Postcards from Venice

Photos from Venice, right before the Christmas holidays. Street fairs, chilly gondola rides (and gondoliers!), museums, canal scenes, and local people going about their lives:

View of the city from the Campanile,
the bell tower in Piazza San Marco 

Local weekend flea market, with
additional handmade items for Christmas. 

Under the Rialto bridge, which has
shops lining both sides as it arches
over the Grand Canal. One of the most
photographed structures in Venice.

Beautiful buildings facing the water.

One of the Grimani patriarchs, no label in the Palace to
say which one. The family had 3 Doges of Venice,
and a Cardinal. Judging from other paintings,
this is probably Marino Grimani, around 1596

Inside the Grimani Palace looking up into the dome.

View out a window to the
neighboring apartments

Sunny day reflections in a canal.

Beautiful carved black gondola.

Two gondoliers chatting with others across the water.
This boat is for locals, it's the type you stand up in
while crossing the canal, nothing romantic here!!

A copy of the famous Laocoon sculpture,
in the Grimani Palace. The original,
with missing arms, is in the Vatican.

Post note: If you go to Venice and want to visit the Grimani Palace, be aware that there are two of them. The real one, where the Grimani Family ruled Venice for generations, faces the Grand Canal and houses some government offices. The Palazzo Grimani Museum, which may not have even belonged to the Grimani family, is across town on Costello street.