Venice
After spending 5 days in Florence we took the train to Venice and stayed in a nice hotel not far from the Piazzo San Marco (or St. Mark's Square). Although we probably had more fun in Florence, Venice was probably more picturesque, and thus we have more pictures from there. We were in Venice for 4 days and saw several museums and palaces. We were also able to go to the island of Murano so that Claudia could buy the coveted Murano glass beads for her jewelry buisness. Because we were there in January, the waterways weren't smelly. Plus we got to see the Befana festivals, which is on the Epiphany when the 3 wise men finally found Jesus. Apparently, in Italy there is a witch they call the Befana that visits homes and leaves toys and sweets in stockings left next to the fireplace (sound familiar?). This happens on the 5th of January, and they had several celebrations including a ritual whereby MEN dress up as witches doing various things, inlcuding racing the gondolas! Pretty fun!.
When in Venice, one needs to take the water taxis or "vaporetti." Here we are going down the main waterway, the "Grand Canal."

St. Mark's Square as seen from the museum (Procuraties). You can see the St. Mark's Basilica and the clock tower. If you look closely, you can see the plethora of pigeons that frequent the square!

Here's another shot of the square from St. Mark's. This is at dusk and so most of the people have gone and the pigeons will be flying off quite soon. This view is of the 3 main wings of the museum.
Speaking of pigeons - here are several of the beasts attacking our children! Actually, they sell corn to feed to the little beggars and once they have you in their sights, they are relentless until the corn is gone! On the right is the Doge's Palace.
Here is another shot of the Doge's Palace (did we mention it was cool???).
This is one of the views of the Doge's Palace. This was one of the coolest of the various palaces in Italy. Interestingly, the Venetian Doges weren't truly "kings" but rather the heads of a ruling class that were elected by that body. Nonetheless, to outsiders the Doge was essentially a king and was treated as such. Needless to say, the Doge's Palace also very much gave the impression that the Doge was a king. A definite "must see" if ever in Venice!

One morning we got up to start another day of sightseeing and we stumbled across this procession! It turned out to be the traditional march of the 3 kings to see the baby Jesus (another part of the Epiphany) that was going to St. Mark's cathedral. You can see a couple of the kings in this shot.

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One of the coolest aspects of Venice is how it looks at night. Here is a shot of the "Bridge of Sighs" at night. This is the bridge (upper, enclosed bridge) that prisoners would cross into the dungeons and get their last look at the outside world (through the small windows in the bridge) and apparently "sigh."

 
Here's another night shot, in this case of the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal. This is the area that they had the Befana gondola race. You can see one of the gondolas (without the Befana) in the foreground.
Here is a shot of one of the boats with the guys dressed up as Befanas. The Rialto bridge is out of the shot on the right.
Another picturesque shot along the Grand Canal
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