Venice

Boy did I like Venice. It's a city I've wanted to visit for a long time, and it delivered.

It's a city that has a human scale to it. You can walk everywhere, and the spaces and size of things fits a human on foot very well.

St. Mark's square, from up on the overlook at the church. This is one of the most famous parts of Venice. In summer, that whole plaza is full of people. It also fills up with water. Venice is sinking, and so depending on the tides, you get water rising to various heights. You'll see more of this in a bit.

It was raining when we got there.

We were prepared.

Those white boats back there are water taxis. We arrived by train, and took one from the train to an area near our hotel. When we left, we took a water taxi to the airport. It's a little surreal. On this trip I think we went eight or nine days without riding in a car. I think that is the longest I've gone in my entire life.

Here is a zoomed in shot of the front of St. Mark's. The earlier photos were taken up by those horses.

St. Mark's square is famous for its pigeon population. People like to feed them, and the pigeons like to land on people. I don't get it, but see for yourself. Most of the people in this photo have a bird on them.

These guys look like they are marching in formation.

St. Mark's in the background.

Somewhere there was a hopping pigeon.

Notice the platforms these people are walking on. This is because this is an area where the water rises .

Gondolas.

Of course the neat part about Venice is the canals.

A corner lot.

Here is a shot of the Grand Canal. It's a big S-shaped canal that runs through Venice.

We had one of the best dinners of our lives at this restaurant. We had a great waiter, and we just kept eating and drinking and eating and drinking. We were there for a couple of hours and had a great time. When we came in it was packed, and by the time we left, it was empty.