Wow, what a different place. It is thy waterway city. During the entire day, we did not see a car or bike. How crazy is that? The daily life is dependent on the canals. When we arrived at 630 am, we watched a few ships unload all their cargo (food) on the dock to take into the stores. There isn’t fedex or distributions trucks. Just guys on boats. All their cargo was then loaded onto wheel-barrel like carts. These carts were then taken to their correct store. It was haul, but someone had to do it. It was nice starting out the day seeing what goes on behind the scenes to allow the city to survive.
After sharing a quick breakfast, we explored Venice inside and out. About 90% of the time was aimlessly meandering. We were told to try to get lost in Venice. So we did. It was much easier than we thought. The city make up is very unique. There isn’t any roads, just narrow paths. The sidewalks (between buildings) are only 10 meters at max and as little as 4 feet wide. The average space between buildings is only about 6-7 feet. Furthermore, the names of the “streets” don’t extend for more than a block. In addition, the streets do not run in parallel or perpendicular, they are made up as a maze. So yeah, it was very easy to get lost.
After we found our bearings, we made our way to the town’s main square. Lining the square is a couple museums, a gov’t building, a sky-high tower, and the magnificent San Marco Basilica (St. Marks Church). We snapped a bunch of photos and then waited in line to see San Marco. 
The church was built in the 11th century and it is the final resting place for St. Mark himself. When we walked in the dark/mysterious church, the ceiling just screamed out to us. Our minds were sent spinning. We couldn’t completely grasp what we were seeing. The whole ceiling was gold with pictures of great patrons of the church’s history. The overall picture was clear in our mind, but the entire ceiling looked different. It was hard to register. We gazed at it for a few minutes that finally figured out why it was different... the entire ceiling was a mosaic! Not just an ordinary mosaic, but one of gold. Now that’s cool! The pictures of saints, angels, the passion and other pictures were also a mosaic. Simply stunning. Its’ hard to take your eyes away from it. We slowly walked around the church with our jaws hanging down. The time it took to individual place each gold piece must have taking the workers at least 8000 years. Haha. The pictures don’t do justice (the ones Steven secretly took).
Just a cool photo taking at the main square.
We got a gelato (Italy’s famous frozen yogurt). We got 2 scoops, Amanda chose tiramisu, and Steven took a hazelnut flavor. The flavor was spot on and the texture was somewhere between a milkshake and ice cream.
After getting lost again, we jumped on the water taxi and took a 45 mins ride from the top of the city to the bottom. It wasn’t as romantic as a gongola, but a lot cheaper (6 vs 80 euros). We snapped photos the whole way down.
Sites.
Next we roamed a different section of the island and took more pictures. Finally, it was time to head back to the train station. We stopped by the supermarket for some snacks and away we went.
Venice was fun, but a little different than we thought. The grand canal was the best part. The green water meeting with the blue sky is nearly a perfect setting. The lifestyle on the island is much different than another city we have been too. However, the buildings were not well kept at all. All were sun bleached, cracked, molded, losing paint, old bricks exposed and just signs of years and years of wear. This was surprising. We’ve heard that Venice was very expensive and one of the fanciest places in the world, and we expected the city to be a little bit more presentable. We understand its probably difficult to bring in the necessary tools and equipment to maintain their look. Oh well. Plus, the look gives it a rustic old feel to it. May be that is what they were going for. Never the less, you can’t beat the grand canal.
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