Touring Venice Day 1

This morning we bought a 3-day boat ticket, which allows us to take the ferry to Venice and the outlying islands plus boats within the city of Venice. It's a short drive to Punta Sabbioni to catch the ferry for the 40 minute ride to Venice. Today we had beautiful weather, cool but sunny. The first photo shows the view as we neared Saint Mark's Square.

Following a suggestion from a Rick Steves travel book, we got off the ferry right at the Square and walked to the train station. What an adventure! There are no cars -- and no roads -- at all anywhere in Venice. There ARE tiny, narrow, winding alleys with names we can't pronounce, and tons of steps and bridges crossing over numerous canals. In the photo below you can see a Sunday traffic jam on one of the small canals.

Venice is unlike any city we've ever been to, and we love it! Walking to the train station was a real adventure and we stumbled upon statues, churches, shops, plazas, you name it. One thing we noticed were stacks of platforms in many areas. We couldn't figure out what they were at first, but then realized they are used when flooding occurs along the canals and in the plazas. People walk on the raised platforms to keep their feet dry! This is the time of year storms come up from the Adriatic Sea, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the platforms won't be needed while we're here this week.

Once we got to the train station, we made our way back to San Marco Square using a vaparetto (small boat) on the Grand Canal. We followed along with the descriptions from the tour book and really enjoyed the sights along the way.

We stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant near St Mark's Square. What a country, they not only sell wine by the bottle but also by the liter. So not to upset our host country we ordered a liter of wine for lunch! The food was great the wine was fantastic and I'm ready to continue this fine tradition while we are visiting this country. I wonder if they have wine for breakfast. Oh no that's right, we have expresso for breakfast. One cup of that and you're wired for the rest of the day. As you can see by the photo below I have mastered this wine thing!