Venice

After Marc's birthday party in Tuscany, we drove with the Nics and Jaimee to Venice. On our way there, we stopped for a short visit and lunch in Bologna.

Piazza Maggiore and Palazzo del Podesta	Palazzo del Podesta and Neptune Fountain	San Petronino church

We arrived later that afternoon in Venice, dropped our rental car and caught a water taxi to the fabulous Hilton Molino Stucky. After dropping our bags, we went out for a quick tour of the city.

				Our hotel
	We had to take a picture of the Sebastian hotel
			Overlooking the Grand Canal
Discussing the next shopping target

While the girls were shopping around St. Mark's Place, Nick and Marc went the sightseeing route and visited St. Mark's Basilica and the Doges' Palace.

Piazza San Marco	The Clock Tower	Cafe orchestra
Entrance to St. Mark's Basilica
Inside the Doges' Palace	Doges' Gondola	In the Map Room	Golden staircase	Chastity belt
Various weapons	The original "Paradise"	Tintoretto's Paradise in the hall of the Great Council	In the prison, across the bridge from the Doges' Palace
		The Bridge of Sighs, connecting the Doges' Palace and the prison	Inside the Bridge of Sighs	This is the last view a criminal saw on his way to the prison after being convicted
Giants' Staircase

Being in Venice requires the obligatory gondola ride. Although we had very much looked forward to it, it was somewhat disappointing. In speaking with others, it does really depend on the gondolier, and our just didn't seem to be that much into it. Afterwards we had to take a quick break from all the great Italian food by visiting the Hard Rock Cafe, and we also stopped by Harry's Bar, which is famous for hosting Ernest Hemingway and inventing the Bellini. The day ended with a dinner by the Rialto bridge.

Main gondola "parking"
	Off we go	Scenes from a gondola ride
Rialto Bridge		At the Hard Rock Cafe		Harry's Bar, outside...
...and inside	Ernest Hemingway's corner

The next morning we woke up to some very dense fog. However, by the time we crossed the Canale della Giudecca and disembarked at St. Mark's the fog started to lift. The Nics had taken a tour of the glass blowing factories on Murano island while Jana and Marc toured the market by the Pescheria.

On our last day in Venice, we spent a little more time in the morning touring the city. In the evening, we enjoyed good food by the water, and in the morning said goodbye to Venice.