Today we took a quick tour of Venice. We visited San Marco Square, this is the heart of Venice and swarms with tourists. It is dominated by the San Marco Basilica and the Gothic Palazzo Ducale. The San Marco Basilica is very unique. There are tile mosaics everywhere. The floor, the walls, the ceiling are all done in numerous different patterns. The geometric patterns on the floor are done with amazing accuracy. The Gold tile ceiling is incredible as well. We also saw the Grand Canal, which is basically the main highway. It was very interesting to see all of the activity on the main canal. Like I mentioned yesterday, everything is done by boat. The ambulance, police, fire department, trash collection and delivery is all done by boats. This morning the boats were lining the Grand Canal with their deliveries of produce, meat, fish and mercantile.  I did a little shopping and bought me some blue Murano Glass cuff links.

We continued our tour and walked through the maze like city of passages, canals and bridges to find the Rialto Bridge. It is a huge bridge that spans the Grand Canal. The Rialto Bridge is lined with shops, in fact there are more shops in this city the bridges. I don’t know how they all survive, but I see people shopping everywhere.  After our tour of the city it was back to the Hotel where the Moms and Rick had Spa appointments. I opted out of the luxury treatment so I could finally post all of the blogs I had written for the past 3 days now that I had internet connection.

All said today has been a pretty laid back and lazy day. Rick and Chuck went to a local Rotary meeting for dinner tonight. Judy, my mother and I wandered the canals to find an air conditioned little restaurant that had pizza. Judy found one through a small back alley and it ended up being great. Then again, when was pizza ever not good. The cold beer from tap was very good as well. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped in the San Marco Square where it was filled with tourists listening to bands playing. It really was a good way to finish off a lazy day in Venice.