Just back from a wonderful trip to London, England and Venice Italy.  I lived in the United Kingdom in my 20s and have not been back for a while so it was a real joy to revisit some of my favorite places again. My oldest and dearest friend Simon lives in London as well. While planning our visit over we discussed the possibility of flying to Venice, Italy for 5 days and when we realized that Venice was an easy 2 hour flight, we took advantage of it!

We stayed in the Splendid Venice Hotel, just minutes from  the Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal.  The photos of Venice always show a romantic couple kissing in the piazza with not a soul in sight. This was not the case for us as we watched gargantuan cruise ships slip into Venice and unload passengers 5000 at a time into the narrow streets and waterways of ancient Venezia. My challenge as a photographer was to try to get shots of the real Venice, away from the tourist mobs. So I did just that, in two ways. First I went out to the Piazza San Marco at 2am and discovered that I had it all to myself… well, apart from a few very drunk Italians singing at the top of their lungs. It had rained all day and was quite sad for photos but in the evening the rain ceased and the streets sparkled under the yellow lights of the piazza.