Italy Trip 2

I'm dividing up these messages because I have to be somewhere in 45 minutes, and I'm not sure I'd get everything done in a single post. As mentioned before, from Milan we took the tour bus to our first hotel, which was on the mainland across from Venice (which, as I'm sure you all know, is a collection of islands where there is no car traffic at all). The place where we stayed was a nice resort area that apparently caters mostly to German tourists (there were a number of German-language stations set on the TV, but also a couple English stations, which would come in handy on night two, as I'll explain in a future post). After a good night's sleep, we headed by ferry for Venice, where we spent a most enjoyable day. Here's a picture of the dock area as we pulled into the city:


From there we had a walking tour to various churches and piazzas, culminating in Piazza de San Marco (where we visited a glass-blowing studio). Here's a picture of what I guess constitutes a traffic jam in Venice, with three Gondolas backed up on a side canal:


Following the guided tour, we were on our own for the afternoon. I started out by going through St. Mark's. Here's a picture of my friend Bill in front of the church:


Here's a wider view of the cathedral from the perspective of the nearby canal:


Okay, more from Venice a little later (maybe tomorrow) as I have to head to a meeting. Feel free to leave comments on the pictures. If you were hoping to see something in particular, let me know, as I may have a picture of it. As I mentioned earlier, I really took a lot of them!