Venice

We arrived in Venice last evening, just as the sun was setting. We sailed in past the Grand Canal, with the music of Vivaldi playing - it was so beautiful! We had no problem disembarking this morning, and found our way easily to the aligaluna and within 20 minutes we'd arrived in St Mark's Square. We got slightly lost finding our hotel, but only for a minute. We left our bags and headed straight back to St Mark's Square and spent an hour there taking in the sights and listening to a great Rick Steves podcast about it all.

I had pre-booked entry to the amazing Basilica (we think it's the most beautiful one we've seen in our travels). We listened to Rick there, too. Then we went back to our hotel and found our room. Up on the second floor, with no lift. We've decided to leave our luggage in the bag check and live out of our carry-on luggage for the day and night. Our toilet/bathroom is way down the end of the corridor and VERY tiny, but it is a private one just for us. I'm not sure how David is going to find his way there and back in the middle of the night, with no pjs!

We grabbed some salad and cold meat for lunch in a buffet place on the Grand Canal, then headed back to tour the Doge's Palace with Rick's book, and his advice on how to avoid the queue by purchasing a ticket at the nearby Correr Museum. The Palace was amazing! And we got to cross the Bridge of Sighs, as well as to tour the prison.

Right now we're walking across towards Piazale Roma, where we'll catch a vaporetto for a tour down the Grand Canal, with Rick's help again. We've been looking at the shops - no sign of the venetian mask yet, Michelle - I'm looking for a small silver one with music notes on it.

Over and out for now. I'm not able to upload photos right now.