First impression of Venice

Only one day to see Venice! (We would start our Greek Isle cruise tomorrow.)

Because of the train strike, the hotel shuttled us to airport where we could get a water taxi. The ride over was anticipation-building; as we approached St. Mark’s Square and the buildings became visible, well, I practically peed my pants from excitement! Since we only had one day, we did not have big expectations of what we should do. My only goals were that I wanted to ride a Gondola and otherwise, just see the city. We decided to find lunch first and so started wandering – if you have never been to Venice, the “streets” are a trip! They are more like alleyways – there are no cars or other vehicles (I never saw any skateboards, roller skates or bicycles.) They wind in and out, a lot are very narrow.

After lunch, we found a Gondola ride – it is a calm and peaceful way of seeing the city. After that we just started wandering again, taking lots of pictures, looking in shops, not buying anything yet since we still had the bulk of our vacation ahead of us in Greece. To me, it was surreal, like I was walking in the pages of a book. I had never been anyplace else that looked or felt the same…it only served to awaken my desire to see more of Italy – that will have to be another trip.