Venice is essentially a maze that tourists stand no chance of figuring out. The main attractions, like San Marco, Accademia, and Rialto have signs pointing the way all over town, but they are almost always not the most direct path. So we ended up winding our way down narrow streets and alleyways only to make yet another U-turn, but we did eventually find what we were looking for. What makes it all pleasant is that there are no cars, only pedestrians and water traffic. Another nice addition was the multitude of "Gelaterias," delicious ice-cream vendors at nearly every turn. I think we proved the theory that ice-cream just fills in the gaps in your stomach, because I managed to fit a few scoops well after I felt completely stuffed!
Venice offers some wonderful tourist sights, particluarly The Basilica of San Marco. The interior is covered with incredible mosaics, no pictures allowed of course. It also has a rather disturbing collection of relics. I'm not going to criticize any particular relgion here, but the display of fingertips, jawbaones, fermurs, hair, and teeth was odd to see outside of a natural history museum! There are more incredible churches scattered all over the city, but this being Italy, and with plans to visit Rome, we only visited a few.
We had heard that Venice is overrun with tourists, garbage, and bad odors. We were lucky to be visiting in low season, and the only bad smelling place was near Rio Toaletta. The one difficulty that we didn't expect was the flooding. The town flooded, so that many of the streets were passable only with golashes, at high tide. The local tourist industry was well-prepared though, setting up makeshift walkways to allow the steady flow of tourist cash!
We also had a one night stop over in Verona, famous as the setting of "Romeo and Juliet." We had an excellent day there, with lunch on the Piazza and some time to explore the Roman arena. Italy has been everything it could be so far, and we're excited to see more!
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