And then 12 hours in Venizia...

Agenda: St. Mark's Basilica, Bridge of Sighs, Realto Bridge (what's with all the bridges, really?), night "bus ride" around lighted Venice.

Highlights:

After arriving via train from Florence, we wandered around Venice for twelve hours until the night train to Rome left at midnight. We weren't overly excited, as we had heard nothing but complaints that Venice was overrated and overpriced. However, with our noses buried in our trusty GPS, we set out to explore every touristy spot, as well as every alley of the city... and were actually quite impressed.

Particularly notable was our people-watching experience at St. Mark's Basilica... vendors everywhere try to sell little packets of pidgeon food, and courageous tourists feed the gluttonous pidgeons for the sake of a good photo op. This older Asian couple pictured above (no relation... and no, not all Asian people are related) proved to be quite entertaining as pidgeons would land on the heads and/or any available appendages of both husband and wife, while pecking uncontrollably at any available food source.

To the left is a shot that Chantal takes credit for (though I pointed the good photo op out). We were also lucky enough to have a relaxing, three course dinner on the canal with night taxi boats driving by as we ate and rested our aching feet.