Exploring Europe

So we did make it to Venice, thankfully. Though our train arrived promptly in the afternoon, we did have to wait for the Actv Ticket Booth (public transportation via boat-bus) to reopen to get our tickets and be on our way. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous -- sunny and at least 80 degrees. It was a welcome chnage from our last couple of countries.
We made it to the "hotel" without problem -- though we had to dodge plenty of tourists near between Rialto and San Marcos Piazza -- but the digs weren't too bad. We had a nice balcony one floor up with a nice view of a (usually) quiet canal.
Thursday August 18
First up on the agenda was the Palazzo Ducale (or Doge's Palace) in San Marcos Piazza. It comprised the Doge's family apartments in earlier centuries, as well as gathering rooms for the senate and wealthy community leaders. We also walked across the "Bridge of Sighs," crossing a canal from the Palace to the Prison -- where the incarcerated would get their "last view of freedom." It was a bit eerie, but pretty cool.
After that we went next door to stand in line for Catedral San Marcos. The wait was only about an hour or so, but in the blazing hot sun out on the square it seemed like forever. Once inside the cathedral, with sparkly gold mosaics decorating the inside, we walked up to the top to get a better view of the mosaics outside and the piazza below. It was really pretty inside, and there must have been millions of tiny little tiles comprising all the mosaics both inside and out.
After a lunch break, we took a private boat out to Isola Murano, which was sponsored by a private glass blowing factory. Once we got to Murano, we got to see a demonstration (which was neat), and toured the family's shop. The work was gorgeous, but was totally out of our price range.
Later that evening we took a "romantic gondola ride" (ok not so romantic because it was just Jenny and me with 3 other passengers, plus 5 other full gondolas) through the Grand Canal and some smaller canals -- serenaded in Italian with a real live accordion player too! It was a bit toursity, but fun (except for when I spotted a rat, but I won't go into that).
We had a nice dinner after that and called it an "early night" to catch another train to Florence the next morning.