Venice 8 Attila, the Hun

 However we were able to eat lunch there after our tour guide called ahead and they said they could feed us. And it was a great lunch!! 

Oh, by the way, Torcella brags that 2000 years have passed since Attila, the Hun, stopped at their island in search of new conquests. In more recent times, a convalescent Ernest Hemingway walked the lanes lapped by the sea and drew inspiration for one of his most exciting novels. (They don't say which one). Hemingway must have loved to travel because he was everywhere; kind of like "Kilroy was here".

(to be continued) 

Venice 7 Torcello

 With the men out fishing, the women developed their skill at lace making and shops sell lace products like linens and clothes. The also developed their own local butter cookie. You'll see the pictures.

The second island we visited was Torcello. It is very small with about 27 residents. Visitors come to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, with its Venetian-Byzantine mosaics.

Again we could not visit it because the area was still flooded.

(to be continued) 

Venice 6 Burano

 
The legend about the brightly colored houses is that, as in the olden days, basically everyone on the island was from the same family and so had the same name. So to distinguish them from each other, everyone painted their house a different color. Now of course, that tradition is set in stone so no one can change the color of their house. Another story is that the fishermen could pick out their house by its color and could see if their wife was working in the yard and around the house.

(to be continued) 

Venice 5 Burano

 Today, the sun came out and the waters were calmer so we set out on our water taxi to two nearby islands.

The Island of Burano is known for its brightly colored fishermen's houses and its casual eateries serving seafood from the lagoon. No one was eating today though. All of the locals were busy pumping water from their homes, restaurants and other places of business and sweeping the flood water from the streets into the drains. It was so sad to see all of us tourists with no place to spend our money. We had reservations to eat lunch there but had to cancel.

 (to be continued) 

Venice - Acqua alta 4

 Well, I guess we really did survive the Venice Flood of 2018!! It was described in the New York Times and other newspapers. 

We were kept warm and safe by our tour guide. We walked around St Mark's Square as you saw yesterday; had our lunch of pizza in the rising water and were back in our hotel by 1pm. High tide was about 2pm. Our hotel had been newly renovated against flooding; so like I said we were warm and safe!!

(to be continued) 

Venice - Acqua alta 3

 
We had the most delightful pizza today for lunch!! You'll see a picture of us sitting in the flood water enjoying lunch. Life goes on!!

And because of this flooding, boats can't get under most of the bridges so no gondola rides!

And we won't be able to visit one of the nearby islands tomorrow. In fact, the water is so high that our Grand Circle Cruise boat, the Artemus, can't dock anywhere near Venice. We'll be bussed out tomorrow to meet our boat south in Reevena.

(to be continued) 

Venice - Acqua alta 2

So the forces of nature have all built up here so that the water in all of the canals has risen up over its banks and flooded the city. 

Our tour guide was nice enough to get us all water boots to keep our feet dry as we walk the streets of the city. You'll see the pictures of the boots, all very colorful; and of us trudging through the water filled alleys. We were instructed to walk carefully so as not to make a wake that would make a wave of water attack someone walking nearby.

(to be continued)