Have posted pictures of our visit to Venice, La Calcina and Switzerland. Have tried to post to tripadvisor but think they may not like the link.
www.normasells.com/albums/2005-Zurich-Venice

Hope this helps others with their planning.

Good pics ! Wonder if we were at La Calcina at the same time ? We were there 18th-25th June, in rooms 32 & 4.

Nice photos. We stayed in the same room at La Calcina (23) in October 2001. Wish I were there right now.

Didn't arrive until the 29th and boy was it HOT. Was glad for the air. Came back the middle of the day to shower, rest and change clothes.

Be sure and get the Valperetto Pass inside the airport, lower floor to the left toward the back, so you can take the bus and Zattre Valperetto for free from the airport.

We were sure glad we bought that pass in the heat, used it to cool off and get a breeze during our touring. Could hop on and off at will. Used it to go to Murano for free.

Thank you...it was a very nice gesture fo you to take the time to post all the terrific shots!!

Although I would like to claim I do it for Fodors, we have friends and family who like to see where we have been and I like to take pictures-kind of a hobby. So might as well post them for others to see. More information is better and that is what the Internet is. Enjoy!

Fantastic pics Brandsberg... And your detailed pics may have sold me on La Calcina, its one of my favorites, but I hadn't made it THE choice yet.

Did you dine around the area much? Any favorites? Trav

PS, that picture of St. Mark's at night, looks like it had just rained - is amazing! I stole it for my desktop at work

Were there three nights. Ate at La Calcina's restaurant two of the three nights. Most of the restaurants we stepped into were not air-conditioned and it was HOT. The second night we ate at one of the restaurants recommended in one of the books and were unimpressed and it was more expensive.

We went back for the soup and dessert on the 22 euro offering available at La Calcina. That combined with the view and breeze "sold us" to eat there.

And it was raining.

That was unlucky. How much did it rain ? It didn't while we were there, but it was very humid.

Your pix are beautiful and have captured the beauty of Venice. What an eye!! We are staying at La Calcina next April for three nights and these pix have made it even more appealing than ever. Thanks for the post.

Started raining while we were in the square, then let up which gave us just enough time to get back to La Calcina, then rained hard the rest of the night through breakfast. Then stopped and no more rain, so did not impact our trip much. And got the pictures.

Not hard to take good pictures of Venice. Pictures first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon are best for capturing all the great colors of the buildings. I just wish I could paint!

We really liked Murano as well. There is a great art show over by the military base in the park but just ran out of time. We took it easier with the heat than we usually would have doing something like this.
Had a couple of days to relax at my daughter's in Zurich before heading back, which is just as well as we had the flight form Hell on United. They cancelled a flight out of Zurich when it was in Dulles, never informed the Zurich office and we had to stand in line for SIX hours to get rebooked on a flight with a 4 1/2 hour lay-over the next day. Called the local United office and the 800 number in the States and no one would rebook us. Told us we would have to stand in line. We were on USAir frequent flyer tickets. The person behind us had no problem re-booking using the phone on United tickets.

We should have been able to have gotten out the same day if they had handled it correctly.

They had local number for us and an email. We checked both the email and web site before we left and there was no indication of a problem.

And they didn't handle the comps, meals etc. by the rules now in place. Have filed a complaint with them.

bransberg : glad the rain didn't affect you much.

"There is a great art show over by the military base in the park" : for the benefit of travellers to Venice between now & November who might not know about this, I think you are referring to the Biennale, which is the world's most important contemporary art show and was the main reason for our visit.

The two main sites for the Biennale are the Giardini and the Arsenele. The Giardini contain all the permanent national pavilions (c.30). Each national pavilion contains works by 1 or more artists from that country, except the Italian pavilion which contains works by 42 international artists in 34 rooms. The Arsenale contains more cutting edge works by 49 international artists and to me was more interesting. If you want to experience everything at these 2 venues I'd recommend 1.5-2 days for the Giardini and a day for the Arsenale. There are also c.40 other semi-official exhibitions scattered around various sites across the city. The Giardini and the Arsenale are open until November 6th but the other exhibitions are generally on for shorter periods; for example, the Scottish exhibition has now ended.

I'm not sure how long it's on for but to me the most stunning work was the installation by the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist in the church of San Stae.

Hope this may be of interest to someone. (Haven't got round to doing my own trip report !)

www.labiennale.org.

Carolyn,

For those of us not too familiar with the geography of Venice, could you be more specific about the locations of the Biennale. I gather one site is on Burano, but where is the other? Is there a web site that could help? I'd also love more specifics. Thanks.

Margret

The Giardini & the Arsenale are both on the main island, east of St Mark's Square, & the number 1 vaporetto stops at both (en route to the Lido). The Church of San Stae is on the Grand Canal & also has its own vaporetto stop. Let me know if you need any more detail.

The website is www.labiennale.org & there is an English option. It has various maps & stuff but we found the leaflets we picked up there were easier to read !