The Grande Canal
Our cruise originated in Venice, Italy so we went a couple days early to spend some time in that lovely city. Had to give ourselves some time to eat lemon gelato and pasta!
Thoughts on Venice:
- It's lovely, really. Unlike anywhere else we have visited. Hard to imagine a city with only canals and sidewalks, but it's true. 
- The gondolas are everywhere, not just in the postcards. The "drivers" wear striped shirts and little straw hats, just like you imagine.
- San Marco Sq. needs some park benches. It cracked me up that there were signs saying you could not sit down in the square. In fact, all of Venice needs some park benches. No where to sit unless you go into a cafe. 
- Venice had one of the best restaurants we've ever eaten at and the portions were so small. Makes you realize how big American food portions are. My entree there was 4 bites!
- The roads are really the canals and the sidewalk paths between the buildings are mostly about as wide as two people standing shoulder to shoulder.
The whole city is a MAZE (has the Amazing Race been there yet?). If you visit there, you need to invest in a good map before you leave the airport and it REALLY helps if you take a water taxi to your hotel instead of getting off at Rialto Bridge and walking all the way across the island with 4 big suitcases and 4 backpacks!!! Note, there are stairs up and down for each canal you cross! Walking around, lost, trying to read a map with all these bags in such a crowded place was crazy. The stuff memories are made of though.- Speaking of the maze of "streets", on our departure day, we went back into Venice after arriving on the ship. Sweet little B was able to lead us up and down paths to get us back to one area we wanted to visit. DA and I kept telling her she was going the wrong direction, but she was completely confident and lead us where we wanted to go without one wrong turn. I think she inherited her mother's sense of direction :-)
- I loved the "Venetian" plaster look of all the buildings. So pretty. In some cases it is so picturesque that it is almost like being in a perfect "Disney" created city.
- Even though I loved visiting and would go back in a heartbeat, I could never live there. The lack of green space (it is all concrete) and the 10 million tourists who visit yearly would be unbearable. Perfectly romantic though.
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