Hello from Venice

I couldn't wait to get back here. This experience is quite a bit different from the first time. I can't get over the crowds. OMG! It's so congested---everywhere. For Butch and I---who've been here before, we knew to just walk way deep. Still, there were more people than we encountered the last time. I felt a little bad for Bruce and Karolyn since it was their first time. San Marco Basilica was closed due to an all day celebration---the beatification of---I forget his name. There were so many religious---and I've never seen so many cardinals. Then, the line to go up in the tower looked like it was more than an hour long. Still, we enjoyed our gorgeous day.

There's just nothing like this place anywhere in the world. It's so unusual and beautiful. I just love it---the narrow walkways, little shops every where and the canals.

You can't beat a bottle of wine in San Stefano---just people watching and enjoying the sun and fresh air. 

The view across from where we had that bottle of wine.

 We had dinner at Trattoria "A La Bricola"---the food was just so-so, but the ceiling was awesome! Little pitchers were hung all over from the rafters. If I were doing the "look up, look down" challenge, this would have been a good one.

"Locks of Love" or "Love Locks"---I had never seen or heard of this. Butch knew all about it. Apparently, it's a modern day form of graffiti. The locks are labeled---like "Butch and Barb" and might include a date. I thought it was pretty neat. He said that a lot of cities hate it because they have to cut them off. I say "let 'em be."

After dinner we were pretty darn tired, but we did a little shopping before returning to the hotel. I bought a Murano glass Christmas tree and Karolyn bought an oil painting and a couple of bracelets for her grands.

Today, we "get on board." I'm really hoping to keep up with my blog while I'm away, but the internet so far has been incredibly slow. It took about 15 minutes to upload each of these photos.