Today we went on a high speed train to get just outside of Venice. I was very excited because this was the city that I was looking forward to visiting the most. When we stepped out of the train station we saw small boats going across the grand canal. An arched bridge took us over to buildings that looked as though they were floating on the water.
We took a break for lunch and I got a tiramisu while I watched the boats go back and forth. We walked to meet our tour guide who took us on a walking tour of the city.
The alleyways were very narrow and every so often we would walk up an arched bridge to get to another “island.” We paused in a square where every building was once owned by the explorer Marco Polo. There are no cars or bikes in Venice, and so it was peaceful to be able to walk without worrying about traffic. It was very crowded with tourists, however, who crowded around shop windows to take a look at the hand blown Venetian glass that was sold almost everywhere.
A highlight of our tour was a bookshop where cats roamed among the books and postcards.
We then went to St. Mark’s Square, the entrance to Rome. We saw the Doge’s Palace, a building where Venice’s rulers, the doges, would stay. The winged lion, the symbol of Venice, were everywhere. We watched an enormous clock with a bell tower announce that it was 4 pm, so we headed over to a dock for a gondola ride.
We were all a bit shaky getting into the gondola but before we knew it we were off. We did a loop along a main waterway, passing buildings and wondering how likely it would be for the boat to tip. We took in the architecture and admired the “water doors” which were used for people living in Venice to have easy access to their boats. Our gondolier was silent, except to tell me to move over a bit more to the right so we wouldn’t tip. We eventually turned down an “alleyway” and went under several bridges where people watched us pass. Pedestrians would be on the walkways above us, and it was a much more peaceful way to admire the city.
We then had some free time, and we walked into some of the shops and around the city. We then met and realized that we were going to be late for the train. All of us ended up running just to catch the train. We then got to our hotel outside of Venice, which was interesting to say the least. It was three small cots shoved up against each other. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night.