We arrived in Venice on Monday morning and checked into our hotel.We were a bit disillusioned to see how run down the place was.Back in the states, you would never go to an area that looked like this because you would be concerned about being attacked by local hoods.Narrow, dark alleys everywhere.Building walls leaning over waiting to fall over and just daring people to walk by.There are no cars here and transportation is by boat.We got an all day pass for the water bus so that we could go anywhere in this town.The must see on our agenda was St. Mark’s Square.This is probably the only hot spot in this town.There is an old Catholic church in the square that has gold tiled art throughout the church.We did not know some of the stories depicted in the pictures.For example, there was sculpted artwork with Jesus in the center of fourteen men; seven men on each side of him.Very interesting…There also stands a bell tower in the square that you can climb – we didn’t.The rest of the square is open space full of outside dining, souvenir vendor stands and lots of tourists.Oh yes, also in abundance were pigeons walking amongst the tourist.
On Tuesday, we spent the day just walking throughout the town going in and out of small allies lined with little shops.Water canals were throughout the city and connected the town’s shops and alleys by little bridges.Some of the interesting sights seemed to be the gondolas and masquerade masks.Many shops carried the masks, but we didn’t notice anyone wearing one.There were also a few heart wrenching sights; the poor stood out, yet were invisible to the passers by.Elderly women kneeled in a child’s pose yoga position with small paper cups held out in front of them.Towards the end of the day, we hopped on the water bus and rode from stop to stop checking out the sites.A short visit; quite unique since the entire city is on water.The entire activity of the town seemed to be to cater to the tourist.
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