We had originally planned to visit Florence after Rome. However, when we started researching our trip, we discovered that a lot of the famous Florentine museums are closed on Mondays. Because of the importance of art in Florence, we rearranged our trip so we could visit Venice on Monday. The first picture is the view from the train station in Venice. The least expensive means of transportation in Venice is the vaporetto (or water bus). The first few pictures are pictures from our vaporetto as we traveled along the Grand Canal.
We got off the vaporetto at the stop for Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica). The square in front of St. Mark's Basilica is known for having thousands of pigeons. You are not supposed to feed the pigeons, but everyone does. It took me awhile before I was brave enough to feed a pigeon from my hand. Jeff wanted to go in St. Mark's Basilica. Legend has it that in 828, two Venetian merchants smuggled the remains of St. Mark to rest in Venice. Thus, St. Mark became Venice's patron saint, and a chapel was built where his remains are located. St. Mark's Basilica was probably one of the more elaborate buildings that we saw on our trip.
After lunch in Venice, we decided to take a famous gondola ride. One of my dreams was to take a gondola ride in Venice. Thank you, Jeff! Our gondola ride included the Bridge of Sighs, and we got to see Casanova and Marco Polo's home (Casanova's house was the house with the flag and Marco Polo's house was the white house before the picture of our gondolier). Our gondolier actually did sing! In fact, I think he was the loudest on the water. Gondola rides are worth every penny! After our gondola ride, we weaved our way through the tiny streets of Venice back to the train station.
