Venice

This was my favorite place of all the cities we visited. The atmosphere is so laid back and there are no cars. The gondolier cheesing it up for the camera is the guy we hired for our midnight gondola ride. Along this ride we saw the house where Casanova lived. The pic of us at St Marks Square with St Marks behind us, we are fresh off the overnight train looking very unshowered! Yuck! We of course took in all the usual sites, St Marks Basilica, Doge's Palace, gelato, gelato, gelato, murano glass and just the great scenery. We grabbed sandwiches from "sandwich row" and sat at the waterside for our last dinner. It was very cool seeing the city light up and people watching.

St Mark's Square is unbelievably crowded. All of these vendors are selling corn to feed the flying rats (the nickname we gave the pigeons). I was so disgusted to see theses kids with these nasty birds all over them. I had to take a pic just to show you all.

Venice is a labyrinth so finding anything can take some time even with a good map. So we did not find the original authentic carnival mask makers. The pic of the Harry Potter Books had a price tag of 3000 euro, not dollars, euro. So, that is almost $5000. I also took a pic of the fish cause the European idea of refrigeration is very different than ours here in America. The big bridge is the San Rialto, it offers the best view of the city and the grand canal. I will definitely go back to Venice, and for those of you who think so, it doesn't stink.