Venice, Italy, May 2013

Our last stop, Venice!  What a great place to end our vacation!  It was everything we dreamed of and more.  We took the train from Florence early in the morning so that we could maximize our time in Venice.  We only got two nights here whereas the other stops were all three nights.  It was rainy and chilly, but we stilled ventured on.  It was absolutely incredible!

We loved the canals and bridges.  The water buses were a great way to travel up and down the Grand Canal.  Shortly after we arrived and unpacked, we hopped on a Vaporetto (water bus) and put in our ear buds and listened to Rick Steves' Grand Canal Audio Tour.  It was very interesting.  Venice really is sinking.  The first floors on most of the buildings aren't usable any longer because of the water damage.  The buildings are crumbling, but the history and beauty are intact.

The Rialto Bridge

The beautiful Venetian Gondolas.  We didn't ride on one, due to weather mostly, but they are a lovely sight, especially on the little back canals.

St. Mark's Square--lots of constructions and lots of puddles.  It was very rainy!

How Nancy looked most of the trip.  She took nearly 4,000 wonderful pictures!  Can't wait to get our book that she's going to make with the best of them!!  She has an incredible eye for detail and beauty.

One of the best things we did was to take a 4-hour boat tour of the nearby islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello.  They were very beautiful and uncrowded.

Murano is famous for their glass.  We watched a glass blowing demo where the man made this horse.

Beautiful, rural Torcello

The lovely island of Burano is known for it's brightly colored houses and for their lace.

So we didn't get to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but we did get to see this leaning tower!

Back in Venice, we caught the last elevator to the top of the tower in St. Mark's Square.  The views were amazing!  The interesting thing was you couldn't see the canals from that height!

The pigeons in St. Mark's Square.  They have gotten rid of most of them, but they are starting to come back.  They were very friendly!

On our last night, we had a snack and listened to the orchestra play in St. Mark's Square.  We had hoped to do some dancing, but it was just too cold.

On the Vaporetto on our way to the airport!  We are sad to say goodbye to beautiful Italy, but it's always good to go home!  We had so much fun with Nancy and Dale and we thank them for being the fun, experienced travelers who helped us with so many great tips that made the trip perfect!

Arrivederci!  We hope to return someday!