"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one go." - Truman Capote

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If I don't come home in August, it is because I have run away to Venice.

We came in by train to Venice on July 4th. No fireworks for us this year. Once we got into Venice, we had to take a waterbus to Lido where we stayed. We had dinner and stood outside one of the many open air cafes with the Italians to watch the German-Italy game. We were totally going for Germany (silently, as not to provoke any of the Italians standing around - they were incensed!). Sadly, Germany lost when Italy scored at the very end. Everyone around us when crazy, jumping up and down, chairs overturned, the usually riding down the streets on the mopeds honking the horns, etc. Everything we've come to expect from Europeans and their football.

The next morning we took the waterbus back to Venice and did a walking tour. Venice is made up of about 120 different island connected by bridges and boats. We started out in St. Marc's Square. If you've seen The Italian Job, you've seen a tourist-less version of the square. There were tourists crawling all over the place. Obviously. The Doge's Palace is a large white builiding in front of St. Marc's Basilica. We didn't get a chance to go in, but we could see the Giant's Staircase from the outside. We got to skip the ridiculously long line to get into the Basilica because the tour we were on. There are these amazing murals done on the ceiling with tiny pieces of glass and they have a gold sheen to them.

On the tour we went through a bunch of narrow streets into less touristy areas of the city. Narrow streets will open up to a piazza which generally has a church and a sistern. It's where people take their children to play because they don't have parks. We saw Marco Polo's house and the tour ended at the Rialto bridge.

After we had lunch, we did finally got to do it. Yes, we rode a gondola in Venice!!!! I was ridiculously excited about it!! I have wanted to go on a real live gondola ride in Venice for forever and I finally go to! Supposedly it was a 40 minute ride but it when much too fast. Our driver guy had skillz. You should have seen the way he turned that thing. He would get so close to corners when we turned I couldn't put my hand between the building and the boat, but the boat never touched a building once. p.s. did I mentioned that I loved the gondola ride? because I did.

After that we kind of just got lost in the maze of the city. some old guy creeped us out waiting for the vaporetto. We got back to Saint Marc's Square. I hate birds and there were pigeons everywhere. Hundreds of them. I'm not sure if there were more tourists or birds. Even though I hate birds, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to buy some bird food from one of the vendors and feed them. That was quite an experience. Those birds came after me, flying at me, landing on me. I hope I don't catch the bird flu. Jennifer wanted no part of feeding the birds.

I've always heard that Venice is dirty and the water is disgusting, etc. The water definitely wasn't clear but it was much better than I was expecting. I only saw a couple of pieces of trash floating around (no doubt tossed in by one of the tourists). It really is a beautiful city.

Our last day in Venice we just walked down to the beach on Lido. It was a very nice, well-maintained beach. We hung out on the cement frame of what was once a pier and read until it was time to catch the Alilaguna to the airport. The airport was a bit of a fiasco because we were flying Ryanair and their airport is a 60 euro cab ride away from the other airport as we found out the hard way.

Well, its getting late and this is already so long, the tales of Frankfurt will have to wait.

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Photos

View from the Train
Somewhere between Rome and Venice

Looking towards Venice
A shot from Lido

St. Marc's Square from the Vaporetto
The white building on the right is the Doge's Palace and right behind it, sticking out a little to the left is St. Marc's Basilica

The Bridge of Sighs
Way way way in the back you can see an enclosed bridge. It was used to take prisoners to prison.

The Driver
The Rialto bridge is in the background

Being Attacked
This is why Jennifer was not interested in feeding the birds.