Venice - Day Two

Our second day in Venice was the warmest day of the trip. It could have been shorts weather, but they are technically not allowed in the city and I would end up looking like I was from Nebraska or something. It got up to about 20C today with clear skies and little to no wind.

The hotel has included breakfast (nice thing about Europe is that they are not crap like the free breakfasts in the US and Canada) so after that we started the tour with a water bus ride from the train station to San Marco. This took about 45 minutes and we followed along with the Rick Steves book that had a little tour based on it. Overall it was very nice, a little crowded but worth the 12E that it cost to get on the water bus. It is not a gondola, but it was a great experience.

After that, we went to the top of the bell tower at San Marco. We went right up after the hour rang, so we stayed for about 50 minutes waiting for the next bells to ring. The views were spectacular (lots and lots and lots of photos) and it was very relaxing just standing up there and watching the other tourists have a fun time. On the hour, the bells rang and while it was incredibly loud, it wasn't as loud as I thought it would be. I didn't have to cover my ears (years of punk rock does that to you) but it was impressive to be within 2 feet of a 5 ton bell ringing over your head.

After the tower we had lunch of pizza and walked around a bit. We were getting sleepy so we sat down and crowd watched on the square. Technically you are not supposed to eat, sit or do anything fun on the square but not many people follow those rules. I think the Italians are a little full of themselves with all the rules in the city, but I guess they can do as they please as they pay the taxes.

We wanted to go into the Saint Mark's Basilica but Mass was going on. Good discovery though is that if you check your bags down the street you get a skip the line card for the basilica so you don't have to wait for an hour to get in. After waiting a bit until Mass was over, we went in to see the insides. It was quite awesome with all the mosaics of the Byzantine church as well as the different marbles and tiles on the floor. Great place to sneak pictures with a stealth camera. There were some things you can pay to get into, but the main church was free so that is all we did. Rea said she would have liked to have gone to Mass if a choir was playing. I think she must be possessed or something...

Later we went to a wine bar on the Grand Canal that was very good. It was a great location and with the nice weather it was good to sit outside and watch the boats and gondolas float past.

Dinner was a little place down the road that was packed with tourists. Food was good and rather inexpensive for Venice. We sat next to some Americans so we talked politics. This is the common topic when chatting with my fellow Americans abroad. Dinner was spaghetti carbonara with salad, wine and some espresso (tiny cups). They took Mastercard so it was totally worth it. Later we had gelato and more wine that we bought in a store. I think this is the first point on the trip that I have actually felt that I have eaten too much... Which is kind of nice. I also think I have dropped about 5 to 10 pounds from all the walking (seriously).

Tomorrow I think we might go to Murano to see the glass factory. Funny thing about Venice is that it is big and there is a lot to do, you can see the big sites in under a day so at this point I am not sure what we have planned.