Finally!

We got to Venice.  I loved Venice.  As soon as we got there, I loved it.  I wanted to live in Venice.  I wanted to sleep in Venice.  I wanted to eat in Venice.  I wanted to fight in Venice.

I wanted to marry Venice.

I can't really tell you what was so great about it.  But I'll try.

First of all, Venice is an island.  Well, really it's lots of islands.  Look here. You'll see that there are the islands of Murano, San Michele, and Lido close by, but Venice itself is also made up of more than one island.  First of all, the Grand Canal separates the island into two distinct land masses, but if you zoom in, you'll see that there are a bunch of smaller canals that effectively create even small islands.

Cars are not allowed in Venice.  In fact, neither are bicycles or skateboards.  Everybody walks in Venice.  Which is pretty cool.  There's just a whole separate vibe to the place.  However, that means that getting anything to Venice is a big freaking deal.  Everything is brought in on the water and then walked to wherever it needs to be.  So if you own a store in Venice, all of your merchandise is hand trucked to your store.  And imagine if you're doing construction on something or you just bought a couch or a bed.  Only the smaller boats (that can't hold a couch or a bed) go down the smaller canals, so it's very likely that your couch or bed is going to have to go for a long walk, over small canals, which means bridges, which means stairs, before it gets to your house.  It's a very labor intensive city.

Because there are no cars in Venice, there aren't really any roads either.  I mean, I guess you could call them streets, but really they are just glorified sidewalks.  Everywhere.  And you don't really name sidewalks, do you?  Some of the more major walkways are named, which helps when you are trying to get somewhere using a map, but not all of them are.  And some of the walkways are very wide and others are very narrow.  And some of the walkways seem like they go somewhere, but really, they just dead end into the water.  Or they dead end into a courtyard or around the corner, or they go around the corner and THEN dead end into the water.

Rick Steves says that you should just go get lost in Venice and see what you find.  Which is good advice.  Except that you can't really help it.  You'll get lost in Venice.

But don't worry.  You'll be glad you did.  Because it means that around any corner or down any street no matter how small, you might find some really cool store with all kinds of interesting things inside.

I have lots and lots of pictures of Venice.

The first picture of Venice!  Woo!

Yup.  I'm really there.

Some tourists going for a ride on a gondola.

One of the smaller canals.

Walkway by the water.

Wide walkway.

Narrow walkway.

Narrow walkway with some perspective.

Going over a canal.  (Graffiti is everywhere in Italy.  Venice was no exception.)

There were lots of masks in Venice.

Really.  A lot.

I'm not even kidding.