Italy (11) - More Venice

Day 12
Today's plan was to take the water bus down the Grand Canal to St. Mark's Square, and walked our way back gradually. We got to a water bus station just before 9:00 am. The water bus came and it was so packed, we couldn't get on. We figured another bus would come in 10 minutes according to the schedule so we would just wait for the next one. There was a dock worker explaining something to people in Italian after the water bus had left. Many people left after listening to him. So we asked him what's going on. He said that could be the last boat for today. There could be a strike after 9:00 am, but he didn't know for sure if the workers decided to strike or not. Regretting we didn't push our way onto the last boat, we decided to wait another 10 - 15 minutes. Lucky for us another water bus came, but the bus only went to Rialto Bridge, not all the way down to St. Mark's Square as we had hoped.

1. Along the Grand Canal.


2. Rialto Market. Too bad when we walked our way back to here later that day, the market was already closed.


3. Rialto Bridge.


4. From Rialto Bridge.


5. From Rialto Bridge.


We walked to St. Mark's Square, went to Doge's Palace first before going inside St. Mark's Basilica. The Basilica was amazing. The entire ceiling was done in gold style mosaics, and the floor was also done in beautiful mosaic marble tiles. We sat for a while in the Basilica to enjoy all these because you can't take picture inside. By the time we left we had to walk on raised walkway to keep our feet dry. Water was rising outside the Basilica. This must happen quite often in Venice because they are prepared for it. There are raised walkways setup in many places, ready to go.

6. Doge's Palace.


7. The ceiling in the covered corridor outside St. Mark's Basilica.


8. The ceiling in the covered corridor outside St. Mark's Basilica.


9. The ceiling in the covered corridor outside St. Mark's Basilica.


10. The ceiling in the covered corridor outside St. Mark's Basilica.


11. Water oozing into St. Mark's Square.


Just off St. Mark's Square, we found a sandwich shop. They made us two Mortadella sandwiches for 3 euros each. Not bad for the location, and they tasted very good. After lunch we went to Correr Museum. It's about the history of Venice. Very good museum, but we were so tired, so we went through it pretty quickly.

12. Venetian masks.


13. Just wandering around Venice.


14.


15.


16. Best spaghetti of the whole trip: spaghetti with squid in black sauce (11 euros).


17. Venice at night.


18. Venice at night.


(To be continued)