A city like none other in the world, for so many reasons. There are only two modes of transportation: walking and boats. No cars or bicycles. Also, everything here is old. Hundreds of years old, which is just a great atmosphere. Unlike other world cities, Venice has no real “must see” or “must do” sites. It’s more of an even experience, all over the place. You can walk in *any* direction and it’s all just as fascinating. It’s not like you are likely to move away from an important area, you just find a new interesting area. There is no pressure, you just go and experience. And when you get hungry, you will find a place to eat. Simple. Easy. Plus for us on a personal note, this is where I asked Siobhan to marry me, so we have those wonderful memories to remember.
Here is what we ended up doing:
In the morning we made our way to San Marco square (the “pigeon” plaza you always see in the movies) and took a tour of the “Doge’s” palace, the seat of government for the Venetian empire.
Very fascinating, plus we got to cross the “Bridge of Sighs” (Under which I proposed to Siobhan as we rode in a gondola)
Afterwards we went to tour the Church at San Marco Square, but the line was too long. That’s ok, we can do that next time! We noticed another tour for bell tower was very short and decided to take that. We weren’t expecting the amazing view from the top, panoramic over the entire island and surrounding lagoon.
It was from this point (although the tower was rebuilt after a collapse in 1902!) that Galileo demonstrated his “invention” of the telescope to the Venetian government.
After that we shopped and ate and ate and shopped and shopped and ate and eventually capped the day with a sunset gondola ride under the Bridge of Sighs.
Pictures lifted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice
