Christmas Past, With Wishes for a Happy New Year

27 December 2019

Nel Bacino di San Marco

22 December 2014

Threes Scenes of Christmas Past

11 December 2016

22 December 2017

18 December 2017

Acqua Alta for Christmas (Two Years Ago Today)

Coming just a month after a record high tide in November, the acqua alta that rolled into Venice shortly before Christmas in 2019 was yet another bitter reminder of just how vulnerable the city remained in spite of the billions of dollars poured into the MOSE flood barriers. For businesses still cleaning up after the November flooding and trying to regain their financial footing, it was like a recurrent nightmare--and seemed like the worst thing that could befall them...

But by February 4 signs of another threat began to appear, and for many of the businesses which had managed to hobble through the end of 2019, this new one would finish them off.

 

Santas Galore, On Water and Land

23 December 2018, Grand Canal

21 December 2014, Sant'Elena

Santa Colors, Venetian Scene

23 December 2014

Starlight

29 April 2020

Boating Home A Tree (8 Years Ago Today)

It's debatable whether boating home a Christmas tree is actually a tradition in Venice (I think not), but it became a tradition for us, at least. 

For an account of the debate, and of our purchase of this particular tree, you can get the full story here in "Boating Home a Christmas Tree: Tradition or Folly?"

 

Bumper Cars With A View: Venice Pre-Covid

Le Giostre, or the Luna Park along the water, was a post-war Venetian holiday tradition: initially not far from Piazza San Marco, on the Riva degli Schiavoni;; more recently (as above), just east of Via Garibaldi of the Riva dei Sette Martiri. Covid put an end to it all a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure whether it has returned this year, though I suspect (and maybe hope, given the new variant) that it has not. (This photo, which always struck me as a still from a film that never actually existed, was taken January 5, 2015.)

Traghetto Crossing from Santa Sofia (3 Years Ago Today)

3 December 2018 (as dark as my camera could capture a moving subject)