Started my day with a knock at the cabin door! It was Mary from down the hall. Mary came on the cruise with a group of 91 people from Trinidad. Mary stated that she wasn't going to go out today! I begged her to and asked why she wasn't going to venture out in what seemed to be a beautiful city. She stated that it seemed too complicated to travel on the water. I told her to travel with Marcella and I and she'd be fine. I couldn't take her into it. Anyway, today was a late arrival day. We arrived around 10 A.M. and the ship was cleared about 11 A.M. The ship had a water taxi to take us into the city. Our tour began walking along Riva Degli Schiavoni (a walkway along the San Marco Basin). Hundreds of people, almost reminded me of New York, but without the cars driving by. We walked down some of the narrow streets, just looking into some of the shops. Admiring the beautiful venetian glass jewlery, vases, etc. Made our way around to the Church of San Zaccaria, which was under repair. Then down some more of those narrow streets. We also came upon some very nasty shop owners. Some wouldn't let us into the store. At first we thought it was racial, but then we saw that they weren't letting other people in, we didn't know why. They'd just say they were closed. This is in the early afternoon. Anyway we finally made our way over to San Marco Square. Basilica San Marco had to be the most beautiful church I've seen on the trip. The square was filled with thousands of people and millions of pigeons. And both adults and children actually feeding these nasty things from their hands. They were even taking pictures with them all over their heads and on their shoulders. I thought to myself, if these people were at home, they'd go no where near pigeons. The clock tower was also an awesome sight. We spent several hours here as this was the main thing I wanted to see. I took a ride up Campanile (bell tower) for great sights of Venice, took lots of pictures. I stop to spend about an hour on the internet. We then strolled around some more and came upon a busy restaurant and decided to have some lunch. The lasagne was to die for. And the service was great. We did a little more sightseeing. Strolled over to take of few photos of the famous Bridge of Sighs. There were so many beautiful churches here. We walked over to the Rialto Bridge. I thought we'd get back later tonight to take in a gondola ride, but things didn't work out that way. The water buses are very easy to take and get around in. Rick Steve's was correct though, stating that the #1 is fast and the #82 is slow. So this wraps up my Mediterranean cruise for 2006. Love you all! Can't wait to get my pictures back.