Venice - the floating city

Chio!

We're back in Italy again and I have discovered my favourite city - Venice.  I could stay here for ever...unfortunately it is apparently sinking.  All the more reason for you to make travel plans for the near furture.

From the ferry we toured into Verona to visit Juliette's balcony.  They have a statue of Juliette in the courtyard and the legand says that if you rub her right breast you will have good luck in love for the rest of your life.  They also say that if you hid a note in the courtyard with a wish it will come true.  There were lots of love notes posted in the archway as you entered the courtyard.

That night we arrived in Venice but we had to wait until morning time to catch a ferry for full exploring.   We arrived by ferry to a stop that looked identical to a bus stop, except that it was floating.  We walked over the bridge of sighs on the way to St. Mark's square.  The bridge was so named as it connects the prison to the court house and they say that you could hear the sighs of the prisoners as they returned to the prison after their court date.

First main stop of the day was a glass-making demonstration where we watched a man make a vase in about 2 minutes.  Really pretty and quite impressive.  Firey ovens and everything.  From there we went to the last lace making school in Venice.  I had no idea how much work went into table doilies.  The lacemakers can spend more than 8 months on a single piece and to keep prices reasonable the government has begun to subsidize the wages of lacemakers.

Katie and I then climbed the Campanile Tower in St. Mark's square.  Side note: the square is completely filled with pigeons and they´ll climb all over you, sit on your head, perch on your arms and everything.  They have no fear whatsoever.  I have decided that I´m afriad of pigeons in mass populations...  back to the tower - the views were awesome - panorama of the whole city.  Kaite and I stayed up there a while.  Eventually we came down and made our way to the markets over the Rialto bridge.  Lots of glass jewelery, shoes, and very ritzy clothing stores.

Later that afternoon we had a gondola ride through the city.  Some of the girls were expecting cable cars through the mountains...not here though, these gondolas are the ones that men wearing stripped shirts drive with a pole through the winding waters.  Highlight of the day - I got to steer the gondola!  I didn´t last very long on my own.  I think the man was afriad I´d drop his pole (they´re quite heavy).  He checked first to make sure I didn´t have a boyfriend and then invited me to stand with him and help steer the boat.  Lots of fun.  Luka (the driver) explained to me that he was the 6th generation of gondoliers and he was looking to make a 7th generation and would I be interested in staying in Venice with him.  As much as I love the city, I declined his gracious offer to make babies.  unbelievable.  We took the rides in groups of 6 and the people I was with took some good pictures and video the whole scene.

After the gondola rides most peoplefound a sit down restaurant and had very expensive meals,  not me though - I had more exploring to do.  A couple hours later I met back up with Claire and Katie who had just made friends with some men from Mexico.  Katie does fairly well with spanish as she works at a Tex-Mex restaurant back in Texas.  The men were on their way to the world cup game and gave us the embroidered Mexico bracelets they had brought from home. Makes for a nice keepsake...who would have thought I´d be bringing that home from Italy...

That wraps up our beautiful day in Venice.  I love this city.

Chio,

Laura