We knew that Venice was a city split up by canals but never realized that it had so many small streets that make it hard to navigate. We had a map and I am pretty good at navigating my way through a city but this was a whole new challange. For being a small city, we certainly put some miles on our shoes. Each day I felt like we were mice in a maze trying to find the cheese. Tons of small streets and twists and turns and unmarked streets. It makes for an interesting walk around town. We arrived on Friday afternoon on Oct. 17th and caught the first Vaporetti (water bus) we could get to the stop closest to our B&B. It was not the easiest thing to do since the bus drivers were on and off strike the week we were there. Just our luck. Good thing is we only had to take the water bus when we arrived and when we had to leave. We called our host, Alessandro, and he asked us to meet him in the middle of the Rialto Bridge. It is the most central and biggest bridge in Venice. It is loaded with shops and always crowded with people seeing the sights and taking lost of pictures. We were no exception. Alessandro led us to the B&B that was short walk away. It is a small place and very nice. The only drawback was the bed. I felt like I was lying on the street with the curb as my pillow. So in other words, not real comfortable. But Alessandro was very nice and the breakfast was great. We were able to see all of the major sights we wanted to see. St. Marks Basillica, The Doge's Palace (royal palace), Gallerie Dell'Accademia (art museum), Scuola Grnade Di San Rocco, and a few other churches. I think the Scuola Grnade Di San Rocco was the most impressive thing for me to see. It is a music school and the main room on the first floor is nice but not as impressive as the second floor. The Renaissance painter Tintoretto spent 23 years of his life painting more than 50 works of art on the ceiling and walls. It was just amazing and you can get a pain in your neck from staring up at the ceiling for so long. They have mirrors you can walk around with to help with that. We took a nice romantic gondola ride around some of the other major sights in town for about 45 minutes and it was very relaxing. The food in Venice is amazing. Especially the seafood. Everything is so fresh and delicious. If you want to find a good place to eat, do your research and book in advance. We had a hard time finding a place to eat on Sat. night but finally ended up at the Grand Canal House. We stopped off at Harry's Bar which is a famous bar where Hemmingway use to spend a lot of time. We sampled a few of thier famous Belinni drinks and then went to dinner. The food was fantastic and we ate so much I thought I was going to have to take a gondola ride home. Sunday we did a little bit more sightseeing, grabbed some lunch and then hopped on the Vaporetti to head back to the bus terminal to make our way back to the airport. Venice is an amazing city with lots of sights and great food, architecture and culture. There is definitely nowehre else on earth like it
