A scary subway and soggy day

Yesterday when we went for a hike, Jeremy discovered his new hi-tech shoes were not very grippy on the trails and so this morning we walked down town so he could get some grippy Salomon Trail shoes, like mine. It was warm and sunny but the forecast was for thunderstorms so we walked back up the hill for lunch.
My mid afternoon it appeared the storms had passed so we walked back down the hill and over the river to get the gondola up the mountain and then began our descent down by foot.
It turned out that the Thunderstorms and lightening hadn't even begun their dance party and we were only halfway down before 'the heaven's opened'. By the time we got to the bottom we were drenched. We then plodded across town again and back up the hill to finally get back to our Airbnb looking like drowned rats.
Funny.
Still, we managed a few photos along the way...

View behind our Airbnb

View from the top of the gondola

Scary subway entrance under the motorway

Another view from the top of the gondola

Jeremy when he was dry - before the descent and the rain

Meanwhile in a nearby lavender bush an bee does its thing

Trento from above on a soggy day.

Trento

Right now I am in Trento which is one of the nation's wealthiest and most prosperous cities, with its province being one of the richest in Italy, according to Wikipedia. It lies in a wide glacial valley known as the Adige valley, just south of the Dolomite Mountains, where the Fersina River and Avisio rivers join the Adige River (the second longest river in Italy).

           
So we are here to do some hiking and biking. Yesterday we went for our first hike. We got caught in the rain but its so warm it didn't really matter and we were dry within minutes.
Absolutely amazing scenery. Love it. Here are a few pictures.

Passing view on the train. This bit reminded me of Hawke's Bay

Another passing view of an Italian mountainside village

Dressed in my glamorous hiking gear to climb up to the peaks in the background.

A weird scientific ball thingee that we decided was for teleportation

Another glamorous photo. Not.

It was a lovely sunny evening and it turns out a bit of a festive atmosphere the last couple of days as Trento celebrated its annual patron saints day.

A view from our street walking down to town

We caught up with a couple of Jeremy's friends. They used to work with him in NIWA in Christchurch.

Nope I couldn't even get through half of it!

There were some buskers playing and they were great! 

Robot faces and windows

My last day in Venice started off with dark grey thunderstorms, which eventually exploded over the city around lunchtime turning the place into a steamy wet sauna.  Like magic, you could suddenly buy umbrellas and rain ponchos from every shop, and they did a roaring trade. Suddenly there were technicolor ponchos and stick in the eye umbrellas everywhere. Neither were particularly pedestrian friendly in those narrow streets so I ducked into a cafe for a coffee, and then another... and an hour or so later, the storm had passed and next thing it was bright and sunny again!
So anyway, as it wasn't looking the best for photos, I took pictures of letterboxes and windows. The windows were so pretty and the letterboxes looked like faces! They made me laugh as I imagined the personalities saying hi as I walked by...

Man with an eye patch, a mo, and a beard

This one is a female and a singer

He's only got one eye, and a funny nose but lying sideways has made him cranky

He's a robot and he just does his thing

So yes, the sun was shining and Venice was sparkling and my camera began clicking...

Yes I bought another snake. I liked this one best.

Cool coconut by the piece

Murano and Burano in technicolour

So a few things I didn't know about Venice, which I've do now is that it is actually made up of 117 islands within the lagoon, the main part being built on wooden piles, and that, as most of the homes on this part are too expensive to maintain, it is rapidly losing residents and will most likely end up being a tourist only park within the next 20 odd years. Very sad as I think its the local residents who give the place its heart.

Yesterday I took the advice of an old English gentleman I got chatting with on one of the water taxis, and headed out to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is famous of course for the glass works and I got to see some hand blowing and hand sculpting in an overwhelmingly hot glass-works factory. The shops were dime-a-dozen, and some of the peddlers really pushy but I did get a few things (that were cheap, and from the non-pushy ones).

A pretty backstreet in Murano

A pretty canal street in Murano

One of the many ferries that take you between the islands

 So Burano. Yesterday's photos of Venice pale in comparison. Literally. The place is sooo colourful. I loved it. I took loads and loads and loads of photos. Here are just a few of those!

Even the backstreets and private courtyards were colourful

I almost trod on this cat - she/he blended in so well!