A glimpse or two of the amazing city of Venice where I've recently spent a week.  It's narrow winding streets many of which don't seem to lead anywhere are daunting at first and it's easy to lose your way, even for the ultra modern traveller equipped with GPS, but before long you can move around the town like a native.

Unless you can walk on water you're also very likely to use the vaporetti, the wonderful water-buses that go up and down the Grand Canal and serve the various islands that make up the city.  They're expensive but fun.  You even get to the airport by boat. 

Venice's most famous boat is of course the gondola and dozens serve the tourists at a not inconsiderable profit to their owners.  In theory there are also special gondolas that act as ferries from one side of the Grand Canal to the other (useful given that there are few bridges along its 4km length) but I never saw any in action.

There's stacks of art in galleries and churches but the city itself was enough of an open air art gallery for me on this trip so I only went indoors for food, drink and music.  Vivaldi's Four Season's is everywhere.  Much though I like it you can get too much of a good thing so I avoided it.  I had hoped that there would be an opera on at the famous La Fenice.  There wasn't but I went just the same, mainly to see the inside of the building, and the concert of renaissance madrigals that I attended was very appropriate for the architectural style.  It's famous for having burnt down and about a dozen firemen were on duty throughout the evening, something I've never seen anywhere before.  There were also lots of usher type people and a souvenir shop in operation but not a coffee or an ice-cream, let alone a drink to be had.

I went to some other reasonably enjoyable musical events though I found the electronic clarinet gig hard to warm to.  At least it was free. 

The bottom right photo above is where I was staying.  Fans of the novels of Dona Leon will be excited to learn that it's in the very palazzo in which il commissario Brunetti has his flat albeit on a different floor.  My friends (who have written guides to Venice focusing on locations associated with the Brunetti books) were very excited but I took it in my stride.