I’ve been to Venice once before, and that was with the family (and dog!), when we stayed at a campsite just on the landside of the bridge that connects Venice to the mainland (You can read a bit more about that here).  I genuinely thought that I would hate the experience – as I am not a lover of crowds or crowded places (landscape photographer – go figure 🙂 )  That said, after 4 days of catching the bus in to Venice and then water buses all over the place, I found that you can have some peace and quiet in what is a rather beautiful place. 

We liked it that much that with my wife I returned a couple of weeks ago – minus the kids, to stay in Venice and enjoy it to the full.  That included drinking 1 Euro 20 glasses of wine, eating Venetian tapas and trying to avoid getting ripped off as we searched for the 1 Euro cup of espresso (it is possible).  Then of course there is the photography. 

As we were staying near the Zattre water bus stop, we were very handy for the Ponte dell’Accademia and its iconic views up and down the Grand Canal – particularly towards the Santa Maria della Salute church.  When we first went in 2018, there was only one shot I wanted to do, and that was from the Ponte dell’Accademia looking towards the Sanata Maria della Salute – making my own homage to a Colin Homes photograph that I bought a couple of year ago.  However, sods law applied at that time and the entire bridge was under repair and covered in hoardings – so you could not take any photographs from it #doh!  That said, I still managed to take plenty of photographs, to the point that I am still processing the photographs from the first trip some 9 months ago now.

On this visit, the bridge was free of hoardings and it allowed such fantastic views.  After first light was gone and the other photographers had moved on, i was still there reacting to the ever changing light.  Venice is just such a fantastic place, that I may be at risk of going contrary to one of the things I’ve held close – to not go out of my way to visit other countries, when there is so much to photograph within the UK.  Instead of a winter campervan trip, I may just be about to book a 2 hour flight to Venice 🙂

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