Here we were at last...Venice! City of history, gondolas and beautiful architecture. After having seen it in so many movies, magazines and television shows--we felt as if we were in a dream, wow! Naturally, we had a list of places we wanted to visit, and activities to do. But first, we had to check in at the hotel. And what a beautiful hotel. It was once a "palazzo" so it looked very regal, the furniture and the decor made us feel like nobility. Our room had windows facing one of the canals, which we liked, as we kept them open just to hear the songs of the gondoliers.
Venice is a jewel of a city, unfortunately it's also a large labyrinth, a maze composed of alleys, a million little bridges, twists, turns, and dead ends that can drive you insane and leave you wandering around like a lost soul trying to find salvation. Which meant -- that the walking map we had of the city -- was worth its weight in gold, because without it -- we were nothing. Just a bunch of tourist aimlessly walking in circles trying to find out how the heck to get from point A to point B.
But, we had our map, so we ruled! Naturally this meant that we had to consult the map for every step we had to take -- but hey...it kept us from getting lost. After many wrong, turns (even with the map) we finally made it to St. Mark's Square. It was packed! There were so many people that one could barely move, so we decided instead to go to Murano, and come back later to the Square.
After Murano, we came back to St. Mark's in the late afternoon, it wasn't as crowded, so we were able to enjoy it better. We particularly liked the photo-ops with the pigeons. These guys would be walking around with their cameras and bags of bird seeds and tell you they could take the picture of you with pigeons on both your arms.
They would tell you to stand still and hold your arms out, as if forming a cross, then they would put the bird seeds on your arms -- and of course, a gazillion pigeons would land on your arms. The guy would take the picture and sell it to you. Which, of course you would buy because -- hey, this is what you did in Venice, and you had to show the folks back home that you were really here.
