Leslie conquers Venice!

Bongiorno from beautiful Italy...

I have been in Italy for about a week now.

On the 10th I flew from Madrid to Venice.
From the airport you must walk through a long, outdoor walkway
to the dock where you pick up the local water taxi.

I am sure Mom and Dad remember this. You chug along, engines loudly grinding away,
slamming into pier after pier. Finally they pull up to Piazza San Marco.

Its a pretty awe inspiring sight. Walking up the dock and down past vendors, the Piazza opens up in front of you. The Doge's Palace dominates the right side, followed by the incredible Basilica San Marco.
On the left a huge bell tower soars up into the sky.
The opening is flanked by two tall pedestals with statues of St. Christopher and the winged lion of the Venetian republic.

The Piazza is about two football fields long in all. Across from the Basilica the square stretches out, blanqueted by pigeons and laughing tourists. It is lined by a long arcade with shops and three outdoor cafes that play music at night.

My hotel was only a few blocks away, down a back street and over a little canal.
The hotel Riva is small but has lots of atmosphere. My room was all the way on the
top floor-which means lugging your suitcase or tired tourist feet up many flights of stairs as they didn't have an elevator. My room was very comfortable. It had an incredible view looking out over the canals where gondoliers glided past, singing and chatting back and forth. It didn't have airconditioning but the fan proved to work fine. Here is the view fm my window.


Venice is hard to describe with only words. There is an atmosphere there. It has so much history. Even the tourist hordes(and I do mean hordes) couldn't ruin things.

I would get out early in the morning just as the sights opened, take a little nap when it got hot and crowded, and then go out for dinner in the cool of the evening.
The clocktower has an elevator to the top. I went up there toward the end of my
first day. A storm rolled in, fast and furious. As the wind began to howl around us everyone began to laugh and scream. I waited for the huge bells to ring. Wow!

The Second day I went through the Doge's palace. The Doge was elected by the powerful people in Venice. They controlled a huge amount of power but were restricted to the palace and could not leave without the councils permission.At one point I saw the little side passageway that the Doge used to go from the palace to the Basilica for Mass.

The Basilica was probably the most impressive church I have ever seen. I stood in the entrance, gazing up at the gold-leaf mosiac ceilings with my mouth gaping open, for at least 10 minutes. The entire interior is covered in mosiacs like this.
The floor was done in marble mosiacs that sloped down toward the center of the building, apparently because the supports under the edges of the building are stronger. I saw the stunning golden altarpiece, encrusted with rubies and sapphires. Then I went up to the top where a small museum explained the construction and stepped out onto the balcony overlooking Piazza San Marco. Huge bronze horses(actually copies as the real ones were inside to protect them) dominated the front entrance staring down at the line of tired, sweaty tourists. I stayed and watched the clocktower across the way change over.

The food in Venice was very good but seriously expensive. After my first meal turned out to be much more than I had thought it would be I began to economize. Still I never came close to being hungry. I went to several markets. The picture here is some fruit that is actually made of Marzipan(almond paste). So real looking. I ate my final meal canalside at sunset just down from the Ponte Vecchio. Pretty incredible!