In August 1998, after joining SAP, my new employer, I went to Heidelberg, Germany for 7 weeks of workshops and training. As this was my first visit to Europe, I made the best use of all weekends and drove to many countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Venice, a city in northeastern Italy is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon. Venice and Its lagoon is inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
My visit was in 1998, no Digital Camera at that time, only Film Camera, so I don’t have many pictures to show here. Also, these pictures are not of good quality but I still wanted to post here as my memories.
Pictures below are from one of the weekend, I drove to Venice with my three colleagues.
The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze winged lion sculpture in the Piazza San Marco, Italy, which came to symbolize the city – as well as one of its patron saints, St Mark – after its arrival there in the 12th century. The Lion sculpture has had a very long and obscure history; however scientific and art historical studies in the 1980s, led to the conclusion that it was created between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd centuries BC somewhere in the Hellenistic Greek or Oriental Greek world.
In the background is the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore Church.San Giorgio Maggiore Church seen across the water. It is a 16th-century Benedictine church on the island of the same name.The Doge’s Palace (Pałaso Dogal), a palace founded in 1340 and built in Venetian Gothic style, is one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Venetian Republic.Santa Maria della Salute, or the Salute, erected in thanksgiving for release from plague, an official appeal by the Venetian Senate directly to the Madonna in 1630, after 80,000 Venetians had been killed by plague. The Senate promised the Madonna a church in exchange for her intervention on behalf of Venice.The Grand Canal and the Salute.The Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto), stone-arch bridge crossing over the narrowest point of the Grand Canal, is the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal. it has been rebuilt several times since its first construction as a pontoon bridge in 1173.The Grand Canal, Italian Canale Grande, approximatively 3.8 km (2.36 miles) long main waterway of Venice, following a natural channel that traces a reverse-S course from San Marco Basilica to Santa Chiara Church and divides the city into two parts.Le Zitelle, seen across the water, officially Santa Maria della Presentazione, a church built in 1579-80, on the Giudecca island of Venice, is part of a former complex which gave shelter to young maidens (“zitelle” in Italian) who had no dowry.Another view of the Grand Canal in Venice.Ca’ Rezzonico, a palazzo on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro sestiere of Venice. It is a particularly notable example of the 18th century Venetian baroque and rococo architecture and interior decoration.One of Many canals of VeniceA small foot-bridge on one of Many canals of Venice.One of Many narrow canals of Venice.Veiw of Rio Della misericordiaSanta Maria di Nazareth, a Roman Catholic Carmelite church, also called Church of the Scalzi (Scalzi in Italian means “barefoot”). it was built in the mid 17th century to the designs of Baldassarre Longhena and completed in the last decades of that century.Venice in 1998.First time trying Disaronno, an Italian Liquor, in the Italian Alps.Love this bottle of Frangelico, an Italian hazelnut flavor Liquor, took a bottle home.
After visiting Venice in September 1998, We drove back to Heidelberg, Germany for work.
In May 2017, 23 days before I was going to complete 50 years, grabbed an opportunity and took an early retirement.. Picked up a backpack and traveling ever since.. Love to travel around the world, experience different culture, local cuisine & drinks .. and take pictures.. so far been to 108 countries and still counting...
Window on the World 