retrospect, as there just won’t be enough time every evening to upload pictures and write/post a blog entry while I am there. Thankfully I keep fairly detailed notes when I travel so I will create this trip journal after I arrive home.
As with all my “travel blogs” this one is not a professional effort: it’s not meant to educate or act as a resource tool for touring Venice; it’s just a casual diary intended for friends and family who may want to follow along on my trip. I simply enjoying doing these blogs for posterity, reflection and my own enjoyment.
The Travel Plan
My master plan for this trip involves flying out of Toronto on the evening of January 15, 2025, reaching Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport the following morning. From Paris, I board a connecting flight which will bring me into Venice later that day, January 16th. I will then stay one night in a Venice airport hotel to (hopefully) recover from some of the inevitable jet lag, before returning to Venice’s Marco Polo Airport the following day. There, I will meet my Light & Land photography group, who arrive January 17th on a group flight from London’s Heathrow airport. We will then proceed as a group into Venice, check into our hotel and begin our photography tour.
The actual dates of the photography tour are January 17-21, 2025. I was not able to get a flight out of Venice on January 21, so I’m staying an extra night at the host hotel and heading back to Toronto on January 22nd. The flight home will be the above route in reverse.
This is my first trip to Venice so everything will appear new to me. It will probably feel odd to not share the streets with vehicles, instead being surrounded by water in a beautiful city so full of character and charm.
OK… let’s do this!
You missed your calling. You should be creating travel books, photos and commentary. Have you ever read Bill Brysons book about travelling in the UK? It’s fabulous and yours would be just as good or better.
Funny you should mention Bill Bryson, Neville. I’ve heard a lot about the man lately but, so far, have not read any of his books. One of my work friends gave me his “In A Sunburned Country”, which is sitting in my to-be-read pile. I think his UK book is called “The Road to Little Dribbling”. It sounds like a hoot judging by the reviews.