Venice ( Sunday - Tuesday 29th)

We have not heard from our travelers in a couple of days, but I did manage to open their itinerary and I can see that they are enjoying one of my favorite cities in Italy.   I am not surprised that they don't have time to check in.   This whole place is enchanting.  The grand canal above is really more like a highway through the city.   The gondola's are used by the tourists, but everyone else uses a water taxi.  You can see one at the right of the picture at about 3:00 (location).  Most of the people who work here live on the mainland and arrive ( 6:30am ish) and go home about 4:00 p.m.   Those boats are full of people and travelers.   You might spend the money to take a gondola once, but after that you look for the water taxi.



The Rialto bridge is the center of the city.   All little streets and passages eventually lead to this bridge.   It use to be a market and in the old days if you were a butcher or vendor, what you did not want ( skin, bones, garbage) went over the edge and into the water.   Now it is full of tiny little shops on both sides.  A lot of gold salesman.  There is a walkway on the outside so people can see over the edge.



The streets of Venice are very very narrow, but you still have to get over every street ( all water).  These little foot bridges allow you to walk and let the boats travel under.   Like all small streets the big boats have to let you off at the closest spot for walking.   People who own stores or homes, use little boats or just walk.  Handcarts are used if you have a lot of packages.

















St. Mark's Square


St Mark's Square is such a wonderful gathering spot.  The Duomo (pronounced Doe mo meaning Cathedral)  is on one end and the City building on one side and the Colosseum type thing on the other (All the streets and shops are behind it).  This is a grand meeting spot both day and night.   There is music in the square almost every night and the tower is a hold over from centuries past and had to be structurally fixed while we were there, sort of wrecking the look of that end of the square.

It is fun to sit here at night and listen to the music.   In Italy, if you sit at a chair or table, you pay a table fee.  It may be as low as 1Euro or much much more  ( these are expensive).  But there is always a fee.   We did a lot of standing in Italy.    In France you were expected to sit... they hate the fact that the American's always wanted to take their food and run.















Carol & Dave flew to Paris, and started their trip in Portofino.  They got on the train in Cinque Terre and started their trip to Venice ( both on the west Coast)   Venice is in the North East close to Slovenia and Croatia.