Italy - Venice

The city of canals.  And tourists.  And pigeons.  I think there were far more pigeons in Venice than there are in New York.  When we first got there for dinner, we were supposed to go see the church of San Marco, but they had the piazza closed because they were showing the world premiere of some lame movie called Shark Tale something or other....

Anyway, the gondola ride was the best feature of the city.  Away from the tourists and down the back "alleys" of the city.  We visited San Marco Cathedral.  Then, unfortunately, after we covered a couple blocks of the city, we felt we were done.  It was mostly just shop after shop after shop.  And since everything must be shipped into the city by boat and then hand carted to the stores, the costs were very high.  We wish we took the optional excursion to Burano, the island where they hand make lace.

A view of Venice at night.
Ponte de Rialto.
The Grand Canal at night from Ponte de Rialto.
The Grand Canal at night from Ponte de Rialto with a lens filter on.
The Grand Canal from Ponte de Rialto in one direction (the same direction as the night shots).
The Grand Canal from Ponte de Rialto in the other direction.
Bridge of Sighs (so names as prisoners traveling from the courthouse on one side to the prison on the other would sigh as that was the last time they would be outdoors).
San Marco church.
A mosaic above an entrance  door to San Marco.
The San Marco bell tower.
This is the golden angel atop the bell tower.
One of the alleys during the gondola ride.
Another alley during the gondola ride.
Our gondaleer (on the right) and two others.
A canal from a bridge - notice all the "cars".
A church passed during our gondola ride.
A canal front church passed on the way from the main land to the main island.
Just a group of musicians playing at an open air café during the day.
A different group of musicians playing at a different café at night.
Two columns at the entrance to the city.
We stopped for a glass blowing demonstration and saw this all glass horse in the lobby.
They also had these birds for sale (though I do not recall how much they cost).
We came across this door somewhere.  We thought it was funky looking.