9/26 Venice

Train stuck at Bologna and Peter past the time by singing the Oscar Mayer Bologna Song. (Listen.)Arrival in Venice. Not much problem finding a hotel, although it is more expensive that we wanted. We both fell in love with Venice. Got lost on the narrow streets way too many times. No cars. No scooters. No bicycles. Very beautiful city and the tranquility...

Piazza San Marco. Take the elevator up the clock tower for a magnificent view of the entire city. Beautiful Sunset from the tower.
 
Sitting by a small canal. San Marco Square at sunset.
Street scene By the water Piazza San Marco 
 

9/27 Venice

Got our waterbus pass. At L.30,000 for 3 days and comparing to a single ticket price of L.4,500, it is a great deal. The waterbus lines are very easy to follow. Most of them run along the Grand Canal and you get to most of the sight-seeing places along the way--Rialto bridge, Academia bridge, Piazza San Marco. The two numbers you need to remember are #1 and #82. One if an express and the other one makes more stops.
 
Yulin on a gondola. The gondolier sounded like Arnold.
Waterbus stop.
Yulin on a gondola
 

Lots of pigeons on Piazza San Marco and there are vendors selling L.1,500 bags of bird seed for attracting the birds.

Gondola ride. L.80,000. Cash. Wow.

From the top of San Giorgio, you can see clocktower on San Marco Square in the background.San Georgio. Very small island with a big church. Another tower to climb (with elevator too). Worth it if you have the time. Gondolier told us that there is at least one church on each island because the people are very religious and (in the old days) don't want to have to travel to another island for church service.

Murano. Glass factory. Long boat ride. Much quieter than the main islands. Many glass galleries. Watch out for high-pressure sales tactics in some glass show rooms. Don't accept those "free" tour of Murano offeres. Take the waterbus yourself.

9/28 Venice

Search for Olive Bread. Most stores are closed on Sundays.

Palazzo Ducale on Piazza San Marco. It is well worth it. The exhibits show you how to read the columns on the square and see the differences between columns.  Each one of them is different! It includes a walk over the Bridge of Sigh and a visit to the old jail too. Be careful not the miss the passage through Bridge of Sigh. It is a really really tiny passage way which you can easily miss.  If you are seeing only one museum in Venice, it is this one.

Narrow street leading to Trattoria Altanella on Giudecca.Based on the recommendation of Andreas (of NetGravity), we had dinner at Trattoria Altanella on Giudecca. The place is really charming. Dining on their back porch overlooking the water under candle light (and only candle light) is really romantic. We learned that there are many styles of Tiramisu. In Florence, they are a bit more watery, but Tiramisu in Venice is more solid and creamy like the ones in the States.
 

9/29 Venice

Il Paese dei Balocchi (Cristina & Francesca)
30135 Venezia
S. Croce 764/c
Tel. 041/71.69.63

This is the store where we bought a gold leaf Italian Sun. And we had a long talk with Francesca. Her English is great and she is very friendly too. She showed us how she lay the gold leaves on papier mache, Italian history and culture. It is great.

Shopping for glass sculpture finally brought us back to Murano and we left with a L.1,000,000 piece of glass sculpture which is now sitting in our living room.
Nice day at Venice.Peter showing off his tour books.
 
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