Venice – Days 8, 9 & 10
What to say. We had relatively low expectations for Venice. We’d heard comments like “too dark,” “too smelly,” and “too dirty.” We experienced none of the above. In fact we’d return to Venice in a heartbeat.
We have visited a number of cities in the Baltic area who try to lay claim to being the “Venice of the North” – St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Brugges, etc. Their claims are not even close. It is one thing being a city with a bunch of canals, it is another being a city that would be lost without them. All of their infrastructure is canal centric – garbage trucks (boats), cement trucks (boats), taxis (boats) busses (boats), fishing (boats – oops well duh). Truly amazing, and it works. One very big side benefit is that you don’t spend time looking over your shoulder wondering when the next bus, car, motorcycle will run you over like we did in Firenze or Roma.
We also learned about the Doges (AKA Dukes) who ruled Venice for almost a thousand years. Their home, the Palazzo Ducale is breathtaking, as is the Basilica San Marco next door. Every direction you turn in the Piazza San Marco is beautiful.
The six of us took a two hour water taxi ride in and around the city and saw Venice’s beautiful landmarks from whole new perspectives.
I ended up taking about 300 shots in Venice alone. I am only posting a few. Many more from Venice and our trip in general can be found at Photos. I’ll end this final entry of our trip with some early morning (6AM) shots of the Piazza.
