Day 20 Venice

Today was our tour of Venice. We started our morning bright and early at 700AM we had some delicious no flavor bread with nutella for breakfast then caught the bus to the port of Jeslo de Lido. We jumped on the water taxi which drove us over to the main city of Venice. Today was about 40 degrees Celsius. It was pretty much an inferno. The water taxi was actually really nice because the breeze of the water was refreshing but once we landed it got so hot. Venice was beautiful; we first took a walking tour where we learned about the 190 or so islands connected by 400 or so bridges. We then saw Saint Marco square and Basilica. (We did not end up going inside the church because the line was a 2 hour wait and in the middle of the sun). The end of our walking tour was a glass blowing demonstration. We got to see how they make Murano glass, the glass maker showed us a flower vase and then he made a glass horse right in front of us, it was amazing how he was able to form it in about 5 min from a blob of glass. Then we went inside the factory where we were able to see the larger pieces and the beautiful chandeliers. They also taught us how to tell if glass is factory made or true blown glass. Each glass has to have a certificate and a special decal. After our walking tour we got to take a gondola ride. Something I have been looking forward too since I can remember. The gondola seats for so it was, Nick and I, Joy and Alex and Jenny and Chase and of course our gondolier. Our Gondola was very pretty with plush red seats and black paint decorated with gold accents and our gondolier wore dark pants with the traditional striped blue and white shirt and a red scarf. We took a lovely boat ride along the canals of Venice, it was pretty cool how the boats are steered; it is all done with the gondolier’s weight and how he shifts it and paddles. At one point though there were quite of bit of gondolas and our gondola had to move to the side and water splashed in soaking Nick’s entire butt. We also got to go under the Rialto Bridge (which Nick and I also walked over too). Unfortunately it cost money to get the gondolier to sing, but lucky use the people very close to us in their gondola had an accordion player and their gondolier was singing so we got to still hear music for most of the ride. After our gondola ride Nick, Joy, Alex, Jenny and I went and did a tour of the Dodge’s Palace. It was one of the more ornate buildings I have seen. Each ceiling was fully painted with beautiful gold frames around it. We also got to see the prison which was attached to the palace. It was also nice to be out of the direct sun for a bit too. After the palace we walked around and checked out the little shops around Venice. Nick and I walked into a little mask shop and got to see the shop keeper making the beautiful masks. It took all my will power not to buy tons of masks. Some were so delicate they looked like lace but were really metal, and others were so intricate the prices ran all the way up to 200 euros in some of the stores we looked in. Then we walked and found a Hard Rock where I picked up a tshirt that says Hard Rock Venice and a shot glass. After the long day in Venice we took the water taxi back to our hotel. A storm is currently coming in so I am sitting in the dark because the whole town is out of electricity but a band marched the streets a few minutes ago playing “When the Saints go Marching In” for the 4th of July. It was awesome. We are now relaxing because we have a 7 hour drive to Munich tomorrow.