My husband's trip to Italy Part 2 - Venice and Riccione

My husband's trip to Italy Part 1 - SPECTACULAR Venezia

Part 3

My husband's trip to Italy Part 3 - The mountains and castle of San Marino

We begin where we left off in Part 1 - Venezia  - but I am showing the non-canal photos of Venice.

Here is the Piazza di San Marco, Venice. (St. Mark's Plaza) in Venice.  A beautiful, intricate Basilica, famous the world over.

 A detail from the Basilica on the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia.

 Another detail from the Basilica on the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia.

 A view of one of the side buildings from the Piazza di San Marco, Venezia.

The pigeons are famous for flocking to passersby, on the Piazza di San Marco.

My husband was walking through the square when a pigeon landed on his shoulder, expecting food.

I tell you, these fellows want for nothing. 

The Gondolier who took my husband and others on a gondola canal tour of Venezia in Part 1.

The Florian Tea Room in Venezia.

Inside the Florian Tea Room in Venezia. What a lovely atmosphere to sit and sip tea by.

 A Murano glass shop in Venezia. 

Originally, Venice was the original venue for beautiful glassworks, but Venice was made mostly of wooden structures and the Venetian Republic ordered the glass foundries  to move to the nearby island of Murano in 1291.

Today, the themes common in Murano glass are interwoven with Venetian glass. 

Murano glass paper weights, using the millefiori (multicolored) glass technique, most typically thought of as Murano style.

Murano glassmakers soon gained prominance as the town's most important citizens and were allowed to marry into the most affluent families. Although Murano craftsmen were not allowed to set up glass shops outside of Murano, many did set up glass foundries as far away as England or the Netherlands.

Murano glass also comes in a crystalline variety, enamelled glass, a milk glass, and glass the resembles glass gemstones. Aventurine glass is glass that includes gold threads interwoven into the glass.

Murano Millefiori Pendant

 The Zora Gallery-Shop in Venezia. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe slept here in Venice from 28 Sept to 14 October, 1786.

Goethe is the author of a two-part dramatic poem, Faust and  his epistolary novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Goethe is considered to have had an IQ of 220, along with Leonardo da Vinci, who also was reputed to have had an IQ of 220.

The Giorgio Armani shop in Venice along the Calle Goldoni, the Gold Coast.

The beautiful Hotel Gabriella, at the landing pier in Venice. 

Now we leave Venice and turn to Riccione, where my husband stayed and where the track meet he competed in was held.

 Mannikin in a store window in Riccione. Dressed to the nines.

Boutique window in Riccione.

 Pink Porsche in Riccione. This Porsche was in front of a large mansion in front of a Five Star Hotel in Riccione, a tourist town along the Adriatic sea. 

Beware of Dog, a sign in Riccione outside of an old grand hotel, now in ruins.

Street mime at night playing Charlie Chaplin in Riccione. 

A beach in Riccione. The beaches are structured, with spaces rented to individual people, who mark their place with a chaise longue and umbrella. The afternoon weather was beginning to kick up, prompting everyone to leave, resulting in this umbrella city. 

 Strrong surf along the Adriatic Sea.

 Beachgoers pack up their umbrellas and head home. Looks like bad weather is coming.  The majestic cliffs and strong surf make for a romantic, idealistic backdrop that is better viewed from a distance  - or a camera.

Statue of  Discobulus in Riccione, at the main stadium, where the track meet was held. This is a copy of the bronze original of Discobulus, around the 5th century, located near Tivoli. 

I kid you not. Wine bottles on display in a store in Riccione.

From left to right: Hitler, (Sieg Heil) Mao Tse Tung, Benito Mussolini (Il Camerata) and Che Guevara.

The Villa of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Riccione.

Mussolini's villa first opened to the public a few years ago. Mussolini's last surviving child died in 2004. 

Night scene in Riccione on Viale Dante.  Bright lights, small village, but charming.

Marathon runners in Riccione. They are competing it the World Veteran's Champtionships in Track & Field that was held in September in Riccione, Italy. 

 My husband competed in the long jump, triple jump and the 4 x 100 meter relay. This is a world-level competition for male and female international athletes over 50.

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Now we move to Part 3, which will be published in a few days.  It will feature the mountains and castles of the tiny, landlocked country of San Marino, located inland within Italy.