Sunday, October 11, 2009 – Venice

We got up early to get ready to head over to Venice. Again we had to pack up our stuff and bring it to the luggage storage room. Seeing the campground for the first time in the day light we saw how cute it really was.

Here is the registration building. Here is the building were we stayed – after walking around how many times?We then caught a shuttle that brought us to Venice. We did not have much of a plan for Venice, we were just going to wing it. I wanted to take a gondola ride and just experience the city. Of course we were going to hit up the touristy spots, but with it being Sunday, many things were not open, or did not open until the afternoon and we had a 6:00 p.m. flight to catch. In case you keeping track here – yes we did fly three days in a row. So we decided to wonder around with out any specific itinerary.

Venice has a no car policy, but there is a bus station just across the bridge on the edge of the city, that is where everyone is let off to go explore the city. Shannon and I quickly got off the bus and start off to explore.

Shannon and I were pretty excited to be in Venice and started taking lots of pictures of the buildings, bridges and canals.

A cute white bridge A black one Two bridges intersecting We found this picturesque bridge and took some pictures.
Shannon from afar My far shot Shannon close upMe close up. I should probably make a note now that I was not feeling great most of the time in Venice, between my feet that were a mess, being over tired from the craziness of the previous few days, and just not eating right or drinking enough, my head was killing me for the first half of the day. This is one of these details I had forgotten all about, until I went back and looked at the pictures. I look like crap. It is pretty evident that I just don’t feel good at all.

Here are some of the cute buildings in Venice Here is one of the pretty glass lights While we were walking a lady asked us to take her picture on a bridge, we were happy to do that for her and she took one of us in return. Some people walking down a cute little ally. A cute window sill A monument for Leonardo Da Vinci
Some of the cute little canals Another bridge Gondola’s galore!! Here are some up close pictures of one of the ornate gondolas

I love this picture of these people rowing.
A great picture from under a bridge.

The back of the Santa Maria della Salute (The Basilica of St. Mary’s of Health) Our intent was to go to St. Mark’s Square first, but we ended up along the grand canal near the Rialto Bridge so we went there first.

On our way we witnessed some emergency responders taking an elderly woman from her home to an ambulance, a boat ambulance. I have never thought about what an ambulance in Venice was like until now. I was able to get this picture while respecting the privacy of the woman. Here is the Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge (Italian: Ponte di Rialto) is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is the oldest bridge across the canal.

Shannon with the bridge.

Here I am with the bridge – really not feeling good at this point. This is the inside of the bridge – There are little shops on either side of the bridge

Looking down from inside the bridge. This is the grand canal near the Rialto Bridge

It is a very busy area.
Here is a gondola on the Grand Canal.

Next we were going to try to make our way to St. Mark’s Square.