9/5 Venice

Our GPS phone app joined us for the first day of exploring Venice. This is a full on requirement as we'd probably still be down some 5 foot wide avenue trying to find our way back to civilization. Our trip took us in the most convoluted way to the Rialto Bridge. This passage is historic and beautiful as it is coated with tourists for a perfect view of the canal; and the latest apparel from Nike. It was kind of sad to see something of architectural presence commercialized to blatantly. The Rialto Bridge was where our water taxi was going to take us out to the island of Burano. This is a quiet "suburb" 25 minutes boat ride outside of Venice. They have with rows of houses painted in all shades of the rainbow and the is where they produce of some of the best handmade lace in Europe.

The taxi returned us to the floating city of Venice and we opted to take a full taxi ride from A to Z across the Grand Canal. This was great to really appreciate all the chaos of the day to day workers as they restock the restaurants, empty the trash, and make it function as a normal city would. The Grand Canal has rush hour traffic with the speed and nimbleness of dozens of boats. Exploration meant a few bridges and windy side streets to have some epic lasagna. Post dinner we stumbled our way into a very short line at the St Mark's Campanile. This sixteen story bell tower was equipped with an elevator that zoomed to the top in time for us to watch a bright orange sun blast the darkening sky with a last gasp kaleidoscope of colors before night. The water taxi returned us to the hotel stop where we hunted down some gelato before bed.

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