Corner of the grand salon in Ca Sagredo
Staircase Ca Sagredo - Carla Coulson
Salon Ca Sagredo - Carla Coulson
My love affair with Venice started precisely the moment I walked out of the train station and spyed crumbling grandeur floating in the water. 'Hang on a minute' I said to myself 'how does this work'?
I was 21 and backpacking around Europe as us Aussies do. Nothing like an Australian mother's response to you telling her you will be home in six months 'ok love have you got a clean handkerchief''?
The budget was wafer-thin, we ate bread, cheese and fruit dangling our legs over the water and gobbled down gelato like it was life itself. Venice entered my soul and has been stuck there ever since (and so has gelato). I go when I can. I remember one trip around my 26th birthday I fell in love with a Murano Chandelier. I went back to the shop about 30 times and then decided I couldn't leave Venice without.. I reasoned that Venice makes us do crazy things!
On another trip I had the chance to photograph the spectacular Ca Sagredo that is now a beautiful hotel. So thrilled to have found it with all its wonderful frescoes intact.
Has Venice made you do anything crazy??
Live Dangerously
Carla xx
Great reads on Venice: A Thousand Days in Venice and City of Falling Angels - loved them both
Taken on my Canon 5D Mark II
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Be still my heart! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a spring visit...my first. I'm going to flip, aren't I?
ReplyDeleteCatherine x
Only been once, a couple of years ago, absolutely loved it; Venice and Florence - love 'em both, especially with a camera.
ReplyDeleteAlways beautiful pictures Carla. Love.. keep them coming
ReplyDeleteAlways beautiful pictures Carla. Love..
ReplyDeleteYou know what? I've never been but the way you described it sure does put fire in my belly to visit! x
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Venice, but just the thought of Venice makes me weak at the knees. I would love to have my Camera in hand on a gondola or sip wine in that grand salon at ca sagredo. My favourite Italian cookbook for sheer eye candy on the photography front is Tessa Kiros's Venezia. If you don't have it get a copy- I felt like I'd been there. xx Corrina.
ReplyDeleteVenice, such a beautiful city. Such beautiful pictures. Love it and return at different stages in our lives, from various trips sending home a Murano chandelier, a wonderful mirror, wineglasses etc. Favourite restaurant is Al Covo not far from Arsenale - run by a Venetian and his American wife - great fresh local food and nice people.
ReplyDeleteA shame about the cruise boats! One day while standing outside Il Redentore (Palladio church) on the Giudecca Canal and looking across to St Marks, we counted 4 enormous cruise boats one after the other steaming up the Canal. They are totally out of proportion for Venice and completely dwarf the buildings along the Canal - you can't even see the top of St Marks as they go by. They also bring in simply thousands of people a day who all mill around in the Piazza San Marco for a few hours so that you can't move. The locals say the boats are bad for Venice as the passengers spend very little money there (they buy souvenirs on the boats), normally stay only one night if at all and overcrowd the city area for others. Locals are also concerned that these enormous boats are doing unknown damage to the fabric of the city. So come by train, or car or even plane and take a water taxi to your hotel from the station or the airport, especially if the hotel has a water gate. The trip is a dream and you're not out of scale with the beauties of the city.
Venice made me do something crazy...
ReplyDeleteI went to Bologna
to get away from all the tourists and glass shops.
But a week in Venice can be a long time.
Do you still have the Murano chandelier? I'd love to see it.
I do love Venice in small amounts and on Sundays
I love Venice too -
ReplyDeleteI too fell in love with Venezia on my first of many visits, and was in the process of moving there when I met my husband...and my life path went in a different direction ~ funny how that happens!
ReplyDeleteJust stunning photos as always!
Nathalie
ahhhhhhh Venice. Grand images. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am just crazy in love with Venice. I found Harry's Bar's Bellinis. Which took crazy to a whole new level. Not to be crazy in Venice, is to be truly crazy.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it was a Murano glass seashell. The color of the sea sparkling with golden sand.
Your second photo here is driving me totally crazy. Ahhhh, Venice.
I am planning my first visit next year to attend the Venice Summer Art School. I'm bursting with excitement. Don't tell the bank manager.
ReplyDeleteThis are gorgeous spaces and only a beautiful model with even more beautiful dress are missing:) I haven't been Venice ever but it is in my list. I know I would love it.
ReplyDeleteHow did you got your chandelier back Australia or did you ship it separately, it is quite big for hand baggage in the plane.
I adore Venice! It's so, so amazing. No matter how many times you may see it on tv it's nothing like being there in real life. I felt like I was on a movie set! Getting lost taking turn after turn, weaving over bridges and down alley ways... oh, such wonderful memories. I would love to go back.
ReplyDelete~ Clare x
Venice made me do a crazy thing before I'd ever been there – drive all night from Reggio Emilia to spend a few hours in Venice exploring the cold, foggy and haunted city before catching a flight out of Milano the next morning. Very much under my skin ever since and happily, first up on our travel agenda for 2012. Thank you for the incredible images. xo
ReplyDeleteVenice made me do a crazy thing before I'd ever been there – drive all night from Reggio Emilia to spend a few hours in Venice exploring the cold, foggy and haunted city before catching a flight out of Milano the next morning. Very much under my skin ever since and happily, first up on our travel agenda for 2012. Thank you for the incredible images. xo
ReplyDeleteGod I miss Venice. Always. My love affair with Venice also began the second I stepped outside from the train station. I think about it all the time, and I get weepy. I'm weepy right now! It's just such a special place. Unlike anywhere else on earth, in the most amazing, magical ways. The craziest thing Venice makes me do is to want to stay there, forever and ever. And ever.
ReplyDeleteIf I would have been there a few hours longer I KNOW I would have gone back for that ring I saw in a jeweller's window. As it was I will have to make do with the extra handbag I bought (but I still think of the ring!)
ReplyDelete