In planning my most recent trip to Venice I decided to do something I had never done before.  While souvenirs in the city are aplenty, one begins to see the same things over and over.  I wanted something unique.  Something I knew the story behind and had a hand in creating.

All over the house I have pictures of Venezia.  Some are paintings I bought, some I have found in flea markets and some passed down by relatives.  These decorations include a few photographs that I had scanned and printed from original turn of the century glass slides.  Yes, the slides are actually squares of glass with pictures on them!  The images are of Venetian monuments and scenery.  I decided I wanted to stand in the same spot as the photographer, see what they saw and frame the photo just as they did 100 years earlier.  Of course everything else would be different; the technology, the tourism, the means of travel, but for that one brief moment, I could connect with an artist long since gone.

I made sure to scan the glass slides so that I had digital copies of each and saved them to the phone that I was going to be carrying around.  Jen and I then took a look at maps to see some of the locations and where the point of view might be.  This planning process got us even more excited for our trip!

Once we were in Venice, it was a fun activity to find the areas for the pictures and then the exact location to make the best reproduction. When the time came to take the pictures, having the image from the glass slide on my phone was invaluable to get as close to the framing as possible.  Both Jen and I took quite a few pictures each to make sure we wouldn’t be disappointed when we got to inspect them on a full sized screen at home.

In the end it was a fantastic trip and we were able to take away one of the most unique souvenirs from the place we love.  While the picture of the Rialto was very difficult to get because of the changes in the docks over time, I am very pleased with how the pictures came out.  Take a look at the pictures for yourself and let us know what you think.  We’d love to hear your thoughts!

We highly recommend that you attempt this unique souvenir opportunity yourself.  We’ve have a link for active listings of glass slides of Venice for you to take a look through on our Tips Page.  You can even search your other favorite destinations and create these special memories all over the globe.  It could be the beginning of a fantastic adventure that’s only a click away!