Jan. 17/18, 2017
On our whirl wind trip to Venice, Florence and Rome we began in Venice. Staying in Venice proper can be a bit costly not to mention a challenge in finding the place you booked because there are not clear ‘roads’ in Venice! Hence we stayed in Mestre, right across the harbor from Venice and opted to take the train into Venice which ran 1.25 E / per person / per way!
Venice is made up of 118 small islands, most separated by canals. Some of these canals are only 5 feet deep! These islands are connected by 404 different bridges. There are NO motorized vehicles in Venice so boats are the mode of transportation. There are boat taxi’s, (7.5 E per ride or 20 E for unlimited all day), gondola rides (80 E for ride up to 6 ppl for that cost) and a lot of people walking!
There are only 50,000 people currently living in Venice and about 2000 leave per year because of the very high cost of living. Most workers live in Mestre and commute over. Mestre has 350,000 people living there!
Our day included a boat ride to Murano Island to view traditional glass blowing, using traditional methods. While touring the store we were shocked that some items were over 100,000 Euro! Beautiful but costly! Originally the glass was colored by a variety of items; green= copper/ blue= cobalt and red=gold hence red was the most costly.
Once back to Venice we toured around learning about the many campos that are the big squares around the city. Historically these were the gardens or fields of the area. Virtually everyone has a church, a well, and a palace. There are more than 150 churches in Venice and most are Roman Catholic.
Ultimately we made it to St. Marco Square, the largest in Venice. It was named after St. Marco the patron saint of Venice. Most simply call it ‘the plaza’ of Venice. We toured St. Marks, (St Mark’s Basilica) the largest church in Venice. All of the gold on the outside is indeed 24 K leaf paint. It took over 700 years to decorate this church. The columns came from Turkey.
The Horses of Saint Mark is a set of Roman bronze statues of four horses were first placed on the porch of St. Marks’s in 1204. However, Napoleon took them in 1797, and were ultimately returned in 1815. The horses stayed place on the porch of St. Mark’s until the early 1980s. At that point due to air pollution, and weather issues the originals were moved inside to the museum and the ones on the porch now are exact replicas. To view the inside of the church is free, but it is worth it to spend the 5 E to go upstairs and see the original horses and to see the view from the porch.
After St. Mark’s we found the Church of Frari which did cost 3 E to go through but again was worth the money. We used the Rick Steve’s app to listen to his tour of this church.
Lastly we walked over to the Rialto Bridge which spans the Grand Canal and it is the oldest bridge in Venice. There were bridges in this location as early as 1181 but this version was built in 1591.
All in all our day was full and we enjoyed the experiences in Venice. Wish we had 1 more day but onward to Florence.
timistravels 
Wish we were there—maybe our next Family Reunion site😳😜 John y Liz
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Again, brought back wonderful memories! But…we got in to Venice late and had to take a water taxi from the airport which lets you off in one spot in Venice. We had no idea where our hotel was other than it was off one of the many small streets off the plaza! We found a young policeman and while he had no idea where the street was he walked with us to the plaza and around until we found the small street! Took over an hour, dragging bags. All this after flying from AK! We were exhausted and pretty much slept all the next day, but then discovered it’s beauty
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