Venice

The next morning we grabbed a quick Italian breakfast of coffee and brioche before catching the train south to Venice!

Venice was definitely my favorite city on our Italian tour. The whole thing looks just like it does in the movies - with old, elegant buildings divided by turquoise canals, crowned with little arched bridges. Around every corner there was another gigantic church with soaring domes and spires. Nearly as numerous as the boats and churches were stores selling intricately designed masks for carnivale (their version of Mardi Gras). Far too many sights to describe them all. I think it's the kind of thing you just need to see for yourself.

The Grand Canal, complete with gondolas

Us in front of Rialto Bridge (very famous)

It was a very romantic place... 0=^)

Our group at lunch.

penne with beef and mushroom ragout

After lunch, we went to St. Mark's Square and saw the magnificent St. Mark's Cathedral. Venice is well known for its mosaics. All of the murals and artwork in the cathedral are done in mosaic - which is incredible because they are so detailed!

The inside of the cathedral may have been the most breathtaking thing we saw during our entire time in Italy. I've just never witnessed anything so grand first-hand before. The ceilings were so high and domed and covered with detailed mosaics telling Biblical stories. You can tell that everything is darkened by age, but the detail still shines through the gloom.

More details of the carvings on the top of the cathedral

St. Mark's Campanile (tower in background)

Near St. Mark's is the court buildings. The bridge pictured below is very famous. It's called the "bridge of sorrows" because the little windows in it were the last sunlight convicts saw before entering the prison. Amazing that even something so dismal as prison transport would be so beautiful!

Our wanderings took us out by the port. We couldn't resist snapping a few more photos in front of this magnificent view before slowly making our way back to the train station.

Instead of taking the same route back, we decided to take a water taxi up the grand canal for more photo-ops. It was a peaceful way to end our tour.

Santa Maria della Salute - built after the plague to thank God for sparing the survivors

When we arrived at the train station, we still had about an hour till our train was supposed to take off, so we wandered into unexplored territory and found a quieter street on which to snap a few final photos before going home.

I still can't get over the color!

I had fun snapping portraits for my friends by this beautiful little back alley canal. =^)