Gondola nights

This morning was something of a late morning. We all slept in and did not get going until around 11:00

We opted to do the big stuff, so we grabbed a seat in St Marks square and went through a Rick Steves audio tour of the square. In his guide book he also suggests that a quick way to bipass the long line to get into the church is to check a bag in baggage storage. They then give you a ticket that allows you to go to the front of the line. After a quick walk to the check in station, we zipped right into the church. Once there, we did the quick Rick Steves audio tour, which was great, and then we took a lift up to the upper floors where the museum was. 

Since we took the lift, we actually began at the end of the tour and had to backtrack. We quickly abandoned the Rick Steve's audio tour of the museum because it was too hard to figure out where he was. There was a portion of the museum which allowed you to go outside and stand on the original rooftop. From there you had an amazing view of St Marks square below, and the grand canal off in the distance. 

After our St. Marks experience, we went back to the room for late day snack of sandwiches. Ed and Diana opted to take a short nap before going out for the evening. Tim and Michelle decided to take a walk, but to toss the map to the side and just"get lost" in the city. It is fun to navigate by landmarks versus streets in a city like Venice. Michelle thinks it is a little like the 80's movie Labyrinth, the one with David Bowie.  Just when you think you are walking down a set of stairs, everything changes. Lanes appear where there shouldn't be, stairs lead to open water and paths cling to the sides of buildings. It is just so surreal, you could spend your entire life trying to see it all.

After about an hour we headed back to get Ed and Diana to go out on a gondola ride. It was about 7:00 at this time, and we were a little worried that we had missed them for the day. Ok, let's be honest, Tim was confident that we would find one, and Michelle was the pessimistic one. We did find one man who was very energetic, and after a little teetering to get into the boat, we were off. Our gondolier was amazing, his dad was a gondolier and he inherited his license from him. He was born in Venice and had been doing this for 23 years. Apparently there are only so many licenses given out, and they are passed from father to son. You also have to train to be a gondolier, and there is a delicate balance between the gondolier community and the motorized water taxies. The gondoliers feel like they are preservationists of culture. One, because they continue the long tradition of having a person ferry others around (they are the original water taxis) and two, because of their presence the motor boats have to go slower, thus limiting the noise polltion and the damage the waves do to the houses. He was great at answering questions and was a very charming man. 

After our little boat ride, we ate dinner at a small sports bar. They had amazing bread, Michelle had some good soup, Ed and Diana enjoyed the spaghetti and Tim enjoyed the Italian beer. The rest of the meal (there were three total courses for each person) was unremarkable. We were quickly off for bed, as we knew we had an early morning of packing and checking out. We are off for a train ride to Milan tomorrow, our last city. We fly out of Milan on Thursday, and will be home Thursday evening in the states. My how time flies!