Venezia! 💦

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

Days 8 & 9

Everyone knows that Venice is a city of water. Both Amsterdam and Venice were created by channeling water from marshes into canals, to isolate some slightly-more-solid land to build on. It was interesting to compare the two cities.

Buses have to park outside of Venice, so Dimitri piled our group into 3 water taxis for a quick boat ride to our stop at the famous Rialto bridge (behind Mary above). From there, we did the tourist parade to our hotel.

Typical tour gathering outside our hotel before traipsing off on a walking tour/ orientation to the city.

Venice is absolutely packed with tourists dragging luggage through narrow alleys and over tiny, picturesque bridges, so we didn't feel out of place at all 😁

Our local guide explained how each community got their fresh water from rain that was carefully collected in cisterns in their shared courtyards. Usually the cisterns were locked, controlled by a trusted community leader, like a priest or other official.

I love all the sculptures, carvings and images on buildings of all shapes and sizes. It's impossible to capture them all.

We were lucky to visit the workshop of a master artisan who creates masks for Carnevale. He demonstrated the process from clay mold to finished papier mâché piece.

During the demonstration, our guys modeled traditional costumes for Carnevale. Here, Tom is playing the rich master Pantalone.

The word Carnevale (for the days of partying leading up to Mardi Gras) comes from "carne" or "meat" in Italian, since Catholics were expecting to give up meat for Lent. 

Mary and I toured the Doge's Palace, the seat of Venetian government for hundreds of years. In the center you can see part of St. Mark's Basilica extending into the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, a very obvious reminder of the way government and the church were closely intertwined. This theme was also illustrated by the religious paintings covering almost every wall and ceiling in the Doge's Palace.

Here we assure our fearless leader that we were careful, responsible, and prepared travelers (it was HOT).

Mary and I took a special behind-the-scenes tour of an area of the Doge's Palace with its original prison cells, before they built the prison next door, connected by the infamous Bridge of Sighs.

We saw the cells where they held Casanova and heard (a version of) his imprisonment and escape story.

Venice has several 24-hour clocks

We never made it up the tower (which had an elevator!)

We split into small groups for a traditional gondola ride, and our cutest couple ended up on one gondola alone. So Dimitri sent musicians to ride along in their boat, and we all got to enjoy the music 🎶

That's amore!

Venice was the beginning of our HOT destinations. This meant a lot of reorganizing the way we packed our suitcases, and seriously increased our liquid intake. Including aperol spritzes.

The winged lion representing St. Mark is everywhere in Venice. In St. Mark's Square there were so many lions I stopped counting. 

Vying for "most in the piazza" award were the pigeons. This little girl was adorably stalking pigeons - and sometimes her sister - with a squirt bottle. 

Running a close 3rd were the seagulls. Dimitri warned us not to take food onto the piazza, but we saw a swooping seagull pluck frites from a young woman's hand as she carelessly carried them aloft. 

Piazza San Marco in the evening. When the tide is high, water seeps up into the square, creating several large puddles that some visitors love to splash in. Apparently it can get a lot higher, covering the entire piazza.

Music on the square involves dueling ensembles providing entertainment at 3 or 4 different (insanely expensive) cafes. On a warm, breezy evening, it's fun to stroll from one mini orchestra to another (it's amazing what can be done with an accordion, violin, and piano), getting Andrea Bocelli stuck in your head for hours afterwards.

Full moon. My beauty shot. 

Floral inner courtyard of our hotel ( the peachy color on the right)

Taking the public water bus back to our Belgian bus. We were packed in like sardines - or anchovies?

On to Florence.  Andiamo!

- Christine