Well, here we are in Venice – the city of canals. The city is made up of 118 islands, 400 bridges and 150 canals. There are basically only two ways to get around: by boat or by foot. Boats ply the waterways and provide both public and private transportation. The public side is a large boat that operates like a bus making regular stops along the canal. Private transportation is either by a taxi boat or a gondola. We thought the 80 euro for a gondola a bit steep unless you have a party of 5 or 6 people. Originally, we thought the 20 euro 24-hour day pass a bit steep too…but having walked almost 20 km by 4pm, we decided this would be the best way to get around tomorrow.

Our walking tour this morning took us to San Marco Square, the St Mark church, the government building and the prison. We then walked through a number of squares as the guide told us more of the history of the city and some of its buildings.

 

 

 

There are ony about 57,000 residents in Venice but over 3 billion visitors a year. Life requires a lot of planning when

• it takes a lot of time to get from one area of the city to another
• tourists invade your space every day
• garbage has to be moved in shuttle carts and then transferred to a garbage boat and finally to a garbage truck
• an ambulance call brings two men with a hand-carried litter to take you to the hospital
• the main floor of your house is in jeaopardy of flooding a number of times each year
• you live where there is not one square inch of public green space.

After the tour we had a few hours on our own before our one hour boat tour. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant for lunch and then went to see the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She was a wealthy American who came to Venice and became an art dealer/collector. Her passion was modern art and her will provided for her home to be established as a gallery after her death. While we enjoyed the opportunity to see her collection, it was a small space with 100+ hot, sweaty teenagers who arrived just after us. It became quite unpleasant and so we left within the hour. After investigating the options for water taxis, we decided to walk back and find a spot for a treat in the shade. Sitting in San Marco Square listening to live music and enjoying a sundae seemed like just what you’re supposed to do on vacation!

Our afternoon boat cruise took us through the two main canals to see the houses/palaces and government buildings from the front side. Some of them are quite beautiful while others are showing their age and effects of weather over time. Of importance to some on the tour was which movies were shot in which building, which movie stars stayed where and in which building George Clooney was married.

We used our day pass to take a boat back to the bus terminal where we stopped for dinner before heading back to the hotel. It was quite a warm day here and with the combination of walking and crowds of people, we were both exhausted by the time we arrived back to the hotel. I was even too tired to write this note so it had to wait until morning.