It’s always a bit of a shock to see  big cruise ships sailing into the Venice Lagoon.  These ships are 10+ stories high, and tower over buildings on either side of the lagoon. Although they aren’t allowed to go down the Grand Canal, they are allowed on a parallel canal that splits off from the Grand Canal just beyond St. Mark’s Square. In June we were standing on the adjacent Lido island as a ship came up and started down toward St. Mark’s Square. From our vantage point, the ship looked taller than the St. Mark’s Bell Tower, but that was a trick of the angle. However, that bell tower is not all that much taller than the ship. I’m just saying – these monster cruise ships are big.

In addition to churning up the floor of the channels and canals around the Venetian islands, these ships also cause flooding as they displace so much water that the  lower-levels of buildings flood as they pass by the main “tourist” section (i.e. St. Mark’s), headed toward the other side of town, as it were, where the docks are located.

Anyway, in the photos below, you’ll see one of the monster cruise ships headed toward the St.Mark’s Square, aided by a tug boat, and surrounded by the normal sized boats, which almost look like toys compared to the cruise ship.

Note that the last photo in the gallery is a glimpse behind the curtain, as it were. That is, it’s an un-retouched photo.  One thing that was striking as I reviewed and processed the photos today was that, much like yesterday’s Iceland photos, the sky was unusually blue after some re-touching. I didn’t colorize any photo; it’s just a result of getting rid of the haze that existed in real life on the days we were in Venice. If only one could flip a switch to clear the haze in person, rather than just in the photo after the fact, eh? But at least I can do it later in my digital darkroom. 😉

Enjoy.