We had an uneventful trip from Tampa through Kennedy and on to Venice. There was a group of High School kids in the plane in front of us that made me think towards Lindsey's trip this summer.
We tried our best to get some sleep on the plane but for the most part we were awake for most of the night. We did have a nice view of the sunrise over the Alps. Chelsey took some wonderful photos of the mountain tops.
The Venice airport was nice and very easy to navigate. We found our bags and were able to buy tickets for the Water Bus without any trouble. The water bus was rather bus-like and was our first introduction to the city and surrounding areas. Once we landed in San Marco we made our way along the waterfront past the street vendors selling masks and oil paintings and into the San through the San Marco Square which leads you to the Plaza.
San Marco Plaza known for it's huge population of pigeons. There are pigeon food vendors throughout the plaza selling 1 euro bags of corn to feed to the pigeons. What happens once you get your pigeon food and start to feed them is the pigeons flock on and around you. It makes me want to rename the San Marco Plaza the Screaming Plaza as all the girls that try this experience immediately start screaming when the pigeons land on their heads.
The plaza is a beautiful expanse in front of the Basilica de San Marco and also contains the clock tower and bell tower.
We wandered around looking at the shops and stopped to get some take away pannini and a nice apple tort. We had dinner with Steve and Martha at that little pizza place down the way. Did little more shopping and ended the evening in the hotel lounge looking at our photos from the day and recounting our travels from home to Italy.
We awoke in the morning to the striking sound of the bells, and a the sounds of a light rain outside the window by the canal. We started the day at walking through the narrow winding streets of Venice to get to the ?????? Art Museum where we spent the morning viewing the wonders of art from centuries ago.
Next we took the water bus over to the Rialto Market to see the myriad of shopping stalls and outdoor food markets. We picked up a few things and then had lunch in one of the little restaurants. We walked back to the hotel and then were off again for a light dinner at the Cat the Laughs. Finishing our last evening with a recap of the day in photos in the lounge.
