Venice (Part Two)

This is the final post related to our 2 week adventure in Italy and the Mediterranean. There are several related posts, so go back a few if you haven't read those yet.

Saturday, May 16th

We arrived back in Venice early and departed the cruise ship at 7:15. We were told that it could take up to 90 minutes to go through customs and security, so we signed up for the earliest departure to make the most of our time. 90 minutes ended up being a bit of an overstatement, as we were away from the port by 7:20.

After dropping our bags we headed off to the see the main tourist sites that we'd skipped before we left on the cruise. We first went to the a famous fish market near the Rialto bridge. We took some shots on the bridge, which is one of the most famous in the world (although we feel like there are several better ones). The market was very interesting as well. We were there early enough to see the guys setting up their stalls. Some of the fish were pretty interesting - stuff we'd definitely never seen anywhere before.

After the market it was off to St. Mark's Square. When we arrived at 9:00, it was completely empty, as the sites don't open until later. The square is famous for its pigeons, so we brought a little bread along:

As it turns out this isn't allowed (hence the police), so Jenna didn't have time to get a really good shot (and I just didn't feel comfortable with a bird flapping at my ear):

Using another of Rick's secret tricks, we were able to skip the line and get into St. Mark's Basilica with no problem. This is a pretty big and impressive church, and is supposed to be a good example of the fact that Venice was the gateway to the east, as it has both traditional European as well as Byzantine design elements.

At this point we had pretty much seen everything, but still had several hours to spend. We decided to go see Venice's main museum, the Accademia (name stolen from the museum in Florence, but not associated). This is where they were supposed to have the drawing by da Vinci of the man with two sets of legs and arms. Probably a terrible description, but you've seen it. Anyway, the museum was in the middle of renovations, and was cut down to less than half its normal size (still full price, though!!) and that drawing wasn't even there. We went away pretty disappointed.

Next we went back to St. Mark's Square to meet Jenna's friend Deasha from Dallas. This is a weird circumstance. Jenna and Deasha worked together at the hospital, and have since become cyber-friends (in other words, Facebook). Jenna noticed through a Facebook update that she was coming to Italy just before we were getting ready to leave. Long story short, we happened to be in Venice the same day. They were on a guided tour, so they had very little free time, but we were able to stop and say hello and hear all the gossip about the hospital back home before they had to run off.

At this point we had seen all the sites that the city had to offer, so we just headed off to wander the streets for a while. We stopped for a last slice of pizza and scoop of gelato. We got lost a few times in the back alleys of town. In all, though, we had a nice couple of hours wandering, and it was a good way to spend the day away from all the other tourists.

To end the trip, we grabbed the vaparetto for a final cruise past the sites, and ended up back at the bus station, where we grabbed our bags and made our way to the airport, and back to London.

Overall, this trip was amazing. It is one we'd been planning online for several months but in our minds for several years. The weather was amazing (15 out of 16 ain't bad), the sites were unforgettable, the food was too delicious for words, and we just had a wonderful time seeing this beautiful part of the world together. If anyone is interested, we're thinking a return trip for our 10 year anniversary might be in order.