Venezia

On our way to Venice we stopped in Ravenna to see S. Apollinaire Nuovo - the mosaics there are beautiful and once agains it is hard to imagine spending that much time on something- but it has stood for hundreds of years. One of the things that most upset me was the construction/renovation. A friend and I discussed it - in America, ugly scaffolding covers ugly buildings - but here, ugly scaffolding covers some of the most beautiful architecture and art in the world.

Venice is a city made up of Islands built on MArshlands in the sixth century. How crazy was that idea? but it worked, for a while. Venice is sinking which is unfortunate, the tide comes in and the sweres back up - the city floods, but they are prepared with platform sidewalks at the edges of the main island, through St. Mark's Cathedral and into the city. We had a blast feeding the birds in the square and visiting Doge's Palace - such rich architecture and design in there. I hope we find a way to prevent Venice from sinking completely. That would be a devestating waste of architectural beauty. The whole city is a labyrinth of little alleyways and bridges - thousands of bridges. and little corner shops and marketplaces. We got lost several times and finally found our way back to the water busses, and we loved life in Venice. I finally felt like I was appreciating everything fully, and it was all of a sudden time to get on the water taxi that would take us to the bus that would take us to the airport that would take us to America.