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| Strike up the band: A couple on the Giudecca try to exert some control over the opening series of lightening flashes |
Summer storms in Venice come on like the apocalypse, and if you find yourself trapped by one beneath an arcade or, more fortunately, in a little bar on the Giudecca, as I was at the end of last week, you can wonder if you'll ever see your home and loved ones again. But they rage--never losing their conviction--for just a half hour or so and then move on, usually leaving behind them, like a note of contrition for getting so carried away, a beautifully clear view of the mountains around Venice.
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| This sailing cruise ship headed out to sea while the storm was at its worst |
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| The rain doesn't let up, even as the sky begins to clear to the northwest |
Trapped?in a bar?in Guidecca? Poor Steve :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat photos again.
Okay, Rob, I'll admit it wasn't exactly waiting out a blizzard while tucked into the carcass of a horse, but, hey, what if the beverages ran out in the 45 minutes or so it took the storm to pass?
DeleteIt was in Venice (in an open-fronted bar on an empty Riva degli Schiavoni) that I remember the first clap of thunder that really frightened me. Our storms in s-e England must have been much gentler. It was in 1959 and I remember a pope was lying in state in the basilica. It was only recently that I learnt from one of your fellow bloggers of Venice that it was Pope Pius X who had died many years earlier and his remains were brought back in order to fulfil his promise to return after becoming pope.
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous memory (and description), Rosalind, with its combination of details. It suggests a singular experience of Venice at a particular time better than any photograph.
DeleteWithout straining my imagination that far, I can vividly imagine worse places to be trapped during a summer storm. :D
ReplyDeleteI think I had my breakfast most every day in that bar when I last stayed in Venice during Redentore. The apartment I rented was just around the corner from there.
I don't know how I just came upon this comment, Andreas, but if the bar you're thinking of is the one with the suitcases that cover the front of its actual counter--stacked up almost like brickwork--then it is indeed the same one. It's a nice area.
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