European Adventure: A day in Venice

Literally only a day, that's all we have. Arrived last night and leaving in the morning. Venice is one of those places like Paris. There is something magical about it. We started with breakie next to the canal then went to explore at Piaza San Marco. It is an amazing place. The opulence and ornateness of the buildings never ceases to amaze me. We went into San Marco as well as up to the top to look at the archeological museum. Saw the Doges palace, the San Marco clock tower with the 2 bronze figures striking the bell, the bell tower of San Marco's basilica and the three connected buildings which were finished under Napolean's occupation. After that we went for a gondola ride. It was great. Went to the Grande Canal and few other connected canals. The gondolier was fun and informative. He seemed to know just about everyone we passed. There are 433 gondoliers he told us. We then caught a water bus (vaporetto) to a stop near the the end of the Grand Canal and wandered around and in doing so found a lovely little place for lunch. There are a lot of shops catering to the tourist, as well as bag, shoe and jewellery shops!! So many. We made our way back to Rialto partly by foot and then vaporetto. We walked up to see the Brigde of Sighs. Of course we stopped for tea/coffee along the way. Came back to the apartment around 6 to rest our weary legs then out to find a place for dinner. We are both looking forward to a big plate of veges when we get home. We did have a salad with our meal. It was a huge bowl of lettuce and 4 slices of tomato. Tasted good though with balsamic and olive oil. We are both a bit tired. Have an early start tomorrow so have packed. It's quite amusing watching people and we are a little over crowds. A woman today got quite annoyed when I bumped her and there were only about 500 people on the bridge at the time!!