A dream come true

A view of St. Mark's Square.
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Ever since I was a child and first saw a picture of Venice, I had always wanted to go there.  The idea of city built completely on water has always fascinated me.  Venice completely lived up to (if not surpassed) my expectations!

Our bus driver, pulled up to the public docks outside of the city limits.  The docks were located in an industrial parkway near several oil refineries. In the polluted water was garbage and I was beginning to doubt that Venice would be all that I had anticipated.  We boarded our chartered water taxi and I made sure to get a seat in the very front of the boat.  As soon as we rounded the bend into the Grand Canal, tears began to flow from my eyes. I believe that my eyes remained dewy for the rest of the day too! Seeing this city was a dream come true for me.  It is the most magical place that I've ever been.

The "Bridge of Sighs" as seen from a gondola. Condemned prisoners would take their last look of Venice here before going to jail.
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We met up with our local guide who took us to St. Mark's and told us the history of the city.  Because Venice was built in marshlands the entire city rests on a series of petrified wooden, vertical sticks.  It is an amazing thought when you see the sheer size of St. Mark's alone! After going inside of the cathedral, our group was escorted to a glass factory where we witnessed the art of glass blowing.  This was another kickback sight for the charter group but it was very interesting anyhow. We left here and were able to explore a lot of the city on our own before we had to join the group again in the late afternoon for our serenaded gondola ride.

The three of us in a Venetian park..The tube I'm holding contains the painting I purchased.
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Most of our free time, was spent souvenir shopping in the square but we also managed to find a small, local park too.  I purchased an acrylic painting by a local artist to take home.  I spent more money than I had anticipated but the artist also gave me a good deal.  Now for the rest of my life I will never be able to forget how amazing Venice was.

At around 4:30, we met the rest of our group and we were all divided up to go into 4 separate gondolas.  The three of us were put in a boat with two college aged students in our group from down south.  One gondola carried a few of our tour group members with some local musicians.  A man in their boat sang typical Italian songs like "O Solo Mio" and "Santa Lucia" as we drifted through the street canals of Venice.  Whenever he would end a song, he would be applauded by our group in the four gondolas as well as anyone who could hear him on the bridges throughout the city.

One of Venice's many streets.
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Our gondolier (the man rowing our gondola) was pretty annoying.  He talked on his cell phone while steering the boat and periodically yelled out to other gondoliers that we passed along the way.  At one point he wasn't paying attention and almost got knocked off the boat when we came to a bridge! Despite his rude behavior we all seemed to enjoy the experience a great deal.  Eventually we arrived back at the dock and it was time for us to leave.