Venice

Ok here we go. We decided to share our trip by the cities we visited. First off was Venice. We had a 6 AM flight from Phoenix to NYC, an almost 6 hour flight - then a 4 hour layover there. This first picture is us waiting in JFK. Interesting side note - there was a pigeon walking around at our gate in JFK.

A little tired...but that aint nothin' yet... After our 9 hour flight to Venice (arrival time 9:30 AM local time - 12:30 AM back home) we hopped on a water bus to get to the main group of islands. I didn't take a single picture the first day. We lasted until 7:30 PM local time before crashing. Saw a museum, walked around, took a cruise down the grand canal by public transportation.

This is Jess a little more rested the next morning. We were standing on the Rialto Bridge (one of four bridges that crosses the Grand Canal).
Classic early morning Venice shot. This is San Giorgio Maggiore - across the lagoon from St. Marks Square - the main square in Venice. Gondolas are everywhere.

That night we took some night shots of St. Mark's square. The church is from the 13th century I believe (built to house St. Mark's bones brought back by Crusaders). The bell tower collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt.

This is called the Bridge of Sighs - ignore the advertisements. It led from Doge's Palace (Venice's monarch/king/leader's house and Government center of the Venetian Republic) to the prisons across a small canal. The name comes from the sighs of the prisoners as they crossed and caught glimpses of their city through the small windows before being locked up.

Jessica on the morning of day two - with gondolas.

Here's the outside of the Doge's Palace. It's situated on St. Mark's Square.

We climbed the bell tower - well ok, we rode an elevator to the top for the view. It was a little windy, but sunny. The first day was cold and rainy.

View of the entrance to the Grand Canal from the top of the bell tower.

Jessica standing in front of the St. Mark's church. Inside the domes are filled with mosaics and gold leaf everywhere. Pretty ornate.

Here's the Rialto Bridge. It was completed in the late 1500s but a bridge has spanned this section of the Grand Canal since the late 1100s. It's lined with shops to appease the millions of tourists. So are the streets leading up to it.

We boarded an expensive gondola near the Rialto Bridge and went for a 45 minute ride along the smaller back canals of the neighborhood. Our gondolier knew every other gondolier on the route. We passed Marco Polo's house, and Casanova's pad. Totally worth the money.

Our first Gelato! Yummy. Jess has stracitella (chocolate chip)...

...and I went for fragola (strawberry). Heavenly.

This first video is of us in St. Mark's square. You can see how many people were around, even in the morning.

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This video is a short one that we took while riding our Gondola.

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