Day #16 - Day in Venice

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It was a fantastic day in Vencie once we figured out how the city works. I believe I may have been a bot harsh on the water taxi guy, it is expensive to just get onto the canal in any form. Venice has pretty decent water buses but even the public transit is expensive. It costs $28 day per person for a transit pass. If you were staying longer you can but multiday passes that become a bit cheaper. Venice however is pretty compact and if you are staying on the man part of the islands you really dont even need transit. If however, you want to visit some of the outlying islands than you will need to do that (we did not).

We learned a lot about Venice today. For Sydney's birthday I took her to a play which was based on the history of Venice, it was pretty fun. Venice is a city where over 1000 years ago people from the north fleed to escape the Hunns. The built this magnificent city in a mosquito filled marsh land on tiny little islands to escape presecution. The have built it into what it is today. They even stole the remains of St Mark so that they could built a cathedral that rivals St Peters Basillica in Rome. St Marks Cathedral is pretty fantastic but probably does not rival the Basillica in Rome. I am starting to chaul up many saints that I have seen on my travels. I have Seen St Peter, St, Mark and St James. Pretty cool.

Venice has a history of excess and luxury. It was kind of like Las Vegas before there was a Las Vegas, although now it seems much more conservative than in the past. The St Marco Square is worth the visit alone. It is a beautiful square with all sorts of cute shops lining it. We spent a lot of money at those shops. Every street in Venice is filled with something new and exciting. Frequently it is shopping, but sometimes you stumble upon a 1000 year old church, or an opera house, or a museum. I believe everone needs to come and visit Venice at least once.

Other than that there is not much more to tell. Syd and I took some walking tours around the city, we visited the Jewish Ghetto (The word Ghetto orginated in Venice from this neighborhood), we rode the canals, we visited churches, we did lots of shopping.

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Comments

[Evelyn]

Beautiful pictures of Venice.