Jane and Kristi Travel Europe 2012: Venice

We arrived to beautiful Venice in the late afternoon Thursday, checked into the hotel and hit the ‘streets’ – a labyrinth of walkways, canals, and bridges over canals. Cars are boats here – ambulances, taxis, buses, even constructions cranes were all boats. We headed over to St. Mark’s square taking a $0.50 gondola across the grand canal. No point to following a map – you just have to get lost in the maze of tall building and church plazas - and hope you are going in the right direction at least. Every place we turned was unique and charming. (The least enjoyable part of Venice was the tourist trap between Realto bridge and St. Mark’s Square. Off that beaten path, though, was the ‘real’ Venice).

St. Mark’s Square at sunset was a site. Thousands of pigeons, competing orchestras, dozens of plaza bars and restaurants, the extraordinary basilica – right off the grand canal with gobs of boat traffic. We went to the 'bus' stop and hopped on a packed boat bus and took the entire grand canal tour with post-sunset colors reflecting off the water and buildings.

Yesterday (Friday) we walked from the southwest side to the northeast side of the fish – Venice is shaped like a fish – taking a while to mosey to the boat dock and then on to Marano and Burano islands. The boats were on strike that morning (the second we experienced); a high school Italian language teacher from Long Island said explained to us the situation and then said - ‘we’ll see – it’ll either come or it won’t.' But, it came right on time. We made it over to colorful Burano islands for a nice lunch and sightseeing before heading back to Venice city.

Our tour of St. Mark’s Basilica was in the afternoon so after a couple of cold beers, we were ready. Afterward, we spent more than anyone ever should to drink a couple wine spritzers on the plaza listening to a lovely orchestra with a view of St. Mark’s. (see the video of this lovely scene below). Very memorable and beautiful. More walking, another boat bus, and then a dinner alongside the canal – Venice was simply beautiful.

We are now on a speed train back to Milan and then north to Zermatt Switzerland – having spent our last evenings in Italy enjoying beautiful Venice. So sad to be leaving Italy...we’ve had a lovely time here.

This afternoon we’ll be in Zermatt for a few nights, then Nimes (French Riveria) for 3 nights and then Barcelona and Madrid…