A Roman...no wait...a roaming day

Not much going on today.  We slept in and finally got out about 11am.  Since Venice is basically on an island, it's impossible to get lost.  All of the travel books and travel guides suggest that you just walk around.  There are little neighborhoods, beautiful gardens, and quiet piazzas around every corner to surprise and delight your senses.  Restaurants, designer stores, handmade leather and paper craft markets, small wine bars, elaborate mask boutiques, and unbelievable glass shops line the alleyways and beckon you to spend money.  So we did.  Guess what you're getting for Christmas?!?!

It was sort of cloudy today - no rain - but a chill in the air and not too much sun.  As we were walking, we turned the corner and suddenly felt like we were on a hollywood set.  An open piazza.  A fountain in the center.  Shops around the perimeter and a lovely church and hotel on the edges.  Along the canal, a lonely gondolier sat, waiting for his next customer.  Joe and I looked at each other and...well, there's no time like the present!

Travel note - if you are in Venice there are a million gondola rides you can take along the grand canal.  If you go to any one of the main stations along the grand canal or even the larger canals that cut through the city, you'll see a ton of boats and tourists with cameras, shopping bags, baby carriages, crew socks and sandals, Rolling Stones t-shirts, and selfie sticks...all waiting to take their gondola rides.  Deeper in the labyrinth of streets and canals, you can find a guy...waiting just for you.  One such guy is Dario.

He's been a gondolier for 29 years.  Yeah, I felt like he was qualified.  And he could sing!  

Yes, it's cheesy, but Dario took us through quiet canals in small neighborhoods...only a minute on the grand canal...we were alone, just the three of us.  It was relaxing, and oh, sooooo Italian!  

 Since I'm not exactly sure where we were or what we saw on the ride, I'll just share these pics.  Hum this to yourself while looking at these...

and the faces above a couple of the doors

And a much better view of the Rialto bridge

I have a greater appreciation for the canals and for the lovely architecture of Venice.  What's more striking is the water.  Ordinarily, the canals are about two meters deep.  At high tide, they are three meters deep - this was crazily obvious when we went under bridges, and Dario almost had to lie down to clear the undercarriage of some of the them.  Yikes! 

Venice is basically built on mud and marshes.  Millions of wooden pylons support the city, and it is sinking.  Right before our eyes.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at St. Mark's square at high tide...

This is water coming from the sea - backwashing through the city drains because it has no where else to go.  This is part man-made and part natural causes.  The outrageous number of tourists commanding scarce resources (yes, we are part of the problem - I get that), the winter storms that cause an even higher tide, the continuing settlement of the original mud underneath the city...the list goes on.  Many of the residents have already moved out of their ground floors and into their upper apartments, and during high tide, locals pull on their boots.  Engineers are working to help stabilize the marshy sediments, and we are all holding our breath that Venice will not sink.

Maybe we should all eat some gelato!

A side note.  This afternoon, we went to Harry's Bar.  The founder, Giuseppe Cipriani, invented the bellini...god love him.  

It's the bar in which Hemingway whiled away his afternoon hours while he lived in Venice.  Nice job if you can get it!

Very crowded and very expensive!!

And Murano glass is everywhere in all shapes and sizes.  Tomorrow we're planning a trip over to the island where the glass blowing giant was founded and still today produces amazing glass...

A domini!