Magical Venice

Although we were there for less than 24 hours, Venice was my absolute favorite city that we visited. Maybe its because I love the water...and boats...or just the fact that when you get there, you are totally taken in by this city on water. We, of course, took a Gondola ride (all you people who said not to waste the money, are you crazzzzy?) and fell directly in love with our driver, who has been a Gondolier for over 22 years. He had great English and we chatted with him about everything Venice.

St. Marco's Cathedral was my favorite church (sadly, no photos allowed). There was so much Christian History in all of Italy, it was really mind blowing. When we first arrived, it had rained all night and the tide was high. We were astonished to find that most of the entire city was under water. Apparenty in the winter it is much worse than the summer months, but two and three feet of water covered most of the streets. In the Cathedral, water was even into the vestibule. This is just a way of life in Venice, the water rises! There is no solution, so the water just comes into the buildings. Crazy right!? Joe and I were in awe of how the city just puts these platforms all over the place and people just walk on the platform to where they want to go- that, or you just wear galoshes, which many people do.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Venice- and I should have mentioned yesterday many of the photos from our trip that I am blogging Joe took. Love it!