Day 3 already! This time is going to fly by, but we’re both trying to savor every moment. We have yet to run into someone who doesn’t have enough rudimentary English to combine with our rudimentary Italian to be understood. I’m embarrassed that so far every one of them (even the ones who respond, “no,” when asked, “Parli Englese?”) still have better English than my Italian! But they mostly just smile at my attempts and spare us by speaking English. I’m determined to get a little better each day.

We began our day back in Venice. We hoofed it all the way from the parking garage on the north end zig-zagging diagonally across to the Basilica San Marco at the extreme south end. What a crazy unique city! Many of the allies between buildings dead-end at a canal. Everyone who lives there owns a little boat, and the houses sit right down in the water. In some places you can see water lines all the way up above the ground floor. On our way to the Basilica we stopped for a gondola ride. It amazes me how those guys can perfectly control such a long boat with a single oar on one side.

The view from a gondola

The inside of the Basilica was breathtaking, but there were signs all over forbidding photography. I think we were the only two in there abiding by the signs, so we had to buy a postcard of the interior. But we did take several of the exterior.

Outside of the Basilica where we were allowed to photograph.

After the Basilica we walked down to the water’s edge and sat for a while gazing out at the islands of Venice that form a breakwater from the sea. It was so nice to sit that we did just that for quite a while.

At the waters edge

After that we got a water taxi to take us back to our starting point. The rate was 60 Euro for the trip. A nice Swedish couple came to ask if they could share the ride. The driver was peeved about it because he wanted to make 60 Euro off of us, and then another 60 from them, but the Swedish man prodded him into it and we and our two new friends shared the cost.

Enjoying a boat ride together.

After thoroughly wandering through watery Venice we got back into our tiny car and headed west. We stopped for the night in beautiful Montavo. We just had a fantastic dinner, and tomorrow morning we’ll begin exploring this historic little city.