Yesterday, Sarah spoke of a labyrinth in the gardens of Verona. Today, we made it to the actual labyrinth of Italy...the streets of Venice. When Jon and his friend Nick studied abroad in Greece during college, they backpacked around Europe and spent only an afternoon in Venice. That timeframe, coupled with the city's many canals and narrow winding streets was just enough to freak them out. Thankfully we will have more than 5 hours to see the city (and recover from any wrong turns we might make).
We left Verona this morning around 10am, taking every precaution we could to ensure that this train ride went smoothly. It was, in fact, without incident. They didn't even check our tickets! When we arrived in Venice we quickly made reservations for our train to Naples (thanks Cindy & Jim for the 3am cruise advice) then caught the Vaperetto (water bus) to the southern portion of the city where our B&B is located. We're staying at a quaint little place called Palazzo Guardi in an area known as Dosoduro...it's very close to the Academia museum. We checked-in, then ate lunch at a small cafe nearby.
Our afternoon consisted of a walk to San Marco Basilica, a tour of the cathedral, and a visit to the Manet exhibit at the Palazzo Ducale (we thought we were buying tickets to the Palazzo, but it turns out that's separate...oops). Upon exiting the museum, I commented something or other to Sarah about Monet's work...and she said, "Yes, but you know that was Manet, right?" Seriously though, we did learn a lot about Manet...like the fact that he isn't the same artist as Monet. Who knew!?
The highlight of the day came as we exited the museum and found ourselves near the gondolas. Even though I'd been to Venice before, I didn't ride a gondola through its canals. Nick and I figured it was too romantic for the two of us. However, it was perfect for Sarah and I! We negotiated a price with the gondolier and climbed aboard. He sang as we pulled away from the dock, and almost navigated the canals flawlessly. At each intersection - and there are many - he would yell, "Oy!" as we approached the corner. Typically, that would give warning to other gondoliers of our presence. On one occasion, he yelled and nothing was returned until we came around the corner and were seen by another gondolier. Too late! The resultant T-Bone water accident was not hard, but it did feel a bit like bumper boats at your local theme park. Wished we spoke Italian when the passengers in the ship we hit made some funny comment to us, but instead we just smiled and nodded. The ride was romantic, and it was a perfect way to rest from a day of travel and an afternoon of Manet.
Before getting dinner, we ascended the San Marco bell tower and were welcomed by the tolling of the 6:30p bells. The amazing part was that unlike Verona bell towers that play an automated bell noise, these bells actually ring RIGHT ABOVE YOUR HEAD! It was deafeningly awesome! Sarah asked me a question during it, and I literally couldn't hear a word she was saying. Oh, and the views were stunning.
Dinner was a couple of panini sandwiches, enjoyed on the steps of a fountain in a no-name piazza. We are still too cheap for the most expensive of Italian cities.
In other news, our hotel room is awesome and it overlooks a canal. Not much else to report tonight; it was a great day!

Courtney's out.