We left the house early and drove into Venice. The highway across the water ran parallel to a train. The smell of the water was funky and we hoped the canals wouldn't smell as strong.

The parking garages were obvious as soon as we crossed the bridge. We parked and started our walk through the streets of Venice looking for St.Mark's square. There were endless bridges, connecting mazes of streets lined with doors and shops. Looking up were windows, many with boxes filled with flowers. We kept our pace up to make our tour on time. We joined a huge group of people gathered under the clock tower, and collected our earphones so we could hear our guide. Unfortunately our guide was a snappy lady who did not appear to like her job. She barely gave notice that she was starting the tour, and if it wasn't for Brennin seeing where she went we may have lost her. Once inside the palace we had to strain to hear what she was saying because of her strong accent, difficulty with English, and bad reception through our headset. We did enjoy the ornate palace though, and picked up some interesting facts when we could understand her. It was interesting to learn that even though originally doges had a lot of political power, it didn't stay that way. Over time they became little more than figureheads. It was a prestigious title but in reality they were no longer free men, everything they did was overseen by the leaders of Venice.

We enjoyed the historical paintings and saw where the political leaders would meet. We viewed the trial area, and walked across the Bridge of Sighs. It was moving to think about the prisoners of the past who walked across, knowing they may never be free again. We were told that poor prisoners were often put in the lowest cells and barely cared for, while wealthier prisoners could pay to be upgraded into higher cells, allowed visitors, and fed well.

When our tour ended we were all ready to get out of the heat, we walked one street off of St. Mark's Square and found a restaurant with air conditioning.
We climbed two flights of stairs and were seated in a room that fit all 11 of us. The kids at one table, and the 5 adults at another. We could see into connected dining areas on both sides of us. Waiters bustled around in the cramped space looking frustrated at times. We watched the waiters collect food from a dumbwaiter. The rooms were wallpapered in a busy gold floral pattern, giving the place a royal feel.
Happy to be out of the heat we lingered over lunch, no one in a rush to leave.

Our tickets to the Doge's Palace included a coupon for a free boat trip to the Island of Murano where we could tour a glass blowing factory. We planned on going to Murano anyway so this was a bonus to not pay the water taxi. We met back at the clock tower in St. Mark's square at 1:30. Quite a few others from the morning tour were there. Talking with the group we all felt we deserved the free trip to Murano after putting up with our grouchy guide in the morning. At first no one showed up and we thought we were being stood up, but by 1:40 a lively Italian arrived and directed us to follow him. Keeping up to him was our next challenge, we had to practically break into a jog. Crowds of people made it hard to keep track of him. He was wearing white and blended in, but one of the ladies in the front of the group was wearing a bright red dress, so we kept our eye on her and made it to the right dock. We wondered if they only wanted to fill one boat and were hoping to lose a few of us along the way. We boarded the boat and seconds later were out on the Grand Canal.

The wood-trimmed boat was very nice, much nicer than the public water taxis. We had the choice to sit in the lower covered bow, or in the back which was open air. The driver took his time navigating through the rough water. The extensive water traffic never gave the canal time to settle. We saw water ambulances, water garbage boats, taxi boats, cargo, and pleasure speed boats coming and going. Beautiful buildings lined the canal until it opened up into a wider area, and not long after we reached the Island of Murano.

We followed the group into a large industrial room, with a long narrow viewing area. We sat on risers watching a glass blower take hot globs of glass, and turn them into horse sculptures. Each horse was the result of using a plyers type tool to pull on the melting glass, and in under a minute a figure of a rearing horse appeared. The room was hot, we couldn't imagine working there all day. Our next stop was the expansive showroom. We literally "chilled out" in the air conditioning, and browsed through rooms of glass art. Home decor, jewelry and trinkets filled the shelves. We each found something to bring home. Makenna, Darius and Belia chose one of the horses they saw being made. Doug and Tammy found a beautiful glass sailboat for their new house.

After our boat trip back we looked for shady streets to shop along. We found a lot of unique shops. One particular store had a lot of clothes we liked, so while we tried them on the guys had a beer and sat by the canal watching
gondola's go by. The kids had fun standing on the bridge and saying ciao to people in the gondolas, many people smiled and said ciao back; every so often a gondolier would reach up and try to grab the kids' feet as a joke.

Our walk back to the parking garage was far from straight forward. Tim and Doug navigated under walkways, over bridges, through squares, and into dead ends. The smells ranged from delicious cafe food to raunchy urine stench. We also kept our eyes open making sure not to step in anything nasty. Sweating was just part of life by that point, and the walking added to it. I don't know how many water bottles a day we were drinking, but it was a lot!

We stopped for supper, and then finished our walk to the parking garage. Getting to the car we cranked the air conditioning and made our way home.

It had been a full day. The kids hopped in the pool, and we sat out late visiting knowing we could sleep in the next morning.