Another day, another city, another country. There is nothing more logical when you are in Europe then to travel while you sleep. You make headway as you sleep and it is another hotel you don't have to pay for. As we woke up today we could see that we were still making headway thru what must be the Italian countryside. If Italy is a boot then Venice is located at that thing on the back of your boot that you pull them up with. I'm sure there is a "sniglet" that applies here. I always thought Venice must be at the toe, or in the arch of the boot. I don't know why I thought that but I did.

The causeway to Venice, the last 15 minutes of the train ride.

Hey Paul, even in Venice... even in Venice.

Getting to our hotel was an incredible challenge exacerbated by marginal directions. Actually the directions were really pretty good except for one step. At one point it said, get off the vaporetto and take a left on Fondamenta Nuove... but what it didn't say is that you only take that road for about 10 feet. Seriously! Instead we ended up walking from one vaporetto stop to the next and then back before we found the other turn we were suppose to take. It is also worth mentioning that Venice is known for it's very poorly marked streets. Our room was well entrenched in the heart of a large collections of very small "streets".

An incredible maze of streets to our room.

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Lessons Learned from Venice

Venice is a dying city. It's beautiful and it has character galore but it is sinking into the ocean AND the oceans are rising, a deadly cocktail. It was first settled 1500 years ago as a natural refuge from Barbarians. It gained notoriety and fame by smuggling in the bones of St. Mark in 828, it's what the Catholics have done for hundreds of years by holding ancient "relics" in high esteem in order to draw crowds.

Venice made untold fortunes in the trade business in the Middle Ages by becoming the "middle man" in the east west trade routes. However with the discovery of the new world and oversea trade possibility with the Orient, Venice rapidly lost it's clout. The city was, however, so well off that it was able to live off it's wealth and "party like rock stars" thru the 17th and 18th centuries. All the while, it is slowly sinking into the ocean.

At it's peak, 200,000 people lived in Venice, today only 65,000 live here and that number is dropping due to the increased difficulties with flooding. St. Marks Square, for example, floods 250 times a year to the point that you have to walk on elevated walk ways of planks or else you will be in water over your shoes.

First floor of a building long since abandoned because of the rising water levels.

Another "ground floor" no longer usable.
You can just see the "front step" below the water level.

There is emense beauty and charm in Venice but the city will not allow you to repair certain buildings because they are deamed historical landmarks and yet, the buildings are almost completely unusable. Certainly the GROUND floor is unusable with water levels continually in the front door. Families have had to move out of the ground floors and into their upper floors to live. Can you imagine your living room, CONSTANTLY in water? Doesn't sound right, does it?

Gondola's on small canals but look at the bridge carefully.

So, the image of Venice may very well be it's biggest threat. If people were allowed to repair and restore the buildings and, yes, maybe even tear them down and replace them, then the city would have a long term usefulness.

Looks like a gaffer had his way with this thing with a collection of speed rail in order to keep the railing from crumbling into the canal.

One of the things that Marie-Christine and Naomi told us when we were in Versailles was that the King's goal had been to recreate everything to show that they had mastery over nature. We had lunch in the shade of a very beautiful natural 'looking' grotto, however, you could see the seams in the rocks where larger slabs had been joined together to then be carved into what appeared to be a very natural outcropping of rock, and yet, it was all man made.

Here in Venice, the Italians will have no such luck showing mastery over the ocean, it will rise, the land will sink and Venice will certainly die.

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When you see someone order a beer in McDonald's you can't help but think of the movie "Pulp Fiction".

We decided to tour around Venice on another Vaporetto. This time we boarded Number 82 at the Rialto Bridge which headed back toward the main train station. This was a great way to see a lot of Venice without much physical exertion.

"Land of the Mellado's, our favorite Italian family at home.

San Marcos Plaza.

A friendly group of Dubliners we found on the Rialto Bridge.

Top of Rialto looking south.

At this point, Beth was exhausted. As much as I totally love the idea of sleeping on trains or sleeping on boats Beth really needs to have a full and peaceful nights sleep. She doesn't cope well without a full nights sleep. We had to call it quits so we headed back and layed down for nap. Eventually we tried to head out again around 9PM but we got "a little bit" turned around, and it was kind of spooky. When we finally asked someone where we were I was shocked how off course we had gotten. We headed back to our room with careful map navigation skills being fully applied, and called it a night.