Day 20, Venice, Italy

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Day 20: Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Venice, Italy

Yeah, writing this 12 days later so I'm going to be just going off of what pictures I took. So, Venice, riiiiight.

Our hotel was back on the mainland so we had to take a taxi boat to the main island of Venice. Sadly, a couple of years ago, the people of Venice held a funeral for Venice because most people live on the mainland now and commute to the island (if they go there are at all.) So, they feel that their city has died. So, we take a boat over to their dead city. I dunno, I liked it, but I don't know what it was like before.

Dave takes us on a very quick walk, past a horse statue whose picture I can find online but not the name, and into the Piazza San Marco. This square is where, among many other things, you will find two columns/pillars and between them is where they used to hold executions. So, it's considered bad luck to walk between the two columns, and I can't believe how that stayed on my mind while I was in the piazza. I kept looking up going "oops- where am I? Am I by a column?"

Another fun fact about Venice is that it's flooding (Dave insists it's not sinking.) So in the morning, the street level is covered in water and they set up make shift bridges for you to walk around on. A few hours later, everything is dried up again.

We head off to a glass demonstration and watch a guy make a horse figurine out of a blob of hot glass in no time flat- pretty impressive. We all linger and look at the glasses and jewelry (I pick up a pair of earrings as a gift- enjoy!) and then head out to explore Venice. First up is the Rialto Bridge. Very pretty bridge and I annoy the gang by insisting on various pictures of them all. We then head on up the
Campanile di San Marco and get a great view of Venice.

Next up is our Gondola ride excursion. This was cool, and it reminded my American tourist mind of the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Nice and relaxing. After the gondola ride, Natasha and I crash at a coffee shop while the others go thru the Palace or Museum or some other thing that didn't interest us. I'm museumed/palaced/churched out. We then meet up with Dave and the rest of the group and water taxi it back to the hotel. Say goodnight Gracie.

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Comments

[chris]

You left the water running and flooded Venice?
Goodnight Gracie! Was the horse stature the Vittorio Emanuele monument?

[Sam]

Gratzie!
Was there in June, no flooding then! WOW! XOXO

[elly]

wow
beautiful fotos!! brava!! elly