Buon Natale 2011

With no real plans for the holidays, this Christmas Tyler and I decided to check out Venice for the evening. There were a few new guys who just got to Aviano within the past week and Tyler invited them to explore Venice with us. They declined, wanting to Skype with their family for the holiday, but our friends the Gillises and OG happily accepted. With our backpacks full of food and wine (just in case everything was closed) we took the 2pm train from Pordenone to Venezia.

Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy... my husband & Prosecco. Merry Christmas to me!

For those of you who have been to Venice before or who have seen my pictures throughout the past year, you know it is always poppin. Venice is a huge tourist destination in Italia and you can't walk down the street without bumping into people. Christmas Day however is very different. The streets are almost silent and businesses are all closed - even some boarded up. There were a few restaurants and bars opened throughout our walk to San Marco Square so we were able to enjoy a Christmas dinner (pizza and paninis) but for the most part Venice was a ghost town. A gorgeous, amazing, peaceful ghost town... a photographer's dream!

 

 

 

The picture directly above and to the right was my absolute favorite of the day. This is exactly what Venice looks like except usually you can't get a shot without a dozen heads in the way. BELLA.

 

Did I mention it was almost 50 degrees outside? Sure was. Sun sets around 4:30/5pm in Italia and Venice was no different. We enjoyed a few hours of daylight (enough time to make it to San Marco Square) before all the Christmas lights took over. The picture you see above and to the right was taken on the stairs of the Rialto Bridge. If you've been there then you know just how crowded the bridge was not this day.

On our water taxi ride back to the train station from San Marco Square I met a Russian woman, 28, traveling solo on Christmas Day. Apparently she will celebrate Christmas in January... something about Orthodox something or other? No idea. I explained the only Russian I knew was my girl Yeva from Binghamton and she was Jewish. She asked me if I knew any Russian and I only remembered one word and it was a bad one - one I had accidentally said to Yeva our first week together. The woman had never been to Venice before and had met two Chinese women, 20, who spoke 4 languages fluently. They too were traveling the streets of Italia by their lonesome on Christmas. They taught me how to say 'Merry Christmas' in both Russian and Chinese, but I couldn't tell you how now for the life of me. It is people like them - young, educated women especially - that truly inspire me.

 Happy Holidays from the Tauscheks!

 And for those that know me best & love me most...