Venice

I had this wonderful plan to journal each day of our trip to Italy.  That lasted two days.  Now I am looking back on the trip wishing I had written more of my thoughts down.  Nevertheless, I am going to try to remember a few details before the memories are too faded.

Lazy days of wandering the streets filled our time in Venice.  There were a few touristy things that I insisted on, but we were still able sleep in and enjoy the food.  It didn't take us long to find our favorite pizza restaurant and begin trying every flavor of gelato available.

When we stepped into the gondola we were transported back in time.  The gondolier skillfully guided us through the tangle of other gondolas and onto a quiet canal.  We turned corners and wove our way through the water maze.  Eventually we came out at the Grand Canal and joined the mass of tourists on the water.

I was honestly disappointed in San Marco's Square.  I remember from the trip I took here in college, wandering around in the evening.  Musicians played at various outdoor restaurants.  Artists painted portraits of visitors posing in a chair.  It was a lovely atmosphere.  While we were visiting it was just a large plaza.   There seemed nothing distinctive or special about it.  Maybe that's how it is when you revisit a place you have created a special memory for.  It will just never be the same.  

The Doge's Palace is amazing.  The exterior is done in Venetian Gothic.  I love that this city has its style of architecture!  The original palace was built in 810.  Of course none of that palace remains so the palace we see today was built between 1340 - 1442.  Room after room of ceilings painted by Tintoretto and heavily gilded frame work began to become dizzying.  An interior bridge across a narrow canal led us from the splendor of the palace to the insignificance of the prison.  

We visited Saint Mark's Cathedral as well as a handful of other churches.  Each was ornamented with paintings that belong in a museum.

We took the public boat taxi to the island of Murano one day.  Again, there were no glass blowers in the shops showing off their skills as I remembered.  We still enjoyed wandering the stores and examining the intricate figures made of glass.

Venice is a city one falls in love with over and over as the years pass but the city remains frozen in time.