Miles walked: 36

Ahh, Venice!  What a beautiful and unique island. At last, we meet...

Upon arrival, we purchased a 3 day water taxi ticket for the "Vaporetto" water shuttle and cruised over to the Castello neighborhood where our lodging reservations were located. We scoped out the area and quickly found our apartment thanks to Kyle's prior Google maps research. Before checking in, we stopped in at a nearby restaurant and sat down for our first slice of pizza and half liter of wine. It was a nice start to our trip. Afterwards, we headed over to our apartment. The apartment owner, Patrizia met us, showed us around the place and went on her way. Although she was a bit odd, (see Kyle's hilarious write up) the apartment suited our needs. It was clean and was located 10 minute walking distance to the main tourist area of St. Marks square. There were a few restaurants and a couple of nice coffee shops on the main drag, just outside of the apartment. We were pleased with the location we were staying in. Castello felt a little more "local" and gave us a feel of the Venetian way of living.

Later that night my brother Jeff and his the delightful friend Naomi arrived to explore Venice with us for a couple of days. They were staying 2 streets down from our apartment but they weren't so lucky in finding the place. They exited the water taxi just a few minutes walk from their unit and then proceeded to get bad directions from someone and walked for 2 hours, nearly across the island and back only to find that they had arrived at their original starting point, precisely where their B&B was located. The next morning we met up with our temporary sightseeing partners and began our journey around Venice. We walked, and walked, AND walked...for miles.  Nearly 12 miles a day for 2 days straight. That's equivalent to walking a marathon in 2 days time. We had sore backs, sore feet but it was worth every ache.

It felt that at every meandering turn we stumbled across something very old and spectacular. Beautiful structures, gigantic carved stone lions, statues, massive beautiful buildings and canals. We ate cicchetti (small bites) drank wine, ate pizza, gelato, drank cappuccino and enjoyed taking in the sights together including an evening gondola ride. To our surprise, there were locals walking the cutest, well behaved dogs all over the island. Italians really seem to love their dogs.

At St. Marks Plaza, we strolled through the Basilica church where the bones of St Mark are buried. The Basilica is beautifully decorated with gold flake and fresco paintings. St. Marks Basilica is a beautiful sight worth visiting.

We visited the Doges Palace museum which was nothing short of overwhelming. It was a massive structure that was filled with enormous art, mostly paintings, some of which took more than 10 years to complete. We paid the extra 5 euro and purchased the audio tour, which was not explained well and was a little confusing to use in the beginning but once we discovered what section # to play and when, it was a valuable tool to aide in our understanding of what we were viewing. The prison, including the Bridge of Sighs was quite a site. Spending time in prison during the 14th century must have been a real drag. The Palace was filled with government offices from times past, libraries and living quarters. Our visit was well worth the 18 euro entrance fee. It gave us a true sense of the world power that Venice once was.

The last day together, we took the Vaporetto water taxi over to the island of Murano where the traditional blown glass of Venice is crafted. The glass was beautiful but the weather was hot and we were tired and hungry so we quickly found a outdoor restaurant, ordered a bite to eat and relaxed. After our quick visit to Murono, it was time for Jeff and Naomi to catch a bus back to the airport for their flight to Amsterdam. Kyle and I decided to head over to Lido, another nearby island, just 10 minute water taxi ride from our apartment and take a quick look at the only beach in the area. Unlike Venice, Lido had cars and was much more modern that the old world island we were staying on. Lido sort of felt like Venice's "little California". If we had more time in Venice, we would've made a point to explore Lido. It looked like a pretty fun place to hang out and rent a bike for a day.

Our journey in Venice has come to an end. It's time to say goodbye to this amazing island and catch a train to our next destination: Milan, Italy.