pictures from Venice

After visiting Pisa, we headed for Venice. Laura and I were especially looking forward to visiting this island community. We got to spend an evening and a full day there and we definitely made the most of it. Here are some pictures from our evening. I'll post more of the day in the next post.

Wine from dinner.

Laura and I posing for a picture.

The front entry of St. Mark's. This church was crazy inside! It had gold and glass mosaics covering the entire ceiling, and all pieces are smaller than a finger nail. They said it took them over 500 years to complete! Many people that worked on the mosaic their whole life! That means generations of Venicians must have believed life on earth was just one big arts and crafts session making mosaics. Do you think anybody suggested using bigger tiles?
"Hey Tony! How would you feel if we started using tiles the size of ..... two finger nails?! Then it would only take us 250 years to get done. Huh? You know you want to!"

Laura and I in front of St. Mark's. You will notice the small pigeon stalking us on the left. The pigeons in Venice are somewhat famous. Many people like to feed the birds then have them climb all over them. That is disgusting. The flying rats must have all kinds of diseases and absolutely no scruples about where they crap.

The tower in St. Mark's square. I forgot what this is called, but you can wait in a huge line to take the elevator to the top. We passed. We had both ridden on elevators before.

One of the outdoor orchestras in St. Mark's Square. They were are really good!

Laura and I in front of one of the many canals in Venice. This was taken from inside the restaurant we ate at. They had a set of doors that opened directly to the canal....fancy!!