Monday, September 29
Steve: We said our final goodbyes to Tuscany this morning, and were on our way. Leaving was sad - we've all become very attached to this wonderful place. Knowing that we'll be back helps, but only a little…
The drive to Venice took around four hours, and we arrived with no problems.
There is only one way onto the island of Venice - it's a long causeway that
ends with a whole series of parking garages. Venice is actually built on 120
small islands, and has 150 canals and 410 bridges. There is no way to drive
in Venice - everyone simply parks in one of the garages at the end of the
causeway and takes a boat into the city. For us, that meant 
Vaporetto
#82 from Piazzale Roma, to our stop, Accademia. Vaporettos are the only economical
way to travel along the Grand Canal, and are basically floating buses. Each
ticket cost 5 Euros, while a water taxi would have cost us approximately 70
Euros - so, this is really the 
only
way to go.
We enjoyed our 30-minute ride along the Grand Canal - the variety of buildings
is amazing, and it's fun to watch all the traffic including vaporettos, water
taxis, gondolas and cargo boats. We were amazed at how adept these boats all
seem to be at navigating and avoiding colliding with each other. Our stop
was in Dorsoduro, one of Venice's six quarters. Our hotel was not far from
the Accademia stop, but as we quickly discovered, the streets are impossible
to navigate and finding your way requires a bit of luck. 
After
crossing our first of many little bridges, we found ourselves in front of
Pensione Accademia. The kids were thrilled because it is right on a rio (small
canal) and they can literally touch the water from the window sills of our
rooms. We quickly unpacked and headed out to explore.
We didn't recall much from our trip to Venice 20 years ago, and we were eager
to rediscover this unusual city. We found ourselves very pleasantly surprised
- this is a very magical place. Venice is basically a labyrinth of small streets
and canals, with the Grand Canal being the primary point of reference. We
found ourselves walking and wandering through narrow passageways, over bridges,
through squares and among winding canals. There are all kinds of interesting
cafes, markets and shops here, and we enjoyed watching some of the glass blowing
that Venice is famous for. Sometimes, without warning, the street would simply
dead-end at a canal. Once, we found ourselves in front of an alley that looked
so narrow that we assumed there was no way through - after encouragement from
a passerby, we walked in and were able to pass. David and Katie loved all
this, and quickly decided that they liked Venice! 
Our first walk took us through the Dorsoduro area, which we plan to explore
more tomorrow. This area is much less crowded than the other side of the Grand
Canal, and is a wonderful place to simply explore and get lost. From Dorsoduro,
we made our way toward the famous Rialto Bridge, one of only three bridges
over the Grand Canal and right in the heart of the city. We really enjoyed
lingering on the 
bridge,
watching all the water traffic below and taking everything in. This is so
different from any other place we've been, and we found ourselves enamored
with the whole scene. Katie kept saying that Venice was exactly as she had
imagined and hoped that it would be.
We walked to St. Mark's Square, which is very beautiful but also much more
crowded. We plan to return tomorrow so that we can go inside the cathedral
and palace, but for today we simply walked through and especially admired
the mosaic façade on St. Mark's Basilica. There are a huge number of
pigeons in the square, and several people were feeding them 
and
allowing the pigeons to sit on their arms and heads. We enjoyed taking a picture
of one guy who welcomed a pigeon on his head, and was left with a little present
(check out the photo album for the details...).
The evening was perfect and the sun was just beginning to set, so we decided
to hire a gondola for a ride through the city. The gondolas are 
wonderful,
but extremely pricey - the guy we went with originally wanted 150 Euros for
1 hour (we ended up paying 100 Euros, which was still probably too much, but
time was wasting and the sun was headed down…). In any case, we weren't
going to come to Venice and not take a gondola ride!
Our ride took us all through the city, and we had beautiful views of the
sunset as we began our journey into Venice's canals. Our gondolier pointed
out the most important sites along the way, including several palaces, churches
and the homes of Mozart and 
Marco
Polo.. We started in the large lagoon by St. Mark's, and quickly headed into
Venice's maze of quiet, narrow canals. Despite encountering some water "traffic"
along the way (other gondolas, including several with Japanese tourists who
seem to take a liking to hiring accordion players to accompany them - yuck),
this was a very peaceful and enjoyable experience, and we all thoroughly 
enjoyed
ourselves. After the ride was over, it was nice to hear David say, "I
really really like Venice." While we haven't allowed much time for our
stay here, Paula and I feel good about having shown David and Katie one of
the world's most unique and captivating cities.
Tonight we ate seafood for a change of pace, and got back to our hotel easonably early. We plan to get a full day in tomorrow to walk and further explore Venice.
Distance Walked: 2.96 miles
