Venice--Part 1

So, you may recall that a long time ago (In April, which seems like it was ages ago), we went to Venice. It was a good trip but very tiring. I won't do a day-by-day, because I'll be lucky to get the photos posted before we leave for the Southeast this week. But I slogged through the pictures and picked a few.

Venice really is a wonderful city, but it's tough on little ones. As Laurel says if you ask her whether she likes vacations: "Yes, but 'bah-cation' makes my legs tired."

So, here we go with the recap.

We arrived on a Sunday and grabbed a water taxi into town. Travel is a pricey business in Venice. For us, the minimum price from the airport to town via ferry was going to be 46 euro. By bus to Piazzale Roma (the bus terminal on the edge of town) would have been about the same. Those two propositions would have involved schlepping our bags over bridges and through alleyways for the final stretch, so we decided to just grab a taxi right to the hotel's boat dock.

This is the northern edge of the city. To the right, those yellow boats are ambulances, docked at the city's main hospital.

Floating to one's hotel this way is very pleasant--under bridges and through narrow canals.

After getting to the hotel, we decided to explore our way toward San Marco Square.

The sun was just starting to set when we got there. This is the Doge's Palace on the left.

A nice lady offered to take our picture.

San Giorgio Maggiore across the water.

After looking around a bit, we started back toward the hotel--about a 10-minute walk.

The walk took us over bridges and through alleyways.

We stopped at a restaurant* near the hotel and then turned in to bed.

*(A quick note about the restaurants. Dining in Venice can be exorbitant! Oh my goodness. Many places tacked on a cover charge just to sit down. We cut down on the expenses by having fabulous takeout pizza from Peter Pan pizzeria in our room on a couple of evenings. We lunched on brought sandwiches in boat docks on a couple of days. But you have to do that discreetly, because picnicking is against the law everywhere but in one park! Why is it so expensive? See below.) This is what you get in Venice. Canals. And foot bridges. Everything you eat has to come in on small boats and then be loaded onto a hand truck or carried. Very labor intensive. The picture above is the view from our hotel room window. The location allowed us to observe "traffic," such as it is, in Venice.

While Alan and I watched the swarm of boats, the girls started their mornings watching Italian cartoons. Yes, that is an English-Italian dictionary Meggie is holding. She wanted to use it every morning ("so I can understand").

After the girls watched and looked up their cartoons on Monday morning, we headed to the nearest vaporetto (water bus) stop and across the bay to San Giorgio Maggiore to climb the bell tower.

San Marco Square is beautiful from across the bay! And much less crowded. :o)

Venice is a popular cruise port. That's a Celebrity ship off in the distance.

The outer canal.

Another way to get around--the ubiquitous gondolas.

Later that evening, we walked from our hotel back to the Rialto Bridge to take in the views.

Venice glows at night.

Next up: To the islands!