Photos: Venice

Buono Sera! The Cortina photos went so well, I thought I'd push my luck with some pictures from Venice--I've been dying to share some of these. So, as usual, a few words about the photos in order: (1) When we arrived in Venice, we had the opportunity to go into the city at night, before any tour obligations the next day. Several other chaperones and I decided to take a gondola ride. The ride was very interesting, as we saw the house Marco Polo lived in, a house Richard Wagner lived in for a short while, and the (supposed) house of Casanova. The canals were eerily quiet, away from the sounds around the rest of Venice. You really only heard the sounds of the gondolas, or occasionally other motor boats, or the voices of the gondoliers (our gondolier pictured here) explaining the sights; (2) The Grand Canal is the main water thoroughfare thru central Venice. While most of the bridges over the canals are only a few steps up and then down on the other side, the larger Grand Canal requires the much larger Rialto Bridge, which is what you see here, with our gondolier in front; (3) Taken the next day, one of the many canals, showing the smaller bridges; (4) Jacob looking very suave while standing over said canal; (5) the Piazza San Marco, often referred to as St. Mark's Square, viewed at night; (6) Our group took a tour of the area around St. Mark's, then moved on to a tour of the Murano Glass Factory. Here, we saw a glass blowing demonstration that was truly amazing. The glass blowing master  took a glob of molten glass, and within two minutes... (7) transformed it into a small pitcher!

I will add a few more pictures from Venice tomorrow, as it is getting late here once again. Ciao!