Venice day1

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A long flight that was very smooth put us in Venice, Italy. City of canals, churches , ciccheterias, restaurants & bars. Venice was born in the late 5^th century and has endured many different cultures and dynasties. We took a shared water taxi from the airport to our hotel (Gabrielli) which had our room facing the lagoon. The lagoon is the super highway in Venice with the Grand Canal being a 4 lane arterial road and the rest of the 150 canals connecting the 118 islands that make up Venice. The shared taxi gave us an overview of what we were looking at for the next few days. It is hot but we can deal with the heat. It’s the humidity that is the killer. We had time to drop to drop our bags and scoot out for our 1^sttour. Wine and tapas like food called cicchetti (pronounced chick at tee). Too many different foods to list and all of the wines were great! Even discovered a Venetian drink called a Spritz (wine, sparkling water and a liqueur) very refreshing. Heading back to the hotel we weren’t familiar enough to find water bottles until we got back to the hotel and I ended up paying the price (calf and shin cramps in the middle of the night). When we did find some water it was in a stand by the water that also served beer.No wonder we were tired, they have over 400 bridges here.

What an archaic culture we come from in North America.

Tomorrow we move over to the ship.

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Photos

Canal
love the different coloured poles which used to identify the different family residences

Cicchetti
ham with cheese - deep fried

Cicchetti
Crostini with different meats, melon slices & cheese

San Marco Square
night time and it is still busy

Snack stand
serves all kinds of drinks.. water, wine beer. Right out on the edge of the docks